VICE Spotlight: JUPiTA

I remember when the Melbourne-based, Chilean artist, JUPiTA, changed her name.

From the ashes of Ruby-Sofia (her previous alias) came an otherworldly, alien creature with an intergalactic aesthetic and new direction. 

From that point, her exploration of a diverse range of genres – Latin pop/reggaeton, alternative, dance/house, jazz, jungle and R&B – collated with an even stronger sense of artistry, pushing forward her lyricism, stage presence and brand. 

“My name change has been my highlight. It's a new beginning that signifies freedom of expression," she told VICE.

“My music is free of limitations - the stranger and other-worldly, the better. I feel as if it possesses a dark, powerful, feminine energy that allows you to be comfortable and adventurous in your skin and sexuality.”

JUPiTA’s musical journey began when she was a kid – playing instruments, singing melodies, writing lyrics. Her taste extended anywhere from Gwen Stefani to Nai Palm to Erykah Badu and Sade. But she didn’t take her music to the stage until 2015. A recent live performance saw her orbiting the same worlds as Melbourne’s Khya and Cherry Chola – two other performers known for their sensual and playful on-stage persona’s.

“I wanted to attract like-minded people and create worlds with other artists, and I felt like the easiest way was through music,” she said.

“I hope people get to feel as if they’re not on earth for a moment.”

Currently, JUPiTA’s artistic influence revolves around artists like Dua Saleh, Rosalía, Amaarae, Solange and Kali Uchis. Women who, for her, “hold a unique and empowering energy where they’ve created spaces to express unapologetically”. JUPiTA flows in the same vein. 

Her latest track, “Veo Mejor”, mixed and mastered by Michel Kroll, produced and written by herself, and sung between Spanish and English, is a call to a hesitant lover. You can hear the Amaare style-synths sliver through her vocals, hear the same sultry delivery as Rosalía, and the same experimentalism as Solange. Yet it’s still wholly her own. 

Fiery, versatile and with a vision to “create spaces that welcomes the Latinx QTIBIPOC to perrear y llorar (which in english means to “twerk and cry”),” the formation of JUPiTA’s new identity and persona has given Australia something a little different to, indeed, “twerk and cry” over.

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