Anyone who knows Yendry’s trajectory will know that for more than a decade his name has been sounding in different spheres and musical projects in Europe, Latin America and the United States.
The first time she was heard massively was in 2012, when she participated in the sixth season of X Factor Italy, the country she emigrated to when she was 3 years old; she was born in the Dominican Republic. His talent made him win a contract with an important record company from which he later separated because he felt it wasn’t a relationship that was yielding fruit.
Then, in 2015, she became the vocalist of Materianera, an Italian electronic music and trip hop band. With this group she edited the EP “Supernova” and the studio album “Abyss”.
When she decided to become a soloist, in 2019, she started singing singles; on that journey she made collaborations with artists such as J Balvin, Damian Marley, Mozart La Para and Nella. Until she felt ready to record her first album.
“My team [at that time] wasn’t the best,” he said. “Then, at one point, from the outside, it looked like everything was fine, but from the inside, the project lacked much, it lacked structure.”
Yendry traveled a lot and created little, until in 2023 he stopped everything, separated from his manager and focused on producing his debut album, “Como agua”, which will be released on September 18 and will be presented the next day at the Ford Theatre in Los Angeles alongside Lido Pimienta.
“I had to start from zero,” he said.
Before this album, Yendry was part of Astropical, a collaboration between members of Bomba Stereo and Rawayana, which performed in iconic places like New York’s Central Park and Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl.
Waiting, he said, was worth it.
“I feel like a few years ago I couldn’t have made the record I’m doing now,” he said.
“It’s a very personal and very honest album because I did it for myself,” he said. “It was my album of healing, of what had happened, of finding myself again and of presenting myself as I wanted to present myself.”
The album includes a song in Italian, “Italia poema”, which originally wasn’t a song; it was a text that Yendry wrote product of the nostalgia that caused him to be away from Turin, away from his mother, from which it was his home for almost all his life.
“I recorded it without having a melody,” he said. “After a few songs we put him on piano because it’s a song that always makes me cry, and I decided to include it because I didn’t want to omit anything of the feelings I had on the album.”
In “Lie”, the cut she now promote, Yendry shares that as an immigrant she is part of two distinct worlds and that she lives in contradiction between her two identities; on the one hand what she ambitions and on the other the expectations that they have in her as a daughter of immigrants.
And in Mirror, he explores the process of repairing the relationship with his father, with whom he now has good communication. “Mala mia” is a letter of farewell to her life in Italy and her ex-partner, who she left because “it’s hard to love someone when you haven’t even found yourself.”
Yendry hopes to start a tour soon to present his project. He believes that by taking the freedom to include personal affairs “someone can find their own story there.”
What: Yendry and Lido Pimienta in concert
When: Saturday 19 September at 8 pm
Where: The Ford Theater, 2580 Cahuenga Blvd., East, Los Angeles
How: Tickets from $40; reports theford.com.
