Fabi Reyna as Reyna Tropical performs in Dallas at Club Dada on Sept. 26. (Photo by Devyn Galindo)
Reyna Tropical brings a sapphic and sensual sound to Club Dada on Thursday
RICH LOPEZ | Staff writer
rich@dallasvoice.com
Despite her Lone Star State roots, singer and musician Fabi Reyna has never embarked on a tour within her home state. Based in New York, the queer artist recently released her debut album under the band name moniker Reyna Tropical. Armed with a fresh collection of songs, Reyna is heading back to her origins.
“I’m coming back to the lands that I know and offer some of this medicine,” Reyna said.
Reyna Tropical will play at Club Dada on Thursday, Sept. 26.
Reyna talks in this vernacular of lands and medicine and roots which is how she approaches the music of Reyna Tropical. The McAllen-raised artist talks the same about her debut album Malegría, which was named among NPR’s Alt-Latino’s favorite albums of 2024 so far.
“To me, the album stands for ancestral connection. We can really be part of a healing for our ancestors through our own pleasure,” she said. “So the most propelling things in this album is breaking generational cycles and discovering pleasure.”
Malegría is described as a contemporary celebration of wide-reaching cultural traditions from Latin and South American rhyths to influences from revolutionary artists like lesbian guitarist-singer Chavela Vargas. The album touchs on themes of queer love, feminine sensuality and the transformative power of intentional relations to the earth.
Femininity in all forms is front and center on the album and Reyna’s intentions.
Reyna addresses shame that women, femme, nonbinary and trans people in the Latin diaspora have so much shame. Specifically the women in her life. By tapping into her talents and sort of calling upon her past, she connects that shame with the denial of erotic pleasure.
“So much of our power is in our eroticism and our intuition, but we always have to break these systems to get to our own self-acceptance,” she said. “For me, pleasure is the heart of creation and it’s important for me to tell other Latine women and queer Latines that our erotic nature is taken from us culturally. We are almost expected to feel ashamed about it.”
With some trepidation, the 33-year-old singer acknowledges her return to Texas. Time has transformed her, making her a different person from the one who grew up in the Valley.
“It’s scary to go back to the lands where I came from. I think it’ll remind me of the things that took me away from Texas,” she said. “But I’m ready to come home now and present my craft. I’m confident and ready to be as wild and sexy as possible.”
Watch her perfomance of “Cartagena” from the new album on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert below:
For tickets, visit DadaDallas.com.