Like most of us when we were kids, Karen Freire grew up in a house where soap operas were televised all the time. The María's trilogy starring Thalía, Rebelde, Muñeca Brava, you name it. She was born and lived her childhood in Guayaquil, Ecuador until she was 14 when her mother remarried and moved to Minnesota. "I grew up watching soap operas with my nanny every day, that's why my lyrical style has always been melodramatic. Then I thought it would be a good idea for a song" says Karen, explaining where the inspiration for this track comes. She's no newbie in this field, and explains, "I had a project my first year of college with a friend but nothing ever happened, I mean, we wrote like five songs and played three shows but then I stopped playing with him because his personality was very intense." She adds, "He thought I would be his great project of pop music and he was going to make me famous [laughs] but then I realized he just wanted something romantic from me so I stopped making music with him." Which brings us to Buffalo Moon, its largest project. They released three albums, one was Machista, the third one just dropped last year. It was one of the best albums of 2014 and one of the most underrated too. A real gem that went unnoticed against many media and audience.
After the release of Machista, Karen moved onto other things. But at the end of the day she was self-conscious about her talent. "So my hairdresser is Italian and he always calls me Monella," she says. Armed with a nickname and a couple of unfinished songs, she decided to goes solo. Introducing her first single "Telenovela" Karen Freire aka Monella lead us into this finesse and natural beauty, almost cruel. Her powerful and melodic voice diluted between synthesizers, beating at the rhythm of a lyric inspired in the drama of soap operas and pop glamour. A complete delight that draws us to the memory of great heroines of the past pop like Amanda Miguel and modern pop such as Javiera Mena. With this hit, Monella is introduced at best, giving way to generate a buzz. We want to hear more of this woman, who not only conveys a powerful female presence, but makes us love the woman behind the alter ego and shows that this talent goes beyond its beauty or sexuality. "Tú y yo una telenovela, que no tiene final" One for all of those melodramatic fools (like us).