“Women have always been required four times more than men”, Cami talks about feminism and her role within the music industry

'Deconstruction' has become one of the favorite words of Cami, a Chilean singer-songwriter who, over the days, is opening up a powerful path in the competing music industry. Being a woman has confronted her with herself on several occasions and has put her before an immense mirror of questions and doubts, which when she was 17 years old she didn't do. Cami is now 25, a career in constant growth and the same thirst for debate that leads her to have a special goal: to learn. She doesn't like comparisons, they seem odious to her, that being the 'most important female artist in Chile today' doesn't resonate much with her.

“I don't like the competing categorization of other women, on the contrary, I feel that there are now a lot of Chilean artists building beautiful spaces. They are my companions and I love them because they have also built a space for me. What I am trying to do is rescue folk sounds and give them a spin, I really like composition, I write a lot. My project is very focused on my voice and that search experience,” the young artist began saying in the middle of the interview she gave Infobae in recent days.

His third album is on the way to be released and his most recent single 'El peor' has been available on all digital platforms since March 17. He was in Colombia to talk to the press and his followers about it and took advantage of his time in the country to accompany his colleagues and friends of Morat on stage. The Colombian band sold out at the Movistar Arena in Bogotá on five consecutive occasions, and the Chilean band celebrated the achievement by singing with them 'Simplemente Pasan', a song that is part of the album '¿ A Dónde Vamos? ' of the group.

“I opened very heavy portals, everything that I thought had already healed, NOT. A lot to work with, I wrote a lot about myself, my story, my fears, there are super vulnerable topics. A lot of internal debate and a lot of compassion with myself, how important it is to have compassion with ourselves. I found that compassion and forgave myself. I don't like to categorize myself within a musical genre or within a single thing because I don't know if I will continue to be that in the future. There is a high probability that it will change, it is part of my journey as a human being. I want to be free not to be judged by those decisions,” she argued about the creation of her new installment.

Born in Viña del Mar, Valparaiso, in November 1996, she made her first major television appearance in her country at the age of 18. The then teenager participated in the musical talent show La Voz: Chile. She performed Brandi Carlile's song 'The Story' and caused the four jurors to turn their chairs and applaud her standing up. At the time, the singer chose Luis Fonsi as her mentor. She didn't win the jackpot, but she became one of the most remembered finalists.

From a conservative and religious family, and from a girls' school, Cami always questioned everything. He didn't understand most of the things he was ordered and questioned all those instructions he was supposed to follow. At the age of 17, she says, she had her first approaches to feminism and her life ceased to be the same. She realized that several of her insecurities were a consequence of her upbringing and her environment, from her relationship with her own body to her perception of romantic love.

“My intuition told me that the way I had lived was not right. I had a very distorted conception of love, family ties, my sexuality, I didn't have it discovered, I was ashamed of my body, I felt that any form of harassment or disrespect was my fault. I didn't know where that came from, but of course, it was because an image of my repressed person had been built inside me, and so empty, without a clear opinion (...) it's okay to admit it, so we can guide the girls,” he told Infobae.

Her discovery of the feminist movement not only pitted her against Camila Anastasia Gallardo Montalva, her first name, but also set her against Cami, her artist alter ego. Being a woman in the industry has other added values within the struggle. The inequality in wages or the normalization of gender-based violence within letters has been a constant in the industry, for several years.

“It happens to me that everyone wants us to be grateful that there are more women in music, as if we had to thank or ask for permission. I feel that the fact that there are more women in music does not mean that men do not have lyrical responsibility, that they are normalizing harassment, abuse and rape on many occasions, and that there is absolute impunity, that there is no desire to learn. There is no deep conversation, women have always been required four times more than men, always. There is a big difference in prizes, at festivals. The wage gap that exists (...) the day that pot is uncovered, I want to see what happens”, he argued.

“Something that really shocks me is that we are always the vocals in the industry, but that they don't have that responsibility. When Archangel told him what he said to Anitta, I didn't see any man talking about it. He continues to do his thing, he is still one of the most listened to artists, I never heard him calling for consciousness. Nothing is required of them, and that worries me,” he added. It should be remembered that the reggaeton singer claimed, in other words, that some women, like Anitta, demanded respect while, at the same time, they showed their bodies on social networks. According to him, some women used their networks to 'prostitute' themselves for 'likes'.

For Cami it is important to open up spaces for debate and conversation. It is not wrong to make mistakes, she thinks, but it is wrong not to take action in the face of error. “I'm not afraid to talk about certain topics, I'm not afraid to tell the camera that I'm learning, and that I love that women are constantly teaching me things. I am open to continuing to learn. How important is dialogue, how important is conversation, how important is integral sexual education, how important is deconstruction since childhood, how important is music with content, how important is lyrical responsibility,” he stressed.

“How important it is to say, you know what? what I wrote a few years ago doesn't represent me anymore, I don't know if it was right. I don't know if I would say today, 'more than half of the heart dies of love', it's not a song I wrote, but I appreciate it being done. It's not bad to fall in love, it's not bad to suffer from love, it's normal, but from where we do it, how we do it (...) we don't have to romanticize sex-affective bonds, we first have to know ourselves to live freely in that area,” she told Infobae.

The questions have not only generated a new vision of life, on the contrary, they have given him new creative tools, from the broadest to the most intimate.

“My conception about my uterus was that it was a place where I could only become a mom, today I don't even know if I want to be a mom, and it's the first time I've questioned it. I found in my reproductive system and in my orgasms a super particular and super special creative place. I had never discovered it before because my sexuality was always left to someone else, to a man, everything that had to do with my body was related to a male figure. The fact that I questioned all that led me to enter a creative process that helped me create my album. I developed a much freer character, without fear of being wrong, without fear of learning. Today everyone seems afraid to learn because learning means leaving behind behaviors you had and saying 'I was wrong'. I like that you can see that I am growing in my songs”, he concluded.

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