Francisca valenzuela

ABOUT this week’s guest:

photo credit: Francisco Finat

Francisca Valenzuela is a Chilean-American singer, composer, writer, producer, multi-instrumentalist, poet and activist. Born in San Francisco, California, Francisca began studying music at a young age, learning both classical piano and acoustic guitar. She also began writing poetry, and at just 13 years old, her first collection, Defenseless Waters, was published in 2000, and included a prologue by famous Chilean author Isabel Allende. Her second volume of poems, Abejorros/Madurar, came the following year. Around that time, her family emigrated from the U.S. to Santiago, Chile, and over the next few years Francisca began performing music in the city's clubs and attended an intensive summer jazz program at the Berklee College School of Music in Boston. When she returned to Santiago, Francisca sent demos to all the major labels hoping to get a record deal, but was unsuccessful. The turning point came in 2006, as she began posting her music on myspace, and the song "Peces," was picked up for radio airplay. She was offered a record deal with the label Feria Music, and her full-length debut, Muérdete La Lengua arrived in 2007. The album went platinum in Chile, and the Chilean press dubbed her "the princess of rock." Her second album, Buen Soldado, was released in 2011 and went gold. Her third studio album, Tajo Abierto was released in 2014 under her own independent record label Frantastic Records, and earned her first latin grammy award nomination. Today, Francisca has six studio albums to her name, including her 2023 four-time latin grammy-nominated album Adentro. In addition to all of this creative output and very successful independent music career, Francisca founded the feminist festival Ruidosa Fest in 2016 which is marking its tenth anniversary this year, and she is bringing the third iteration of Ruidosa at Lincoln Center to New York City on July 12th. A couple weeks later, Francisca will release her seventh studio album on July 30th, called Maldita, described by the artist herself as a "testimonial, raw, and personal" exploration of female hysteria, rage, terror, and tenderness, and postpartum depression. I couldn't wait to meet this Latin American Shero, and with so much to discuss, our conversation was brimming with energy. I'm thrilled to bring you part one of our interview, as we welcome Francisca Valenzuela as this week’s Shero in the spotlight.