Staff
The Juarez Newspaper
Friday, February 03, 2023 | 4:17 p.m.
Chiquis still can’t believe that she is days away from the Grammys in which she is nominated for the first time for her album “Queen Bee”.
In a recent video call interview from California, Chiquis was already preparing the dress and outfit that she will wear for the ceremony on Sunday. She remembered that she was in a gym when she found out about her Grammy nomination, it was the week of the Latin Grammys in which she was going to present for the first time with a musical number accompanied by Banda Los Recoditos.
“I was super focused on my presentation,” she said. “My manager spoke to me … and he was like crying, like something was wrong, that’s what I thought.”
When her manager managed to tell her that she was nominated, she was not surprised, because she thought she was referring to the Latin Grammys, in which she finally won the award for best band music album for “Queen Bee”.
“And he told me no, to the American (Grammy),” he recalled. “I was doing cardio and I couldn’t anymore, I cried from happiness and emotion, I didn’t expect it.”
Chiquis said she was pleased, because in this edition she competes with greats of regional Mexican music, including Los Tigres del Norte, Christian Nodal and Marco Antonio Solís, as well as another favorite from the academy, Natalia Lafourcade.
“Queen Bee” is an album with songs composed by Chiquis and interludes in which she talks to her audience dedicating inspiring messages to them.
“Through my music I wanted to tell a story, to tell my story, and at the same time to be able to inspire and empower other people”, he highlighted. “I have suffered, but I have been able to turn what has happened to me into something positive, and I believe that I am not the only one and I want to be an example for those who listen to my music, just as they feel inspired”.
Chiquis was involved in all aspects of the album, from the selection of songs to the graphic design. She got the idea of ”Queen Bee” from those insects.
“According to they shouldn’t fly because their wings are much smaller than their bodies, but the bees don’t know, they say ‘I have to, we are workers, we have to go get the honey,’” she said. “I like that because a lot of people maybe didn’t believe a lot in me or my singing career.”
It’s also a way to remember her mother, the late regional Mexican music star Jenni Rivera, who used to call her princess. Chiquis knows that eventually princesses become queens.
“I never want to stop learning, growing as a person, as an artist,” he said. “But I do feel more secure, as an artist, as a woman, as a singer and now I say ‘well, yes, I put on this crown that my mother gave me and that God gave me and I am going to carry it with happiness, with pride, with honor'”.
The last song on the album is one of his mother’s hits, “De contrabando”, original by Joan Sebastian. Chiquis said that they used to listen to her together and she liked it when she performed it live. She had wanted to record it for a long time, but she was afraid of the possible comparisons, in the end she decided to do it her own way mixing R&B and cumbia.
“This is a song that I love,” he said. “It reminds me a lot of my mother, beautiful moments that we lived together.”
In “The ex” Chiquis says that she does not want to be a second-table dish. He started composing it about four years ago.
“I was going through something difficult there with an ex of my ex and I said ‘I have to write something’ I’m not the x, I’m not just anyone,” he said.
The song “Queen Bee”, which he composed with Bobby Castro, is a powerful band performance in which Rivera says that what he has has cost him and if he owes his mother something “it’s the ovaries that I’ll kill.”
“I also kept it for a long time,” he confessed. “It’s a strong song, but as they say, it’s the net.”
His most recent release is “Because I am a queen bee”, composed with Luciano Luna, which will be part of the second part of the album that he is already working on.
“I want to continue with this ‘Queen Bee’ thing, I still have a lot to say, I don’t want it to end,” said Chiquis.
To her recognition, Chiquis, whose real name is Janney Marin, can add the fact that she was recently nominated for the best well-being and interpersonal relationships podcast for “Chiquis and Chill” at the Ambies Awards.
“It’s something that comes so easily to me, it’s something I can do, talk to my people,” he said. “They’re like the Oscars of podcasts, so I said ‘we’re doing something right.'”
