Colombian-Puerto Rican singer Karina Daza united 14 female musicians and engineers to create a powerful new feminist anthem, ‘Mujeres Will Riot’. Last summer, when the artist saw the news about the killing of US Army soldier Vanessa Guillen in Texa, she felt angry and indignant. She later saw reports of migrant women in Georgia, at an ICE detention center that denounced they were raped and later sterilized against their will.
As a consequence, even though Daza had other singles to record, she decided to create a song that reflected everyday women reciting facts about the ongoing sexual violence that they experience.
The song was released on April 22, a year after the death of Guillen. “I was initially inspired to write it when I heard Vanessa Guillén’s story. Then, I learned about the sexual assaults happening in ICE detention centers, and it just became painfully clear that women -and especially Latina women- are being brutalized, beaten, deported and even killed before they are able to testify against their abusers. This song is a response to all of that,” Karina said in an interview with Hiplatina.
But this is not the first time Daza writes a song that denounces a social/political situation. Back in 2018, she recorded “Espíritu de León (Spirit of a Lion),” in support of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). Even though these are topics that people might be tired to discuss, the singer felt that talking about them in songs was important.
In her most recent release, Mujeres Will Riot, Daza built a team with only female members, something extremely rare in the music industry.
The indie-pop ballad was made in collaboration with Gaby Moreno, winner of a Latin Grammy; bass guitarist Jennifer Condos; Latin-Grammy-nominated producer, Ali Stone; and the video was directed by Oceanna Colgan.
