Since her emergence a couple of years ago, the Chilean Akriila has been highlighted by major global media dedicated to music. For example, the American publication Rolling Stone rated her as one of the most disruptive figures in the contemporary urban scene, “capable of redefining the limits of the genre,” placing her on their Future music list.
Now it is the turn of a British platform. After releasing her acclaimed album Epistolares (2024), the artist born in Maipú is preparing to show her next title in September, Lucy looked at the world, and noticed it was spinning, for which she gave an extensive interview that NME, one of the most influential publications on the planet, highlights today.
“If you only listen to her music, you might not realize that Akriila is a fan of the Beatles. The catalog of this Chilean rapper and singer, who fuses various genres, is incredibly eclectic and digital: she rose to fame in 2023 with her trap mixtape, 001, and a year later released her debut album, Epistolares, a mix of noise, perreo, grunge, and drum’n’bass. In her latest singles, like ‘Suave’, featuring Digicore star Jane Remover, you can appreciate a homemade alt-pop and indie rock. It is this elasticity and energy that makes Akriila one of the most interesting emerging artists of the moment,” the review introduces.
In fact, NME highlights that Akriila is “excited” about her first trip to the United Kingdom and that her father is a fan of The Beatles, so she also hopes to take him with her. Even the title of her latest album has references to Lucy in the sky with diamonds, by John Lennon, and While my guitar gently weeps, by George Harrison.
“And although she has not yet reached the level of Beatlemania, Akriila has created a loyal and devoted fan base, selling out tickets for her first headlining tour in the United States — including three consecutive dates in New York — in July. Her fans have also adopted a kind of slogan from Epistolares: ‘Handsome gays listen to Akriila.’ The artist, affectionately known as Akrii, has been open about her queer identity, wearing a sleeveless shirt with the word “LESBIAN” printed on previous press photos,” the text continues.
“[Representation] is important because it is part of my identity,” she says in the interview. “When I was young, songs were only about women talking about men and men talking about women,” she adds.
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NME also highlights that Akriila is now an artist of Atlantic Records, one of the biggest record companies on the planet.
As an introduction to get to know her life and understand her origin, the magazine also alludes to how the pandemic and the social outbreak conditioned her generation: “It was in her own room where Akriila, whose real name is Fernanda Sepúlveda, began her musical career: during the COVID-19 pandemic, as a teenager playing guitar in Maipú, a residential neighborhood west of Santiago. The lockdown in Chile was strict, with armed forces patrols to verify if civilians had permits to go out, which authorities granted very cautiously. The pandemic came after six months of protests in the city over inequality and the high cost of living, which were violently repressed by the State and with curfews. This prolonged period of social paralysis drastically altered the expected trajectory for Chilean youth of school age.”
“I was part of a generation that didn’t know what to do, whether to go to university or not. I was lost,” she says. “During the pandemic, I struggled to understand what I wanted, and music was very present. So I started publishing it, without thinking about anything specific.”
The British also highlight that Akriila is part of an exuberant generation of Chilean urban music, which includes Harry Nach, Kidd Voodoo, and FaceBrooklyn, as well as producers like Saito Ape, Vinco, and Red Fingers.
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You can read the full publication here.
