María Becerra’s new album is a beast. She titled it Quimera — the Spanish translation of “chimera,” the mythic fire-breather with a lion’s head, a goat’s body, and a serpent’s tail — but the name also reflects the four alter egos whose stories she weaves together to form her own musical Frankenstein.
Each alter ego gets its own trilogy of tracks: There’s Jojo, who kicks off the album with high energy and a touch of Brazilian funk; then Shanina, who follows with collabs alongside Tini and Paulo Londra. Maite comes third with darker vibes and the hit “Corazón Vacío.” Then come the cumbias — Becerra’s favorite genre — including a collab with Karina. Finally, the closing five tracks, including a yet-to-be-released bonus cut with Jay Wheeler, find Becerra stepping out of character to tell her story as herself, including through a collaboration with her partner, Rei.
“The lion contributes his strength, his strategy. The dragon contributes his flight, his fire, his vision,” Becerra tells Rolling Stone. “The goat, his connection to the earth, the impulses. Each one of them contributes their maximum and their gifts that ultimately make a monster that becomes invincible. And then there’s Maria, who is the core and the heart of this chimera.”
Perhaps channeling her art through this mythological being was a necessary step for Becerra, who underwent two intense health scares over the last few years. In April, the musician went through emergency surgery for a second ectopic pregnancy — when a fertilized egg implants and grows outside the uterus — that left her on the brink of death.
“The truth is that we did not want to talk about it publicly, but it escaped from our hands. It was leaked and it was quite ugly,” she says. “We knew it was going to make it out, so we decided to talk about it because maybe there are people who are going to learn about what this is, and maybe we won’t save a life, but we can create consciousness about this very real and scary thing.”
Becerra says that her experience with the ectopic pregnancy and speaking publicly about it, allowed her to connect with women who felt stigma around opening up about an experience that is not the woman’s fault.
“Once it became public, so many adult women I know came to tell me, ‘The same thing happened to me, and I never told anyone,’” she says. “I suddenly discovered a world I didn’t know existed. I started to feel all these healing hands, all these healing words. From something that felt like a near‑tragedy, so many things came into my life that actually helped me so much.”
In many ways, Quimera, with its character-based stories, allowed her to step out of the darkness that came with the feeling of loss that came with her miscarriages. She especially embraces the “Maria” part of the album, which tells her love story with her partner, Rei.
Becerra chooses a song from each of the characters on the album and tells the story behind it.
“Infinitos Como el Mar” from Shanina
It’s a song style and a kind of mood and vibe that I had never experienced. It’s a vocal technique that I had never experienced either, another way of doing vocals, more airy, everything much softer. It’s a song that has super psycho, super dark lyrics and at the same time, the rhythm is also a bit creepy. The video is a crazy thing. I think it’s the song that defines Shanina’s personality the most. That’s why I find it very interesting, because it shows us all her madness in its maximum splendor.
“Frutilla del Pastel” from Jojo
It’s Brazilian funk — and a long time ago, I wanted to make a good Brazilian funk. We went to record it, we traveled, we went to the beach. It was incredible, it was very fun to do it. I love the lyrics, but I think the production is on another level. There’s a “Brazilllll” sample from an old TV show, and it’s something very iconic. It fits in the character of Jojo because it’s a lyric in which a woman is very sure of what she wants, but here it shows you the ambiguity that she has — the power of decision and choice. She makes it very clear that it’s something for one night, that it’s something without obligation, and at the same time, she plays with that: “I assure you that you’re going to fall in love.” I really like that flirting and sexuality, and being so sure of herself.
“Vuelves Triste” Featuring Karina from Gladys
It’s a dream for me to be doing a song with [Venezuelan singer] Karina. I’ve heard my sister cry with Karina’s songs, suffering from heartbreak. It was part of every family birthday, of every holiday. Karina is deeply embedded in my heart. One of my dogs is called La Princesita because of Karina. I didn’t even want to bother her — it was like seeing an idol. I love the song because it’s what culminates the story of Gladys, and what it shows you: that even though her partner hurt her a lot, he abandoned her, they have a son. She was very hurt, very resentful, very heartbroken, and it culminates with coming back to herself. “I choose myself, I choose to continue being without you, I’m better like this, and even if you come back, and even if you beg, it’s already over.” So I like that a lot, because self-love was something that she lacked a lot.
“Recuerdo Que Nunca Existió” from Maite
It gives you a tremendous plot twist — Maite’s father appears on his deathbed after abandoning her as a girl. She always lived with a lot of guilt, wondering why, and suddenly, the father calls her, telling her that he is about to die and that he regrets everything. He asks for forgiveness, telling her that he wants to meet her, and then he waves goodbye. She tells him, ‘You have my forgiveness.’ Being able to forgive, to let another person go with peace, is such a strong feeling. It is a concept that was born a lot from pain. I don’t know how to explain it, but in me it generated a lot of creativity — creative images, beautiful things, ugly things — everything to take me forward a bit.
“Mi Amor” with Rei from María
It’s what I close the album with. What moves me the most is that, well, you saw everything that happened to us — the health issues I faced, the losses. Suddenly, we spent two years trying to start a family. We went through really awful, very hard, very complicated situations where I was on the verge of death — very serious moments that required long, slow, painful recoveries, not just physically, but mentally and spiritually. Having [my partner] was something that saved me in so many ways: how he took care of me, how he stayed by my side, how he’s never pressured me about anything. He’s always so respectful, so supportive. And I felt like we needed to bring closure to everything that María represents, because the concept of María is really the relationship I have with him, from beginning to end. All the songs tell the story of how, from the moment we met, I kept falling more in love. So this last song is about a relationship that’s already very deep and years in. It lets us share our pain a bit and build catharsis through a song, which is our language at the end of the day.
