2024-04-26 09:00:00
La Diabla was first a song. Only later was she, Melina Salvador, too. Perhaps the order of things was not exactly like that. Maybe Melina was already La Diabla, she just didn’t know it. Or if. Maybe she needed to see herself in a letter to know it. A letter of his, of course.
“La Diabla” by La Diabla. The first reggaeton by a Patagonian artist? Could be. Melina Salvador is born and raised in the city of Neuquén where she still lives and where she plans to continue being for as long as necessary to (de) show that the urban genre, in the south, also exists.
His story, like almost all stories, began in his room. There, in front of no one, she recorded herself singing songs by Tini, Emilia Mernes and other artists of the urban genre that she had met from the youngest of his older brothers. Her mother remembers her singing ABBA in front of the TV.
Today, at 24 years old, Melina Salvador, La Diabla, has almost twenty songs composed, of which she has already published two with their respective video clips: “La Diabla”, released a month ago; and “Fina, mala”, published this Thursday. The rest of the songs will be released throughout the year.
You are born an artist, but only in part. The other part is done. When Melina found out it changed her life. “I always had a passion and a love for music, but it was just a hobby, I didn’t dare to dedicate myself to this,” says La Diabla, during her virtual meeting with RÍO NEGRO Newspaper.
His story, like almost all the stories of the last ten years, began on social networks, that great casting of the 21st century as Sole Macchi once defined it to this newspaper. That was when she dared to make herself known. “I recorded myself with my cell phone, I was 17, I was ashamed to show it. But I always liked it. He recorded me and listened to me, every day like that. Until I wanted them to listen to me. I showed them to my family until a friend told me why he didn’t post it on Instagram. I was encouraged, but with all the shame in the world (laughs), people liked it, I started receiving very positive messages, I started uploading videos more often and that’s how it started.”
From home to the networks and from the networks to the recording studio. But before. Melina made covers, uploaded them to the networks and began to think regarding what her followers told her, that she sang beautifully and why she didn’t take singing classes to do it even better because she had talent. “And I said ‘well, why not’ (laughs). “I started taking singing classes with Jorgelina Guarnieri and everything changed.”
Of everything she heard and sang, Melina chose “God knows”, by Karol G, to make herself known. “I didn’t know I was going to upload it, I recorded it, it came out very natural, I liked it, I sent it to a friend and he told me it was cute and to upload it. I uploaded it and said that’s it!
Neuquén is full of very talented artists and I want to show that it is possible from here.”
Melina Salvador, The Devil
From there, he continued uploading videos to his Instagram while starting his singing classes that opened a whole new world to him, for example that of composition: “That’s where La Diabla was born,” he would say later.
“I met a friend, an artist from the city who composed his own songs and he told me that he saw that I might write. Something I had never done before. We got together, he threw me a couple of metrics, some ideas and we started writing. “I was already determined to dedicate myself to music.”
It was that Karol G cover that definitely convinced her. That and feeling the affection of the people, the push forward that came to him, the fact that you would have to dedicate yourself to this because you sing beautifully, that came to him strongly and gave him the definitive push to launch himself.
La Diabla and the destiny of being an artist
“I felt like I wasn’t in my place, I wasn’t being guided by what I really wanted,” Melina confesses. “I finished high school and started working in my old man’s bakery, I was also a barber, I did a lot of things. And there was something inside me that told me music, music, music! I believe that no one can escape their true self and mine was with music.”
Melina was looking for her way in music, she wanted to dedicate herself, but she didn’t know what to do. “She had no idea what it was like to really dedicate herself to music,” she confesses. “She knew what she wanted, but she didn’t know how to do it. In 2022 I started singing classes and that took me to the exponential maximum that I achieved artistically, which is the theme of my artistic character, finding my artistic essence and my own path, making my own songs. I think that’s where it all started, when I started writing my songs.”
Jorgelina Guarnieri was very important to Melina. But everything changed when she found Kandyel, her producer. That’s when she knew what it was regarding when someone wanted to make her music. Melina admits that taking singing classes was like discovering a new world. “I had to learn to breathe (laughs) It’s like being born once more. The issue of diaphragm… I had no idea, I sang because I liked it and I didn’t apply any technique, but learning to sing was opening me to a new world, I loved it.”
Discovering her vocal potential was a big step, but discovering that she might also write her own songs was a flash in the pan. “What impacted me the most was when I started composing. More than anything because reggaeton, like any urban genre, needs flow and it’s something I didn’t have much idea regarding either. I discovered it when I met my music producer. That’s where I feel like La Diabla was born.”
One day regarding a year ago, Melina entered the Good Life Records studio in Neuquén and didn’t come out once more: that day La Diabla was born. Until then La Diabla did not exist, neither as an artist nor as a song. Melina was recording a song without a name. “I dreamed of being a singer when I was very little, I always had that dream of having a stage name,” she confesses. She didn’t want to be Mel, she didn’t want to be called by any real name. Among so many Becky, Karol, Lali, being Mel didn’t seem like a good idea. “When I was going to record that song and I met the producer it occurred to me to name the song La Diabla, I wasn’t the devil yet and that gave me the push because I needed to decide my stage name right now and I don’t know why or how it turned out. The Devil The diabla is something very common in reggaetón and I thought it was already used, I started looking and there was no one. Ok, I’m La Diabla.”
A year has passed since she decided to be La Diabla and in that time she wrote, produced and recorded seventeen songs, among them “Fina, mala” and the one that gave her her stage name. “We spent almost a year locked up with my producer making music. I had just two songs, I mightn’t come out with just that. It was a year of producing and composing,” says La Diabla.
When and how did it all happen and in such a short time? “Life itself showed me the way,” she says, reflectively. Time gradually guided me, a little intuition too. My family, who believes in what I do and supports me, that is essential. With what I had at the time I expanded more and grew a little every day.”
It wasn’t that long ago that he was in his room singing for no one but herself. After lending her talent to different bands that allowed her to sing other people’s songs live, now it’s time to be her singing their music. “It was little by little and with the people I met,” she highlights. “My singing teacher, my producer, with whom I learned to record. We have an incredible musical chemistry with him, he loves reggaeton as much as I do. I taught myself a lot to work on my flows, my lyrics, we write together sometimes. He taught me how to get in front of the microphone.”
She says she is proud to be able to look back and see everything she has achieved to date. I love this and I want to be better every day, I love the fact that I think of myself as a complete artist.”
Technical sheet of the video clips
“The Devil”: Melina Salvador (La Diabla) and second voices Jorgelina Guarnieri.
It was recorded on February 2, 2023 at Good Life Récords Neuquén. Music Producer: Kandyel. Video clip: Mariano Dawidson.
“Fine, bad”: participation Melina Salvador (La Diabla). Lyrics and Original Idea – Melina Salvador. Music Producer: Kandyel. It was recorded on February 28, 2024 at Good Life Récords Neuquén. Video clip: Mariano Dawidson
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