Leadsinger Ali Gua Gua (guitar, vocals) has made a name for herself in the Mexican punk scene. Her partners-in-crime are Pila Zombie (guitar), Inesphektor (drums, percussion) and Pat Combat Rocker (bass) from the Argentinean band „She Devils“. Juana Chang (charango, vocals) and Flor Linyera (keyboard) complete the line up. Together they are combining forces of the two most important female punk bands of their respective countries. While hanging out together in Buenos Aires one day their conversation shifted to Cumbia music. What started out with a few drinks and the throwing around of ideas finally lead to the founding of Kumbia Queers in summer 2007.
 
A big Cumbia revival started out in Argentina in the 1990ies. Especially the inhabitants of the Villas – the Argentinean slums – are the driving forces behind this comeback of the traditional music. The new variation is called Cumbia Villera or Slum Cumbia and is a reaction to the romantic cumbia. The music is no longer about love, but tells stories about life in the slums: violence, troubles with the police, alcohol, drugs and sex. It seems like an Argentinean version of gangsta rap but with an ironic edge to it. Juana Chang confesses that she had some prejudices before she herself started to do Cumbia: „I thought that Cumbia is some sort of instrument of power to keep us all caught up in dullness. Especially when thinking of the Cumbia that came up in the Nineties. Every song sounded exactly the same and all of them were annoyingly stupid.“
 
Therefore, Kumbia Queers are reinterpreting Cumbia in their very own way: they are making it queer. They don’t care for out-dated genre descriptions, they rather create their own and call it „a thousand percent tropi punk“. Althought they didn’t even really know how to play this traditional kind of music in the beginning, they soon realised that Cumbia seems to be part of everyone, anyways. Ali Gua Gua says: „It seems that Cumbia is running through everyone’s veins. If you’re at a party and a little bit tipsy, it just gets you and you simply know how you have to dance.”
 
So Kumbia Queers decided to give it a try and the ideas really poured out of them. Their first record was finished in speedtime. Since it is common in Cumbia to cover songs, Kumbia Queers decided to do the same. They reworked classic songs from rock, pop and punk history. Staying true to their punk spirit they avoided sticking too close to the original or doing ordinary tropical remixes. Instead they applied queer resignifying practices. In the process the band uncovers the mostly heteronormative meaning of the songs and turn it all around. On their debut album “Kumbia Nena!“ (2007) they used this approach on songs by Madonna, Nancy Sinatra, The Cure and many more.
 
Lead singer Ali Gua Gua elaborates on the bands’ ideas: „In the beginning we said that we wanna make songs for girls about girls. Now we are making songs about girls for guys. … Just kidding! When thinking of the old punk rock cliche of the ever-angry teenager we really represent the exact opposite. Our music is about joy, fun and sensuality.”
 
Their second album with cover versions – „La gran estafa del Tropipunk“ – was recorded together with Pablo Lescano. With his band Damas Gratis Pablo is one of the most successful acts of the Cumbia Villera scene and a real legend. In the same year Kumbia Queers first collaborated with Viennese label comfortzone and released the EP „God save the queers“. In 2011 the band released a 7inch with the US-American band Scream Club, also on comfortzone. On that record they mixed Cumbia with electro music in a very dancefloor-friendly kind of way.
 
Kumbia Queers’ sound is getting more and more refined over the course of time, but they are still punk rockers at heart. Although they are pretty fed up with the rock scene by now. For them punk is not simply a genre it is mainly an attitude, after all. Therefore they have no problem with mixing afro-cuban and Latin-American elements and reinterpreting them. They radically shift the meaning of traditional Cumbia and get rid of overtly romantic gestures and machismo. In this way they create their wild, unique style that mixes party with a political message.
 
Their lyrics reflect that attitude. In some songs they sing about love – sometimes cheesy, sometimes trashy – in others they criticize social injustice. The musicians are also working together with social movements. “We are taking part in social movements and fight against things that we think are unjust. For me personally women’s issues are especially important: domestic violence, rape, abortion and self-determined motherhood are topics, that I care about,” says Pila.
 
Their signature style of mixing punk, Cumbia and queerness is pretty unique in Latin America, and actually all over the world. Five members of Kumbia Queers live in Argentina, leadsinger Ali Gua Gua lives in Mexico City. When the six of them come together they want to play as much live as possible. „We play in bars, discos, at gay- lesbian gatherings, birthday parties, graduations and christenings“, explains Juana Chang. Through their constant shows they already built a very broad fanbase in Argentinia, Mexico, Chile and Europe, especially Spain and Germany ,too. They are constantly touring the area and already played in such diverse places as the central place Zócalo in Mexico City, a retirement home in Chile or a women’s prison in Buenos Aires. In September 2012 they will play their third Euopean tour with shows in Germany, Austria, Sweden, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Spain.
 
Kumbia Queers’ new album „Pecados Tropicales“ will be released in fall 2012 on comfortzone. It is their first full length album that only consists of their very own compositions and material.