Bilingual urban music artist Amara La Negra, who will compete in Mira Quién Baila, told Efe in Miami that she has had problems with English-language television stations in the country to include the second part of her name, which she defends as her own of his Dominican and Afro-Latin identity.
“There are people who do not want to say it, they do not want to use it and they have even told me to take it away (the stage name),” said the American vocalist, whose real name is Diana de los Santos.
“They feel uncomfortable, they are afraid of lawsuits, they do not want to talk about racism or injustice, I have no problem doing it,” said the artist, born in 1990 in Miami, Florida.
Between laughter and caressing her “Afro” mane, which, she assures, has also suggested “taming”, Amara La Negra defends the nickname as part of the Latin culture in which she grew up. “For us, Latinos are an expression of affection: my black, my black, that’s who I am.”
To get closer to his community, he has just accepted the invitation of the American network Univision to Mira Quién Baila All Stars, the 2019 edition of the contest where celebrities from the entertainment world dance.
“I’ve been watching Mira Quién Baila (MQB) for years and I always wanted to participate,” the singer said before a photo shoot and dressed in a golden leotard, while training to the rhythm of Daddy Yankee, Bad Bunny and Cardi B.
“I want to get closer to the Latino audience, to get to know me a little bit better,” explained the 28-year-old artist, who began her career at six.
Her decision to promote herself to Hispanics who visit Spanish-language media coincides with the release of “Insecure,” the first single from “Unstoppable,” an album she is preparing for the BMG label, which she will launch in January.
“There is no one to stop me,” said Amara La Negra, and stresses that she is not only talking about her music.
“Part of God’s plan for me is to use my platform to talk about racism in our own community and around the world,” he said.
The urban pop singer, protagonist of the program “Love & Hip-Hop” of VH1, has been on stage since she was very small as one of the dancers of Univision’s “Sábado Gigante” program.
There, and in other occasions, he met the queen of salsa, Celia Cruz. Do not overlook that the only great star that looks like her is the deceased Cuban singer.
Amara La Negra also wants to raise her voice in favor of women who suffer abuse in their homes. He announced that, like the rest of the contestants of Mira Quién Baila All Stars, he will donate his prize to an organization.
She said she is determined to be one that fights the feminicide. He is in talks with a foundation in the Dominican Republic, a territory he describes as “my country.”
Until now, Amara La Negra had taken her activism and her music to the public that consumes urban music and television in English.
In an interview with the prestigious Rolling Stones magazine, she was presented as an artist who “was born to be a star”, and designated as “one of the artists to follow in 2019”.
Determined to fight for more and more women of Hispanic origin who feel like her, she wrote the children’s book in English “Amarita’s Way”, whose Spanish version is entitled “Amarita-style”.
In these pages, the artist tells the adventures of an Afro-Latin girl “who does not let obstacles stop her”.
The singer, she said, is in negotiations to get a line of Amarita dolls.
“Everywhere there are children and people like me and I’m not going to rest until we’re also protagonists of soap operas, of movies,” he said.
“Until the girls feel happy to have this skin, to be black,” he said.
In July of this year, Amara La Negra participated in Detroit as an ambassador at a Planned Parenthood event, the largest network of sexual health clinics in the United States. and that serves, above all, women with few resources.
