As part of its campaign to protect the right to protest, and with the goal of creating national and international memory through art, Amnesty International teamed up in 2024 with We Could Be Music to produce a song and video commemorating the anniversary of the 2021 National Strike in Colombia. It was recorded by three emerging artists from Cali (the epicenter of the protests), including El Gioh, a young rapper who lost his eye due to the police’s brutal crackdown during the Strike. Since its release, Pum! Cayó has racked up tens of thousands of views on YouTube, driven a wave of traffic to Amnesty’s educational campaign page, and garnered significant media coverage in Colombia, and beyond, including Mexico, Panama, and Venezuela.
Ceshia Ubau is an emerging Nicaraguan singer-songwriter and pop artist based in San José, Costa Rica. With her dazzling emotive vocals and beautiful writing, her mission is to create musical spaces that heal. With her art she is also transforming cultural narratives about Nicaraguan immigrants in Costa Rica and beyond. Marzo 2020 (released March 20, 2024) is the first single off of an upcoming EP with We Could Be Music. Her growing loyal fan base has helped Marzo 2020 get national press coverage and attention.
“Sin Preguntar” is an impossibly catchy single by new artist Precious Perez, also known as “the blind reggaetonera”. Born in Boston to a Puerto Rican family and currently a resident of Kentucky, Precious’s life -like her music- contains multitudes of stories. “Sin Preguntar” is the first release in a new musical era for Precious’s solo career, after graduating with a double major in Music Education and Vocal Performance from Berklee College of Music. Precious’s purpose is “To be the first blind reggaetonera in the Latin music industry, breaking the mold.” Her story and music have led her to be featured in spaces like the Kennedy Center’s Millenium Stage, grammy.com and Telemundo.
Renee Goust wrote ANDAR AL MILLÓN to help Amnesty International’s “Diversxs” campaign catch fire in Latin America during Pride month in 2023. Facilitated by We Could Be Music, Renee and Diversxs are partnering to bring the song to young people across the region, and engage new young audiences in Amnesty’s campaigns to protect LCBTQI+ rights and defend everyone’s human right to protest. Watch Renee perform ANDAR AL MILLÓN live at Zócalo, CDMX Pride here.
“Abuelas” is the first of three singles We Could Be Music is releasing with Ch’umilkaj, the up and coming Guatemalan Indigenous artist on a mission to bring global visibility to the Mayan Kaqchikel people and culture. You can catch Ch’umil on one of her 2024 U.S. tour dates, or listen to her other two recent singles “El Sol” and “Fuimos Dos” on all music platforms.
With this anthem for body positivity aimed at women of all skin colors, Precious Pérez – the blind reggaetonera – shows us another side of her beautiful vocals and her brilliant English language songwriting. Cleverly sampling a recording of her grandmother taken on a shopping trip, she shares a part of her story with us too. Watch this Precious IG reel more about that shopping trip!
“Tayëla” is the name of a song co-written by a new collective of 14 indigenous women called Icuru Tsö, founded at a songwriting camp facilitated by We Could Be Music in partnership with the United Nations and Sara Curruchich. Tayëla is a phrase used by mothers and grandmothers in Maléku meaning “pay attention”. Icuru Tsö means “seeds that exist” en Bribri. In 2023, “Tayëla” was nominated to Costa Rica’s national music awards (Premios ACAM) in four categories, including Song of The Year and Best Pop Single. Stream “Tayëla” here.
“Let’s Renew” is a single by the “Multi-Talented Double Dose of Dopeness” Aint Afraid and when they set out to visually represent stories of love and romance in a way that honored their values, We Could Be Music’s storytelling studio helped them bring their vision of an animated music video to life. So much more than a girl band, Aint Afraid is a “movement dedicated to empowering, inspiring, and motivating people all over the world in goodness and using their talents in the arts, media, and other creative platforms to project this mission in ways that people will listen.”
On a continent where gender-based violence, sexual assault and discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community is rampant, comprehensive sex education could be as close to a silver bullet as there could be. But laws protecting these programs are being systematically attacked by extremists and, as a result, many kids aren’t growing up with the tools they need to be happy healthy humans. Chinga Tu Padre is one of two songs co-created by young people all over Latin America who help lead Amnesty International’s campaign ESIgualdad, which aims to defend comprehensive sex education in schools. Sol Pereyra, Rebeca Lane, and Dany Calvario’s “Chinga Tu Padre” has been streamed almost 100,000 times across the music platforms and they promoted the ESIgualdad campaign to their combined 4.5 million fans.
In Latino USA, Jeanne Montalvo says “Renee Goust is a Mexican-American singer-songwriter who is working hard to reframe traditional Mexican music to be more inclusive… She is redefining how traditional Mexican music is heard.” We Could Be Music is proud to have partnered with Renee to co-create “LA NETA YA FUE”, a double single EP featuring “Me Cansé” and “Me Gusta” (and its super extra one-take music video). “Me Cansé” is poised to become Latin America’s next heart wrenching karaoke classic, so a made-for-karaoke version of the song and video is also available on the EP.
¿Qué Pasará? (What Will Happen) is a campaign inspired by pop artist Angélica, whose mission with her new song is to make visible the epidemic of double femicides taking place in her community of Los Santos, Costa Rica. We Could Be Music produced “Qué pasará” and facilitated workshops with Angélica’s community to co-design a campaign around the its release. The community’s collective process resulted in a powerful call to media companies to change the way they cover femicide and gender-based violence, and a partnership with change.org to promote a petition at www.change.org/SiempreSoyYo.