Carolina Mama always knew that music was what filled her soul. But when she finished high school, her family convinced her that it was not a profitable career, that she was not going to make a living from singing and composing. Then, Carolina, who from a very young age was skilled with a camera, changed her career to film.
“It was a difficult decision because most of the colleagues and friends I had were all going to study music,” said the artist. “I went to film school because it gave me more possibilities, I think, that were economical and quick to create.”
However, despite having graduated in cinematography, he never stopped making music and singing with bands. Until a tragedy changed his life. One night, when she was 23 years old, after attending a concert by an artist she greatly admired, a man who followed her for eight blocks through a neighborhood in Buenos Aires, entered her house and attacked her in such a brutal way that no one can explain how she was left alive.
When Carolina woke up, she was in the hospital, and she thought that having survived that attack placed her in the 5 percent of women who survive feminicide attacks.
“Music was the only thing that kept me going,” he said. “And it was that decision at 23 to say, ‘no, I’m going to train myself in this’; it took me a couple of years to put myself back together as a person, as a woman.”
At age 26, Carolina sent applications to several music schools in the United States and was accepted in all of them. He moved to this country leaving behind a promising career in film. He then graduated from the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York.
Now she is releasing her debut album, “Amina”, which includes ten songs and whose rhythms integrate influences from North African music, Latin American folklore, jazz, R&B, hip hop and others.
“Amina” is inspired by Amina El Filali, a Moroccan girl who at the age of 16 committed suicide by drinking poison after she was forced to marry the man who had raped her when she was 13 years old. The album is a tribute to women who have faced adversity and is a call to action for gender equality.
“I dedicate it to her and to all those who are not here,” he said. “Because I think it was hard for me to believe in life again, and there are many women who can’t believe in life after events like that.”
For now, Carolina and her team are planning a tour of Europe and then they will go to Argentina, Chile and Brazil. In the United States there is still nothing concrete, although last year he presented the album with his fourteen-member band at the prestigious Lincoln Center in New York.
He also continues with film and photography projects. This year he went to film a movie in Vietnam.
“It’s like music and movies are my lovers,” he said. “I go with one and I go with the other and I stay for a while and you enjoy one and you enjoy the other.” […] Cinema and music are two very complex arts, but I have the privilege of being able to do both.”