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Daymé Arocena is ready to make waves with her new music. On Wednesday, the singer announced Al-Kemi, her first album in five years. The LP, produced by Eduardo Cabra, will be out Feb. 23.
With the announcement, Arocena also released her single “American Boy,” a track she wrote a decade ago, but thought “was too much of a pop song” for her to release at the time.
“In an indirect way, the music industry had shown me that I wasn’t welcome in that world,” she said of pop music. “There isn’t a Black woman like me who enjoys the kind of success usually reserved for Rosalía or Karol G.”
“The image of music genres like salsa or bachata has been painfully distorted throughout the years. You are supposed to clone and fuse yourself in order to conceal your Black or indigenous side,” she added. “They told me I didn’t fit in that world, but I’m going to prove them wrong.”
Arocena recorded her new the album in Puerto Rico alongside Cabra, who allowed her to stay at his home as they recorded over five months. “I had no idea that he was familiar with my music,”she said of Cabra.“Eduardo has been in the industry for a long time, and he comes from a world that is more global and commercial than mine.”
“He was the ideal candidate for this project, but I initially didn’t know if he would understand the social, psychological and personal complexities of the message that I wanted to express,” she added.
Cabra described Arocena as “one of the most talented musicians” he’s ever worked with, adding that making music with her was “joy.”
“She knew exactly the kind of fusion that she was going for: a cross between her Afro-Cuban roots – which clearly are strong on this album – with the more contemporary vein of analog synths, samples and a bit of electronica,” Cabra explained. “We wanted both worlds to communicate, to be both respectful and disrespectful to the ancestral colors.”
The album announcement, and release of “American Boy,” follows the single “Suave y Pegao” with Rafa Pabön. Her last LP arrived in 2019 with Sonocardiogram, led by the single “Para el Amor: Cantar!”
Al-Kemi Track List
Que Se Lo Lleve El Mar
Por Ti
Suave y Pegao (feat. Rafa Pabön)
Coda
American Boy
A Fuego Lento (feat. Vicente Garcia)
El Amor La Esperanza
Cómo Vivir Por Él
I Rather
Die and Live Again
