Meet the Club Queens of the Future

By Richard Villegas

Richard Villegas

Since the turn of the millennium, Latin America has become a hotbed of electronic dance music, warping countless homegrown rhythms at block parties, bedrooms, and mega clubs across the region. In the late aughts, the futuristic cowboys of Mexico’s tribal guarachero boom launched superstars like 3BallMTY and Erick Rincón, laying the percussive foundation for Colombia’s guaracha takeover of the following decade and breakouts like Fumaratto. In Argentina, cumbia, reggaeton, and EDM fused into kitschy cachengue, while over in Brazil, the socially charged boom of baile funk turned into the favorite crib sheet of European DJs looking to spice up their techno set. You have Venezuelan changa tuki and DJ Babatr, the architect of raptor house whose influence can be heard blaring at every sweaty circuit party around the world. And in the Dominican Republic, DIY beatmakers disassembled and sped up reggaeton’s dembow riddim into hypnotic dance floor experience, paving the way for crossover sensations like El Alfa and Tokischa.

Though Latin America’s sprawling club movement is at the forefront of dance music innovation, the inclusion of women has often lagged, despite an abundance of talent. That’s started to change: Labels and collectives such as NAAFI in Mexico, Hiedrah in Argentina, and Salviatek in Uruguay helped launch the boundary pushing careers of Debit, Tayhana, and Lila Tirando a Violeta respectively, producers experimenting with global trends and local traditions. The Brazilian party Mamba Negra made a core tenet out of elevating women, queer people, and POCs, building strong creative relationships with multi-disciplinary artists such as Cashu, Clementaum, and Jup do Bairro. Meanwhile, in the diaspora, Berlin-based DJ Edna Martínez celebrates the soundsystem hybrids of neon lit picós booming across Colombia’s Caribbean Coast.

The dance floor can be both refuge and revolution, and throughout Latin America, women are leading the sounds and scenes committed to sweaty hedonism. From rising stars who make mutant baile funk to rave queens shaping a raunchy new wave of techno-pop, here are the divas changing the face of club music.

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Easy Easy was already a cult shoegaze band in Guatemala before Sofía Insua stepped in to fill the massive shoes of their previous singer, Jesse Baez. But she gradually found her footing, and by the time she began dropping solo tracks as aLex vs aLex in 2024, Insua was already living in New York City and exploring a sultry alt-R&B sound. Her breakthrough came last year after her crossover with Divino Niño singer Camilo Medina (a.k.a S.3.R) on the single “centro aLt,” which fused reggaeton and vallenato and sent the Chapín ingénue careening towards the dance floor, laying the ground work for her waist-winding new EP cliché. Now is the time to hedge your bets on aLex vs aLex since opening slots for Rusowsky and Ralphie Choo, as well as a spring tour with Chet Faker, proved her gauzy SoundCloud vocals can also command packed theaters.

Trans women and femmes have emerged as arbiters of Brazil’s dance music scene, from the body politics of Katy e as Abusadas’s abrasive funk bruxaria, to Pabllo Vittar’s high-glam pop crossovers. Somewhere in the glittering middle is Vita Pereira, who first caused a ruckus as half of Irmãs de Pau, an irreverent partnership with singer and rapper Isma where baile funk and ballroom swirled into a fantasia of sex and hedonism. She broke out on her own earlier this year with Vita’s House, enlisting some of Brazil’s mightiest producers including CyberKills, Badsista, and d.silvestre, who enriched her sonic palette with blasts of guaracha and techno. Throughout the LP, sultry vocals crescendo into primal screaming over gigantic beats, capturing the agony and ecstasy of queer liberation with enough cheek to keep you focused on twerking like your life depends on it.

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