Rita Indiana’s “La Sofi” is a truly special song to both, Rita Indiana’s career and Club Fonograma. Although her fame arrived with “La Hora de Volve,” this is the track that made us fall in love with her. As we mentioned on our review of El Juidero, “it was the start of her colloquialism, the start of the Rita Indiana narrative.” The Dominican star recorded the track a long time ago (in 2005 to be exact); it was somewhat of an experiment, a rough draft of what was to come. This song came before Miti Miti and was embedded into her Casifull project, an electronic-inclined act that was never consolidated. Years passed by, and we came across this deliriously funky song; it had the aesthetics of third-world punk, the charm of Caribbean lo-fi, and an unprecedented voice getting ready for her own revolution. “La Sofi” is our daily struggle to find freedom, a complex study of social behavior, a dance jam, it’s a lot of things.
Virtually unknown, we included “La Sofi” on Fonogramaticos Vol.3, and later declared her as CF’s “Queen of Downloads” after her song surpassed the 250,000 downloads, to this day, the most downloaded track in our site’s history. Overwhelmed by the response, Rita decided to take the necessary steps into the formation of her next project, Rita Indiana y Los Misterios. Between the start of her new project and the release of her album, she sent us five amazing tracks for our compilations, the rest is history.
When we invited Julieta Venegas to participate on the compilation, she said it sounded like a very fun thing to do. In her MySpace, she had included “La Sofi” as one of her favorite songs from 2009, so we didn’t hesitate to ask her if she wanted to do a version for it, she was thrilled about it. Not only did the new mom found the time to do it, she also surprised us with the news that she was teaming up with Ceci Bastida, her sister of many adventures (their “Pobre de Ti” performance is still this year’s peak moment at Vive Latino). By now, we all know the chemistry behind this pair of gorgeous Tijuanenses, but this is their first official collaboration. In fact, the ladies tell us that when they were in High School they tried to make a project together, but only lasted for a month, so this is super romantic.
“La Sofi”, as covered by Ceci Bastida & Julieta Venegas, is one of the peak moments in our new compilation. It’s everything we wanted in a cover, and more. They recorded the song themselves, Ceci in Los Angeles and Julieta in Mexico, the outcome is stunning, a joyful and off-the-hook version that’s got Rita Indiana herself overwhelmed. “Tengo un disco e' Rita Indiana.” This cover will be available for free download next week, as part of Fonogramaticos Vol.10.