Written by Sophie Wyatt
Rising UK singer-songwriter Desta French is taking the UK music scene by storm with her mesmerising voice and vibrant Latin-inspired tracks. As Desta has grown as an artist, her sound has found itself shifting into many forms, but also whilst holding an element of the Latina. Now she is coming at you with a night entirely based on Latin music – Latinas of London. The show will take place at The Jazz Cafe, in Desta’s home borough of Camden. But before the celebrations kick off, we sat down with Desta to chat about her time in the industry, and how Latin music is breaking into the mainstream scene.
As a Colombian-Italian artist raised in London, Desta explains that her youth was filled with music. She describes her first memories of music to us; “My mum had one friend who was the pillar of our community. I think she knows every generation of Latin born people and she would put on all these events with all this music. I would’ve only been a toddler then, but I remember.” It was from then that Desta was fully immersed in Latin music. However, she admits that “being a musician didn’t make sense until a little bit later. Not until I realised you can just express yourself and tell stories through a more social, experiential way.”
True to her roots, Desta uses her music as a way of connecting people and bringing them together through shared journeys. And whilst this has been a running theme throughout her rich and soulful melodies and events, her sound has been ever-changing. “I think now is very different to when I first started putting music out in Spanish,” she started. “It was very inspired by Latin music, but it was definitely something new – a fusion.” And as the music industry has also grown alongside Desta, she reflected on how the industry has changed in light of events such as Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance and Karol G headlining Coachella. “At the time I felt like there were many hurdles, and there still are as an independent artist. With the explosion of Latin music now in popular culture, there are definitely more avenues.”
As we got into the subject of ‘genre’, we delved into how the term itself is becoming redundant, with artists such as Desta creating a sound based on too many influences to label under just one genre. Desta laughed and told me I touched a nerve with this as she quoted her current Insta bio that details her exact genre labels. “There’s so much more in it. I get excited about different things very quickly, I don’t know if that’s a blessing or a curse. But it definitely comes across in my music.” As she went on, it was clear that her outlook towards music is much the same as the Latin music scene as a whole. “Within Latin music, sub-genres are so vast. Music is vast, there is so much to draw from. So I’ve always found it hard to stick to one lane for a prolonged amount of time.”
Desta uses her music to play with not only the idea of heartache, but also nostalgia. She explained that, as the child of an immigrant, she went through a phase of “getting a real kick” out of getting her sound as close to that of older, classic Latin artists. “But then after I realised there’s no point in creating what’s already been made,” she explained candidly. What really sets her heart alight as an artist is evoking any kind of emotion in her listeners. “Recently I’ve been thinking, what is it that matters deeply to me? In the past I’ve always wanted to play with the idea of heartache, in a dramatic way. Not wallowing, but indulging in these extreme emotions. And songs are where I can have fun with it, and do it in jest.”
Having past sold out shows in The Jazz Cafe, this Saturday is set to be an unbelievable night. Since the series of Latinas of London started, Desta has been able to highlight several new Latin female artists coming out of the UK. And as the platform builds and grows, so does the awareness of these amazing talents within the UK. This Saturday, Desta will be joined by virtuoso Peruvian saxophonist Allexa Nava, whose work blends South American heritage with contemporary jazz, and Xativa, whose haunting fusion of folk and jazz reflects her Spanish and Ecuadorian roots. You can find tickets to Latinas of London HERE.
