9 songs that will make you feel empowered
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We present you these feminist songs that will make you feel empowered and give you encouragement
Last December Miley Cyrus launched her own feminist version of the carol "Santa Baby" and the internet went crazy. We show you here a list of feminist songs that will make you feel empowered and give you encouragement on a bad day. Some are in Spanish and others in English, there is something for everyone!
Leer en español: 9 canciones que te harán sentir empoderada
Hijabi, Mona Haydar
Mona Haydar is a rapper and American activist. This was her debut song and her best-known track. In it, she defends the use of the hijab while reaffirming herself as a ferocious feminist. In the lyrics, she affirms that it is not her duty as a Muslim woman to educate the ignorant about her culture, and the chorus says that she "continues to"wraping my hijabi".
Quiero bailar, Ivy Queen
The reggaeton diva, the Puerto Rican Ivy Queen, spoke of consensus before the #MeToo era. This song was released in 2004 as a single from her debut album Diva. The lyrics speak of a man who hopes to have sex with a woman after dancing reggaeton. Ivy tells these men that "I am the one that command, I am the one who decides when we go to the mambo" and she clarifies that "you can provoke me, that does not mean that I'm going to bed." ("yo soy la que mando, yo soy la que decide cuando vamos al mambo" y les aclara que "si tu me puedes provocar eso no quiere decir que pa la cama voy").
Independent Women , Destiny's Child
The female group that incubated what would later be pop star Beyoncé released this track in 2001. It is undoubtedly a hymn to women's economic independence. In the lyrics, the four Destiny's Child girls call on "all the women who are independent, raise their hands, all the girls who make money, raise their hands".
Just a girl , No Doubt
Another band that gave birth to a pop star. This time it's about No Doubt, the ska-punk band where Gwen Stefani started. This song, written by the same Gwen Stefani, mocks and criticizes the society dominated by men and the stereotype of the "girl" who needs to be protected. Its lyrics are famous because they are is sarcastic from beginning to end. The chorus says "Because I'm just a girl, I prefer not to be / because they will not let me drive late at night / I'm just a girl, I guess I'm some kind of weirdness / Because everyone sits down to see me with their eyes / I'm just one girl, look at me well / just a typical prototype".
Also read: 5 women that are changing the reggaeton
Yo no soy esa mujer, Paulina Rubio
In Mexico Paulina Rubio was also worried about breaking stereotypes about femininity. In 2001 she released Yo no soy esa mujer as part of her album Paulina . In it criticizes the "false idea of love" that dictates that women should stay at home and be obedient and clarifies that he prefers to have a broken heart to be "the one who signs a paper and gives you his life". The chorus says "I am not that woman who does not leave home, and who puts at your feet the best of her soul, I will not become the echo of your voice, in a corner … I am not that woman". A strong criticism of the institution of marriage.
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun , Cindy Lauper
The feminist anthems are not a thing of the 2000s. In the 80s Cindy Lauper became famous with Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, which although not as fierce in its rhythm or in its lyrics, does defend the same thing that Gwen Stefani would defend years later: the right of women to have fun and not respond to the stereotype of modesty. Cindy Lauper says in her song: "Some guys take a pretty girl / and hide her from the rest of the world / I want to be the one who walks straight to the sun / Oh the girls that we just want to have fun". It is a song of feminine rebellion.
El estuche, Aterciopelados
The Colombian ninth rock band released this track in 1998. The song is not necessarily feminist, as it talks above all about looking inside and not outside. It is a song against vanity and social pressure that obeys a stereotype of beauty. However, the lyrics of the song show awareness that this stereotype puts more pressure on women, because it refers to the measures that are created as those of a perfect woman: "90, 60, 90, add 240". The song reminds women that "it is not a commandment to be the diva of the moment" and in the end invites them to "Grasp!, Make yourself worthy".
Punk Prayer , Pussy Riot
The famous punk band and feminist collective Pussy Riot played this song in the performance that made them famous in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior of Moscow. In the lyrics, they ask the Virgin Mary to liberate them from patriarchy and to vanish Putin. The Russian singers here make use of one of the few powerful female figures within Catholicism to launch a feminist message in the middle of the regime they consider authoritarian of Vladimir Putin.
No controles, Flans
Although this song was originally written by Nacho Cano, a member of the Spanish group Mecano, it was popularized in Latin America by the Mexican techno-pop trio Flans in 1985. In the lyrics of this song, the girls in the band ask their couple that do not control them. The chorus says: "Do not control my clothes, do not control my senses".
LatinAmerican Post | Juliana Rodríguez Pabón
Translated from "Canciones que te harán sentir empoderada"
