Lola Indigo: “I don’t speak from victimhood. I speak of misogyny with data and the data is what it is” | Fashion | The USA Print

It’s not even twelve in the morning and Miriam Doblas Muñoz (Madrid, 31 years old), is already drinking an energy drink with a straw. She needs to recover after three days of celebrations for reaching number one with her new single. The fool, a song he has done in collaboration with the reggaeton and trap singer Quevedo. After training as a dancer in China and the United States and being the first expelled from the edition of Triumph operation from which Amaia and Aitana left, it is finally time for the alter egor what he created when he left that talent show, this overwhelming girl called Lola Indigo. Her other identity, which her friends call Mimi, still remembers how she was also humiliated on the show. Fame (A teacher told her: “You are a hindrance to my sight”) and why she went ahead: she was confident that she would end up finding a place because “she was different and knew how to dance.” She was not wrong. The concert to present her new work at the WiZink Center in Madrid sold out tickets, and we are talking about a capacity of 15,000 people. She knows well how to connect with the thousands of girls of the generation who are your fans “The classic image of a prudent artist does not suit me.”

Is it possible to be a superstar 24 hours a day?

I don’t know who can. I can not. On stage or recording a video clip is where I become Lola Indigo. I think I know how to differentiate the two facets very well. My lifelong friends, when they accompany me to concerts, say that it is like watching a movie or to another dimension because a very different person appears.

She has defined herself as a feminist who makes songs, not as a person who makes feminist songs.

It’s just that it comes naturally to me. I don’t claim it. It is not premeditated. I don’t say: “Well come on, now I’m going to make a feminist song”. In The fool, For example, I sing that I feel powerful and that I don’t care if you’ve gone from my ass because I’m going out with my friends to listen to reggaeton from the old days. It is an empowering message that comes to me alone.

Are women being given the place they deserve in the music industry?

Unfortunately not. Today I saw a poster for a festival and I said: “This is a shame.” The presence of women was much less. How helpless when we later have to hear that we exaggerate or that we are crazy.

The singer is wearing a top by DION LEE available at WOW CONCEPT and pants by MUGLER. Photo: Javier Biosca

He publicly recounted that he suffered from anorexia. Do you feel that the ghosts are still there?

There are times when I look bad, when you don’t like a photo. I recently stopped a concert in Argentina, because I wanted to tell something that had happened to me. The day before I had read a comment on the networks, that surely the girl did it with her best intentions, which seems even more serious to me… Since I always have my belly in the air because I love it, she said: “How nice that Lola Índigo, that does not have a regulatory body, dare to put on that kind of clothing’. It is that I, who do bikini campaigns, they tell me that I do not have a regulatory body. What will the rest of the girls who read it think? So, what is a normative body? A girl who’s starving or a skinny girl by build and you’re never going to get that build because you don’t have it, period? No, love, you eat what you want, above all you have to be happy.

In the world of fashion there are complaints again because the models are very thin.

Look at me now, the one that inspires me is Rihanna, Nathy Peluso… Maybe if girls like me had had those examples we wouldn’t have become obsessed with food. Although mine started in China. There is another mentality there. They told me that if I wanted to keep working I had to be as thin as a stick. They fired me from jobs because for them I was fat. In China they make you quite crazy with your physique to levels that you can’t even imagine. I have not been the only one who has felt like this there, but now I have more references. The problem is that, when I was a child, of Kate Winslet, who for me was the most beautiful woman in the world, it was said that she was very fat and that she looked very big next to Leonardo DiCaprio. Well go.

He has come out as bisexual. Did she make it public for some reason?

It comes from within, like feminism. There is not much visibility towards bisexuality. In my house I never had problems with these things. Even to my grandmother, may she rest in peace, I calmly told her that she was fed up with men, and that one day she would give me a girlfriend. It is also true that the few long relationships I have had have been with men, and I cannot count the experience of introducing a girlfriend to my family.

