Miranda!
| Miranda! | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| General information | |
| Genre (s) | Synth pop |
| founding | 2001 |
| Website | http://www.esmirandamiamor.com/ |
| Current occupation | |
| Alejandro Sergi | |
| Juliana Gattas | |
| Lolo Fuentes | |
| Nicolás Grimaldi | |
Miranda! is an Argentine electropop band that was founded in 2001 and was initially very popular in the South American alternative and gay scene, but is now also commercially successful internationally. They took the name from the Argentine actor Osvaldo Miranda, known as "Dandy" .
Band history
The founding of the band goes back to the initiative of Alejandro Sergi , who has been active in several bands in the underground of Buenos Aires since the early 90s , but without being commercially successful. In 2001 he met the jazz singer Juliana Gattas at theater and variety shows for the Cemento cultural center . It was through this acquaintance that the idea of a joint technopop music project came up. The discotheque mogul and then owner of the Cemento , Omar Chabán , (today arrested in one of his discos with over 190 dead because of a major fire at the end of 2004) was, according to the band, their discoverer and mentor.
As part of this acquaintance, Sergi and Gattas formed the band for a performance in this bar and named themselves after the well-known Argentine actor Osvaldo Miranda , who was one of their idols. Despite a repertoire of initially only three songs of their own, they received a lot of encouragement in the Cemento and therefore decided to continue the band project. They now also played successfully in other bars in the Bonaren underground.
In 2002 they recorded their debut album Es Mentira with 10 songs which stylistically influenced the genres house , disco , drum and bass , electro and ballads . This album, independently produced in cooperation with the well-known house producer Boeing , became a nationwide success in the alternative scene in Argentina, and the band began to complete successful performances in other cities. Songs like Bailarina , Tu Juego and Romix became popular club hits, and Miranda! became more and more of an underground fad, which is why they became interesting for the record industry.
The second album Sin restricciones , produced together with the Latin rock band Árbol , was released in 2004 by one of the largest indie labels in Argentina, Locomotion , and was heavily promoted. Before that, Es Mentira had been remastered and re-released. Sin Restricciones is stylistically a continuation of the concept of the debut, but appears catchier and smoother; As a consistent implementation of the principle of "light and happy pop music", no song lasts more than 4 minutes.
The album became a resounding commercial success across the country. The first release Yo te diré became one of the biggest summer hits in early 2005. The second release Don in the (Argentine) autumn 2005, with which the band jumped into the top positions of the airplay charts in the neighboring countries Bolivia , Uruguay and Chile , was even more successful . In the same year, Sin Restricciones was awarded the most famous media prize in Argentina, the Premio Gardel , for the best pop album. They also became known in Mexico after a tour at the end of the year.
In 2007 they released their third album El Disco de tu Corazón , from which the song Prisionero was released as a single .
Music and lyrics
The band's music has a variety of influences, ranging from disco, house to drum and bass, but the most formative was probably the synth-pop of the early 80s ( New Romantics ). The band members named the synthpop bands Virus and Pimpinela , which were successful in the 80s, as influences. In the press were Miranda! Also known as the South American erasure , mainly because of the high falsetto voice of Alejandro Sergi, which, together with the emotionally overloaded, not really serious lyrics , gives the band an extremely kitschy element that also comes to bear in the performances of the shows.
The lyrics are mostly about problems and fantasies in love and sometimes contain explicit sexual elements. Especially after the great success of Sin Restricciones in 2004, which brought the band many very young fans, some of them as children , the band was criticized from conservative circles. The song El Profe (German: The Teacher ), the third release of the album, which apparently deals with the sexual fantasies of a teacher with one of his students and in which, among other things, the lines Quisiera que me mientas cuando pregunte tu edad ( I want you to lie to me when I ask about your age) and Quiero tocarme y acabar en ti (I want to touch myself and "come" inside you) appear. This was seen as a glorification of pedophilia . However, it was misunderstood that the song is not about a real teacher and his student, but about a man who imagines playing a teacher-student game with his partner - a type of game that is popular among the general population Lovemaking .
Performances
During the live performances, the band members wear costumes that are reminiscent of the glam rock movement of the 1970s. While the singer Alejandro Sergi and the guitarist "Lolo" Fuentes in particular play with homoerotic elements, Juliana Gattas and especially Bruno de Vicenti tend to stay in the background. Sergi's dance routines are strikingly reminiscent of Rowan Atkinson's comedy personality Mr. Bean , but he has also been compared to Freddie Mercury .
Her performances are clearly shaped by the theater and variety past, and so numerous utensils are used again and again, e.g. B. Telephones, mirrors or wands. In their biggest hit so far, Don , their most famous gag was incorporated, which is regarded as one of the trademarks of the band: An actually very simple guitar solo by "Lolo" Fuentes is ironically called Es un solo - Es la guitarra de Lolo! (for example: What a solo - Lolo's guitar!) announced. During the live performances, Lolo floats through the air on a rope during this "solo". This gag was even exploited in the tabloids of Argentina and given them appearances on major television shows.
Discography
- Es mentira (2002, Secsy Discos / Locomotion)
- Sin restricciones (2004, Locomotion)
- Sin restricciones en vivo (2005, live album, also available on DVD )
- El disco de tu corazón (2007)
- El templo del pop (Best-of-Album, 2008, Pelo Music)
- It imposible! (2009)
- Directo! (Live album, 2009)
- Magistral (2011)
- Luna Magistral (Live album, 2012)
- Safari (2014)
Web links
- Official website
- Fansite (previously the official band site was under this domain)