Latin Female Artists Talk About Their Unapologetic Lyrics

"Fumamo marihuana sin pijama, sin pijama," sing Latin sensations Becky G and Natti Natasha in their hit 'Sin Pijama.' These two singers are only two of the eight women discussing women in Latin music at the 2019 Women in the Lead panel. Latin Week is held in Las Vegas, Nevada right before the Latin Billboard Awards in which several leading Latin artists, producers and music execs are interviewed mostly by Leila Cobo. Cobo, an impressive leading lady herself who serves as Billboard's Executive Editor for Latin Content and Programming, asked artists Anitta, Becky G, Karol G, Lali Esposito, and Natti Natasha about their song lyrics.

These ladies are on top of the Latin Trap game which originated in Puerto Rico as Reggaeton. Reggaeton however has always been a male dominated genre with explicit lyrics and the irresistible sounds of Dembo. For a long time there was only one woman who broke all barriers and started rapping with the boys in Puerto Rico, La Diva Ivy Queen. Ivy's unapologetic lyrics opened doors for artists like Anitta who states, "I say whatever the hell I want in my songs." The Brazilian superstar who sings in Portuguese, Spanish and English is joined by Dominican artist Natti Natasha who says she's going to talk about things that are real to her in her lyrics too.

"Not only guys want to have sex, we want to have sex and we're living the same things that they're living" says Natti when asked about "racy" lyrics. Karol G also chimes in to say that at first she was afraid to tell her personal experiences in her songs but when she finally did, she felt "liberated. " She states that as women, we are unfaithful and we have desires just like men, therefore "no vamos a hablar de cosas porque funcionan si no porque es nuestra realidad (we are not going to write about things because they work but because they're our reality)." Argentinian singer and actress Lali Esposito talks about the beauty of waking up and knowing that the song that came to mind with that feature will be it, no matter if executives will fight you on it.

Becky G even admits that people questioned her on her decision to add Natti Natasha as a feature on 'Sin Pijama' as they claimed the song was a hit she should've kept for herself. But just like the boys in the Latin sphere or "genero", collaborating with one another is what proves unity and makes a hit a legendary song for the times to come.

How do you feel about female songs being more edgy these days? That's an easy one for us as more and more women are expressing themselves just like the boys and not apologizing for it, Eoowwwwwwww ;)

The 2019 Latin Billboards are tonight on NBC.