The year 2025 was a very fruitful one for female singer-songwriters living in Mexico. There was Cancionera by Natalia Lafourcade, Vendrán Suaves Lluvias by Silvana Estrada, and Femme Fatale by Mon Laferte. All of them could have been included in my list of favourites. All of them came to Montreal in 2025. How could I choose? In the end, it was easy. The three sing together on a song from Mon Laferte’s album. This allows me to encompass these fabulous, feminist singers and songwriters who embody Latin American culture at its best.
Mon Laferte, whose real name is Norma Monserrat Bustamante Laferte, is a singer who is constantly reinventing herself. The Chilean, who grew up in a working-class neighborhood, now lives in Mexico. She is setting all of Latin America on fire.
Mon Laferte started out as a rocker and guitarist. She was part of a Chilean heavy metal band. Gradually, her repertoire expanded: the petite, tattooed woman embraced many Latin styles, but also American ones, such as folk and Tex-Mex. Mon Laferte decides where she’s going and sometimes ventures into areas where you wouldn’t expect her to be.
In Femme Fatale, you sometimes feel like you’re in a cabaret, with a Latin orchestra full of brass and strings. But that’s not all: at 1:30, we’re in a sophisticated jazz piece punctuated by a recited text that talks about industrialization and history. There’s a lot of jazz on this album, mixed with percussion and Latin styles of all kinds.
And Mon Laferte’s voice matures with each album. Here, she is in complete control and her range is expanding. She has become a “crier” like many Mexican singers. La Llorona, does that ring a bell when Lhasa de Sela covered Chavela Vargas’ song? Femme Fatale is also a sometimes satirical exploration of the female condition. Mon Laferte may look like a prostitute on the cover and in the videos, but it should be taken with a grain of salt. Mon Laferte is well known for her stance in favour of abortion, LGBTQ rights, and the disadvantaged in her native Chile, as well as in her adopted Mexico. While we wait for her next transformation, let’s enjoy this version of Femme Fatale.
