Blurring art with reality, and passion with perseverance, L.A. based singer/songwriter San Cha has dropped her emotional and beautifully nostalgic new single, “Oveja Negra” featuring La Doña. The new tune is a collision of culture and modern inclusivity, blending quintessential Hispanic culture, sound and visuals that San Cha holds dear, while at the same time, confronting the antiquated notions that are at odds with San Cha’s own personal journey.
“I wrote this song while finding sanctuary with my Tia Luz at the rancho where my mother grew up with her 11 siblings,” notes San Cha on her Instagram. “I wrote it for my mother, for my family, I know they don’t understand why I’ve chosen this life, but I know it chose me.”
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Evoking the pain and pleasure so often mixed together in Ranchera/Ranchero and Hispanic folk music, San Cha sings a tale of bittersweet love — a longing to be accepted within her family but a resilience to never change her path. With the help of La Doña, the two construct strong vocal pillars to lay down a heavy and densely packed emotional weight they have been longing to rid themselves and others from. In their lamentation, they find an exultation of positive energy, encouraging each other and anyone else who has ever felt at odds with their heritage or culture because of who they are.
“I really cried when I first heard this song and was so honored to lay down the second voice and trumpets for this important and beautiful song,” says La Doña on her collaboration with San Cha. “I was lucky enough to grow in a very open and gay family and community but I know that most of us who wish to maintain that relationship to traditional Mexican culture aren’t always safe to really be who we are and feel respected in our families. Here’s to many more depictions of our queerness, our artistic paths, our complicated relationships, our solidarity and our healing.“
Visually, the music video for “Oveja Negra” combine familiar iconography — La Virgin De Guadalupe, lush bouquets and standalone flowers, classic cars, hair styles and Mexican inspired duds — displayed in a novela style cinematography. Together San Cha and La Doña, dance and hold each other intimately as they croon through a background of mariachi instrumentals. The open affection between two women and the rejection of traditional female norms in Hispanic culture are offered in an earnest, humble and noble way. “Oveja Negra” serves both as a love song to the parts of culture that made them stronger and a firm stance to help change notions stuck in the past.
“Oveja Negra” is available now for digital streaming and is one half of San Cha’s two-song EP recently released that also includes her single “White Magic.”
Words: Patti Sanchez
For more on San Cha, make sure to visit her Bandcamp and follow her on Instagram and Twitter. Connect with La Doña on Insta and Twitter
