Sofia B: We Are Listening Venezuela

I am very excited to be able to launch an exclusive here at ButchOnTap. Sophia B, who I have written about before (here and here), is releasing her newest video for the song, “We Are Listening Venezuela” today. Right here.

The London based singer and songwriter released her first ever Spanish song “We Are Listening Venezuela” on July 5th of last year to coincide with Venezuelan independence day, in solidarity with the cry for freedom and peace by protestors taking to the streets to reclaim their social space as they once knew it.

Sofia B, who spent part of her childhood in Caracas, teamed up with Venezuelan producer Saul Guanipa in New York city to record the song. Both are graduates of the Berklee College of Music in Boston.  Scattered riots broke out in Venezuela in 2014 in reaction to a spike in unchecked urban violence, inflation and basic shortages. The climactic and tragic murder of Miss Venezuela, Monica Spear, that year came to symbolize the cataclysmic breaking point in Venezuelans’ threshold for putting up with a set of ills grabbing them by the throat.

The timing to finally release “We Are Listening Venezuela” dawned on Sofia B when Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel, musical director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic issued an urgent plea to entrenched political leaders in Caracas to listen to the needs of the people. Saul Guanipa and Sofia B put their heads and their musical chops together to peg the spirit of demonstrators, “calling for peace, celebrating it, and nothing more,” she said. To bring the experience closer to home, they incorporated recordings of chirping and rasping crickets, a familiar sound in Venezuela’s city and countryside.

Born to a British-Lebanese father and a Venezuelan mother, Sofia B took to music and strings early in life. She started with the violin at age 5. She picked up her father’s guitar at 13 and has been at it ever since. After winning the North American Tour Scholarship, she graduated with honors from the Berklee College of Music in Boston.  She released her first EP in 2013, “Once Upon a Time” recording in Boston with Daniel Cantor, who produced for artists Alison Krauss and Wyclef.  Her second, “In The City,” written in New York, was recorded in Beirut, Lebanon with her father on lead guitar.

It is Butch to listen. Be Butch.

1 thought on “Sofia B: We Are Listening Venezuela

Leave a Comment

error: Content is protected !!