The trailer for Tini's new album, Un Mechón de Pelo, begins with the Argentinian pop star looking at herself in the mirror with tears in her eyes. She holds a pair of metal scissors in one hand and a lock of her brown hair in the other. A haunting, operatic voice sings in the background while a little girl's voice faintly screams behind her. Then Tiny walks away.
“Sometimes I think I'm crazy. Because I felt crazy,” she recites as tears fall from her eyes. “Mad as the sea that does not understand what it is doing or where it is going.”
The heartwarming trailer – shot on a single and released two weeks ago – is an origin story of sorts for Tini. It captures the sharp left turn the singer, whose real name is Martina Stoessel, made while making Un Mechón de Pelo, out this week. On the LP, he contrasts the perfect image he cultivated as a child star on the Disney show Violet with the realities he faced he experienced deep depression and panic attacks in recent years.
The reaction to Mechón The trailer is far from being accepted by many Argentines. How could the bright-eyed Disney star that so many people grew up with (think Miley or Selena in the States) be depressed? How could this rich girl who had everything in her hands feel “crazy?” “Stop romanticizing mental health. It's too serious for you to use this as a marketing strategy,” one person commented on Instagram.
Tiny would be lying if she said the criticism didn't get to her. He has mixed feelings about the album's release. But he also has some peace of mind knowing that everything will eventually be out there.
“No one can take away my truth. Everything I talk about on this album is my history. No one can make me feel as low as before,” says Tiny Rolling rock over Zoom, her sweatshirt covering her now short blonde hair and part of her makeup-free face. “No one can tell me how to heal.”
She spent years tight-lipped about the difficulties of being a public figure – the rumours, the headlines, the gossip – and had chosen to keep her battle with panic attacks and a depression diagnosis private to preserve the image of Tiny who it had been imposed on her as a child. That's over now.
Over 10 pieces, Un Mechón de Pelo presents a candid look at Tiny struggling with the complexities of being in the spotlight from a young age, dealing with crippling mental health issues, and ultimately convincing herself that she's going to be okay.
For Tiny, Mechón it's a catharsis and far from the profitable venture some critics have made it out to be. Previous albums like Cupid and Tiny Tiny saw her break into trending genres, welcoming A-listers like Alejandro Sanz and Becky G to runways. On Mechónshe skipped the guests, instead gifting the album with spoken word poetry and vocal notes from her best friends.
On “Tinta 90,” a reference to her signature hair color, Tini sings about dealing with her depression in private and how those around her didn't even realize she was suffering. “Only the two of us know what we've been through,” she sings using female pronouns in Spanish. “I talk to myself and my brain,” he says.
Perhaps most poignantly, Tiny raps about her struggles to balance her artistic persona and her own identity on “Posta,” in which she repeats assumptions that “people have been telling me for years.” His video jumps between a glamorous Tini in a long blonde wig and a fur coat to Tini bare-faced and wearing only a hood, contrasting the persona she used “like armor” with her real one. “Because I was born with money, in a golden cradle, nothing hurts. Is this a fact?' she raps on the track, referencing her upbringing as the daughter of a famous television director.
“I internalized so many comments and lies and seeing myself as what they thought I was,” says Tini. “I can't allow someone who doesn't know to have that power in my life. I will never allow someone who doesn't know me to have the power to make me want to disappear.”
On “Ángel,” she returns to healing that inner child and interrupts a piano ballad with a rap to share her family's side of the rift and legal battle between her father Alejandro Stoessel and celebrity TV host Marcelo Tinelli over intellectual property. of the Disney show Patito Feothe Tini series began in 2008. In the song, she claims that Tinelli lied about her father and instead of his status helping her get her breakthrough role Violetas many speculated, Disney “didn't even want to hire her” because of this.
Violet she also appears in the visual for “Pa,” though she promises she doesn't hate the role that broke her, she just has a complicated relationship with it. “Sometimes I don't realize I've been through this. This happens to me a lot. “Going from Disney kid to finding myself took time because I had a bunch of unconscious chips in my brain and I had to slowly remove them,” she says. “I can't even blame myself. But no estoy peleada con el personaje.” I have no resentment towards the character.
“I had to learn to speak freely without feeling like I was Violetta,” she adds. “It was a long process to find myself and where I wanted to go. I'm still on that journey.”
“Ni de Ti” is the highlight of the album. It's a scathing piece aimed at her critics. “To the people who believe or feed these lies, I wish from the bottom of my heart that you find something more productive with your empty lives,” she states in it. She even clears up tabloid headline rumors that she was a homebody when she started dating Argentinian soccer player Rodrigo De Paul in 2022. (“I didn't steal from anyone, I have proof.”)
An upbeat track called “Bien” hears Tini coming out of a stormy state of mind and then “Me Voy” closes the album. On it, the singer leaves the old Tiny behind. She is finally ready to speak up and defend herself. She no longer lets anyone tell her who she is.
“It caused me so much panic that I didn't say certain things. Sometimes it takes time to get the courage to speak up. You have to process,” he says. “The album explains every point I'm trying to get at… And anyone who wants to understand it, will. Whoever doesn't, won't.”
from our partners at https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-latin/tini-un-mechon-de-pelo-interview-1235002394/
