Honduran-Canadian singer and producer Daniela Andrade took a giant leap forward with her latest EP Tamale last October. After racking up hundreds of millions of views on her YouTube page over the past half-decade, mostly through hushed acoustic pop covers, Andrade struck out on her own, filling the eight-track project with the sort of gooey R&B production that wouldn't have sounded out of place on the calmest parts of The Internet's Hive Mind. The title track was a standout, a mellow-sounding song that nonetheless grappled with questions empowerment and identity.
The video for "Tamale," co-directed by Justin Singer, is premiering at the top of the page. In an email to The FADER, Andrade said that the concept sprung from a magnification of her family realities growing up, with food at the heart of everything. “When I was a kid, me and my sisters would help my mom make tamales to sell to friends for some extra money to send back to our relatives in Honduras,” she said. “When I was writing 'Tamale,' a lot of this imagery came to mind; women gathered, talking and cooking amazing food. I ran with the idea of a heightened reality where our tamales are in high demand, making money off them is a breeze and we have enough to take care of our own. Heightened or not, the energy my mom and my sisters put into making them was always with a sense of empowerment, and that’s stayed with me.”
Watch the video for "Tamale" at the top of the page and listen to the full EP here.