Lola Indigo with BALENCIAGA shirt and COPERNI skirt available at WOW CONCEPT. The boots are from DOLCE & GABBANA. Photo: Javier Biosca

Now we talk a lot about the sexualization of everything, music, video clips, images and network filters… What do you think when you are accused of this sexualization?

Well, it’s me with the video clip of The Saint Mothers even wrote to me saying that they forbade their daughters to watch my videos. Well, very well, that’s what parental control is for, so you can let your children see what you think is convenient. But what about violence in the movies and on the news? Doesn’t that bother? The problem is that it scares me dancing in a bodysuit and showing my ass? For me as a dancer nudity is something natural. The dancers take off our clothes in a dressing room with the rest of the classmates without a problem. Didn’t we come into the world naked? These things make me angry.

You know what it’s like to have grown up surrounded by women.

Yes, my father lives in Mallorca. So on a daily basis he was with my mother, my aunt and my grandmother. And so I have left. What you see.

Do you feel that women are educated in such a way that when we succeed we doubt whether we deserve it?

Sometimes when I talk about the patriarchy it seems that I am crazy. In this case we are both women and we know that this is not the case. But then I see men on Twitter commenting on what happens to us and what we feel… Regarding doubts, of course, many times. We have grown up under the patriarchy, although I have been lucky that this was not transmitted to me at home. To the typical thing that is usually said about “marry a rich man”, I always thought: “The rich man is me”.

Lola Indigo is wearing a MUGLER x H&M jacket and pants and PULL&BEAR sandals. Photo: Javier Biosca

What did you feel when you saw that it reached number one on Spotify in just a few hours?

It has been very intense because I feel that in the ears of the people I have had many hits, but it had never been number one. And it’s amazing to have that reward after five years. I say it from work and not from arrogance: I have worked hard to achieve it. I spend many hours of study perfecting things.

He went to record The fool with Quevedo to the Canary Islands. Did you discover something about him that you didn’t know?

I have realized that he is a very vulnerable person. He is a child to whom everything has come at once. He is in the eye of the hurricane all the time. He is also the subject of much criticism and much love. This time that we have worked together I told him that he should keep the love and the figures. I hate the numbers, but they are there and people hear it and love it. The problem is that, although there are few who say bad things about us, it hurts us a lot.

Why does criticism hurt so much?

Because you are making an effort, because you are a person with enthusiasm and very rarely do people empathize with that. And then it’s very easy to criticize anonymously. A couple of days ago I had a move because they asked me what I thought of misogyny in the music industry and I answered. I give my opinion as a woman within the industry and there are a number of people who tell me that I am exaggerating, that I am crying and sleeping and a lot of things that disrespect me and all women. They implied that I was speaking from victimhood. I speak of misogyny with data and the data is what it is.

To what extent do your songs reflect personal stories?

The Dragon, the ballad on the album, is very personal. I wrote it on a plane to Buenos Aires. I was very sad. I was having a hard time because of a family matter and I felt a lot of pressure, that lack of air when breathing. My grandmother was very sick and I wondered about all that sacrifice, for being away from my people, from my family, giving me incredible travel beatings. At that moment I asked myself if I wanted to quit, if I wanted to live like this because I didn’t want to always feel this bad. In one part of the song I talk about wanting to open the plane door because I was short of breath. This work is sometimes very heavy and the pressure is very high. These days that I am very happy I look back and see that it was worth it.

In that ballad he says: “Mom, I’m afraid of being left behind.” What is that being left behind for you?

It’s the pressure to always stay on top. I’ve been number one with The fool. Hopefully the next song will be too. Being people’s favorite is not something that will happen to you all the time, all the time, so the pressure is very, very hard. It is also the fear of losing energy and motivation. But I have realized that I still have a lot of desire. Things continue to make me very excited.

What remains of Mimi in Lola Indigo?

I always say that Lola is the diva on stage. Then on a day-to-day basis, in anything outside of the show, I am Mimi because I have to keep my peace of mind and not always be on alert. I can’t always be mega-produced and thinking all the time about what I’m going to say.

Miu Miu outfit and Fendi sandals. Photo: Javier Biosca