Juana Is The Loneliest Number

Before she was Argentina’s answer to Bjork, Juana Molina was Argentina’s answer to Tina Fey (we were going to describe her as Argentina’s answer to Twink but that seemed a bit wanton). However, her status as one of the country’s top TV yuck-meisters didn’t exactly fill her with glee.

“I hated it to be honest,” Molina sighs. “I always wanted to make music. I wasn’t interested in being famous or having people recognise me in the street. It was a job. Music is a calling.”
Television’s loss is indie-dom’s gain. On her fifth album, Un Dia, Molina presides over a mesmerising suite of A-grade weirdo pop; a sultry, esoteric collection of chirruping beats and dulcet melodies. Quite what she’s warbling about must remain a mystery though – unlike many non-English speaking artists seeking an international fan-base, Molina refuses to abandon her mother tongue.
“It would feel really stilted were I to sing in English. I can’t express my feelings properly in a language other than Spanish. To try writing in English would put a barrier between me and the song.”
Speaking of cultural divides, Molina received a surprise when she touched down in Ireland recently for the Electric Picnic. She’d come expecting a Woodstock-worthy outpouring of peace love and understanding. Instead, she found herself surrounded by lager-chugging hordes. “Definitely it was a shock,” she recalls. “Seeing all those empty beer glasses – you would never see something like that in Argentina.”

Un Dia is out now on Domino