Award-winning Queer Latinx Artist
GINA CHAVEZ
releases bold new Spanish-language album
La Que Manda
Introducing: la que manda
Gina Chavez is a multi-ethnic, Austin native is a queer, Catholic, internationally-acclaimed Latinx pop artist who is redefining Latin music in Texas and beyond.
A 12-time Austin Music Award winner—including 2015 Musician of the Year and 2019 Best Female Vocals—Chavez is an Austin icon. And word is getting out. With more than a million views on her NPR Tiny Desk, an hour-long PBS special, and a 12-country tour through Latin America, the Middle East and Central Asia as a cultural ambassador with the U.S. State Department, Chavez is ready for a bigger stage. One glance at the cover of her new bilingual album and you’ll understand why.
She is... La Que Manda.
Released on May 27, 2020, La Que Manda, (“The Woman in Charge”) is the story of a woman coming into her own power.
“I’ve spent my life playing nice and making myself small,” said Chavez. “Then I toured the U.S. and the world and saw how women everywhere -- from Nebraska to Uzbekistan to Argentina -- know what it means to be silenced in the face of power. This album is for them, for all of us. An anthem to reclaim our bodies, our hearts, our voices, and show the world what we’ve known the whole time: we are La Que Manda.”
Chavez’s first all-Spanish language album marks a sonic and visual evolution for an artist whose musical journey began in Austin coffee shops. La Que Manda boasts the perfect mezcla of organic and digital sounds, lifting her signature soaring vocals to new heights.
To bring these songs to life, Chavez called on a team of heavyweights in the music industry: 16-time Grammy winner Thom Russo (Juanes, Alejandro Sanz, Enrique Iglesias), two-time Grammy winning engineer Fernando Lodeiro (Esperanza Spalding), Grammy award winning musician/composer/producer Adrian Quesada and two-time Latin Grammy winner Linda Briceno, who made history in 2018 as the first woman ever to win Producer of the Year.
The fact that Chavez and her team were able to put the finishing touches on an album of this magnitude during the height of a global pandemic speaks to the central theme “La Que Manda.” She IS the boss.
The Boston Globe lauded Gina Chavez’s ease of moving “between social and love songs, between North American and Latin genres...the most natural thing in the world,” calling her Up.Rooted album “as confident as it is refreshing.”
Austin Monthly spotlighted Chavez at the Austin City Limits Music Festival, saying “While so many of the lineups for major music festivals bounce between trendy acts, nostalgia bands and industry staples, Gina Chavez is a breath of fresh air.”
NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts confidently raved “if you don't know her already, I dare you to walk away and not become a fan.”
Photos by Ismael Quintanilla
ABOUT GINA
Growing up in Austin, TX, Gina Chavez didn’t pick up a guitar until she was in college. The instrument proved to be her ticket around the world. Since then, she has traveled to Japan as a cultural ambassador for the city of Austin. She also toured the world as a cultural ambassador with the US State Dept, performing to international audiences in 10 countries. To date, Chavez has won multiple awards, including 12 Austin Music Awards and the Grand Prize for the John Lennon Songwriting Contest. She topped the iTunes and Amazon Latin charts with her second album, Up.Rooted. She closed out the decade alongside Oprah, Loretta Lynn and Beyonce as one of 100 women featured in Garden & Gun’s new book, Southern Women: 100 Stories of Innovators, Artists and Icons.
Chavez’s multi-ethnic folk-pop sound also won her spotlights on national TV and radio shows in the US. She has been featured on NPR’s three nationally broadcast shows: NPR's All Things Considered, First Listen, and Tiny Desk Concerts. Her performances garnered nearly 1 million views on YouTube and earned her a spot on NPR’s Top 15 Tiny Desk Concerts. She also was chosen to perform at The Kate on a nationally televised hour-long episode on PBS.
To date, the artist has released three award-winning albums that showcase Chavez’s versatility as a songwriter and performer: her acoustic folk-pop debut album Hanging Spoons (2007), her Spanish/English album Up.Rooted (2014) and her soul/R&B EP Lightbeam (2018).
Currently, Chavez lives in Austin with her wife, Jodi Granado. Together, they co-founded the Niñas Arriba, a college fund that offers full scholarships to a private, Catholic university for young girls in Soyapango, El Salvador.
Press Quotes
“See for yourself, and if you don’t know her already, I dare you to walk away and not become a fan.”
“Her voice stops you in your tracks.”
“Passionate performer and activist”
“Austin singer-songwriter Gina Chavez has a gift for emotional connection, with a radiant voice that’s both warm and bold. At the Tiny Desk, Chavez trotted out her terrific band for a grabby star turn.”
“While so many of the lineups for major music festivals bounce between trendy acts, nostalgia bands and industry staples, Gina Chavez is a breath of fresh air.”