Artists expose the crisis in Venezuela in Latin Billboard Week

Danny Ocean, Elena Rose, Lele Pons, Mau and Ricky and Nacho shared this Wednesday at Billboard Latin Music Week a panel about the painful reality of Venezuelan artists and how they experience their art from their country and the diaspora.

“Venezuelan artists are making broken music and music is what is helping us heal,” said Elena Rose, collecting the feelings of her colleagues during a panel in which they expressed their efforts to support the political transformation of Venezuela, help young artists. and heal the wounds of uprooting.

«We made our album, Hotel Caracasbecause we couldn’t take it anymore,” said, for their part, the Montaner brothers, who spent 13 years without returning to Venezuela until they returned in 2023 to tour the country for three months, between July, August and September.

Mau and Ricky, the Montaner brothers, pointed out that they were tired of hearing that they were no longer Venezuelans, that they often remained silent about the things that were happening in their country because they felt that they had no right to give their opinion “because they had spent so much time away.” ».

The album by the Venezuelan reggaeton and Latin pop duo, the videos and a documentary that accompanies them, as well as the most recent EP by Danny Ocean, titled Veniceequally explore the theme of uprooting.

For his part, Nacho has composed several anthems about Venezuelan identity in which he rebukes the regime of the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro.

The singer and model Lele Pons has put her more than one hundred million followers on social networks at the service of the protests to demand that Maduro recognize the electoral result of July 28.

“It’s the least I could do,” said the artist and businesswoman, whose interview with opposition leader María Corina Machado exceeded 30 million views.

The grain of sand that Elena Rose contributes is through “music and lyrics that are light” and, like her colleagues, she also tries to support artists in her country with advice on how to navigate the music industry outside of the country.

“I always tell them that because they’re hungry they don’t have to eat shit,” said American-Venezuelan singer and songwriter Rose.

Regarding his steps in the music industry in his country, Nacho, known for being part of the duo Chino & Nacho, mentioned the phenomenon of colleagues who have “allied themselves with certain people” in an effort to succeed.

“I respect that people support different things, but that can’t take away your objectivity and there are things that don’t work,” he said after explaining that he spent years trying to stay away from political controversy, since he has family in Venezuela.

Among what does not work, everyone agreed to highlight the absence of a music industry that supports local artists in Venezuela. “Companies in the music industry do not feel safe there and are not investing,” said Danny Ocean, whose best-known songs include “Me Rehuso.”

An aid to the artists and Venezuelans in general that the group defends and that the singer, composer and producer Danny Ocean summarized when asking for a change in his country.

Specifically, Danny Ocean addressed the military directly: “They are there to protect us, to defend our decisions. “They know it”.