Nathy Peluso‘s latest single, EROTIKA, emerges as a bold embrace of desire, movement, and self-possession, channeling the raw sensuality of ’90s salsa erótica while asserting her own artistic autonomy. The Argentine singer, rapper, and provocateur, known for her fearless genre-blending and commanding stage presence, does not merely reference history – she inhabits it, bending it to her will. In “Erotika,” she does not just resurrect a sound; she reanimates an attitude, an ethos, a way of being in the world that is both intoxicating and unapologetic.
The song’s foundation is a fever dream of percussion – timbales, congas, and bongos – that refuses inertia, that insists on movement. The bassline undulates, guiding the listener through a labyrinth of brass flourishes that ignite the air like fleeting sparks. It is music as invocation, a call to the body, an insistence that presence itself is an act of pleasure. To bring this world to life, Peluso has assembled a lineup of musicians whose artistry pulses through every note. Grupo Niche, Daniel Márquez, Sergio Múnera, Anderson Quintero, Roinel Vega, and Johan Escalante do not merely accompany her; they coalesce into a single, breathing entity.
Peluso’s relationship with salsa has always been one of reverence and reinvention. From the commanding trombones of MAFIOSA to the crime-laden storytelling of LA PRESA, her sonic explorations have never been pastiche; they are declarations. With EROTIKA she does not just pay tribute to salsa erótica – she redefines its core. Traditionally, the genre has framed femininity through a romantic, melancholic, or idealized lens. Peluso refuses this passivity. She turns the lens upon herself, reclaiming the sensual and the bold, not as objects of longing but as forces of nature. In doing so, she does not simply take up space – she owns it, stretches it, saturates it with her presence.
The accompanying music video, directed by Iris Valles and Alex Olten, mirrors the track’s intensity. Set within a minimalist, early-2000s aesthetic, Peluso’s every movement is a declaration of power. The colour red dominates the visual landscape – not as mere decoration but as a language unto itself, a visceral embodiment of hunger, fervor, and control. She dances alone, she dances with others, but she is always central, always the gravitational force around which all things revolve. It is an assertion, a provocation, a challenge: to feel, to move, to claim oneself entirely.
As she embarks on her North American and South American tour, Peluso carries with her the momentum of GRASA the album that solidified her as an uncontainable force in contemporary music. With three Latin Grammy wins for EL DÍA QUE PERDÍ MI JUVENTUD (Best Alternative Song), APRENDER A AMAR (Best Rap/Hip-Hop Song), and the GRASA long-form video, she stands as a testament to reinvention, to the constant unraveling and reconstruction of the self. At 30 years old, she has amassed five Latin Grammy wins, standing alongside Mercedes Sosa in Argentina’s musical history, while also carving out a space entirely her own.
The journey to GRASA was not one of effortless ascension but of rupture, recalibration, and rediscovery. Peluso speaks of losing herself to the relentless churn of success, of becoming a machine, a gladiator by necessity rather than choice. “I lost track of my own humanity,” she confesses. But art, at its core, is not about perfection. It is about struggle, about clawing one’s way back to oneself, about embracing the contradictions of power and vulnerability, fire and fragility. EROTIKA is a reminder that to dance is to resist. That to move is to reclaim. That the body, in all its intensity, remains the most radical instrument of all. We have added EROTIKA to our New Music Spotlight playlist!