Denisse Romano, the Argentine singer who started on the streets, went topless so that rock wouldn’t die and ended up in a Coldplay movie

“The street was not a waste of time, on the contrary, it gave me a place as an artist; I prefer my past to have emerged from the street, where I still sometimes sing. I feel like it has magic,” says the singer and songwriter Denise Romano during the interview with Clarín

Denisse Romano developed a true career as a street artist. “It was ten years and I lived on it. My career started when I stepped on the first tileon the street, and just three months ago I released my first album,” he added.

However, not everything was street, from those corners he jumped to open for No Te Va Gustar, at Movistar; Eruca Sativa, at the West Auditorium; to Manuel Carrascoin the Gran Rex and sang with Cyrus and the Persiansat the Opera.

Denisse Romano will present her first album, Cement Madnesson Saturday, April 11, in Humboldt.

-How did you decide to go sing in the street?

-I was very depressed, I felt in a depressive pit, everything was very dark; I was studying clothing design and I felt a lot of pressure from my family to pursue a career of that type. Everyone knew that what interested me was music; At the age of 17 I won a singing contest that was to put together a band, with a jury in which they were Fabiana Cantilo and Emmanuel Horvilleuramong others. There were five of us winners, we signed a contract with a label, but there was an internal dispute between the label and the production of the contest and it came to nothing. I felt that I had started to do something with music and that studying was going against my own path.

“I have to get out of this thing,” I told myself, and at 22 years old I went singing in the street and confirmed that I was not wrong. I stood on a corner and people began to gather. Immediately Bebe Contepomi saw me and they started making notes. It was kind of like a trap, also because I spent too much time playing on the street, but I earned well and that kept me going. I lived off of it, but it also got me out of the system. I didn’t have any backup.

-How did you work, with schedules, did you go when you wanted?

-It depended on the day. One nice day, I played from 2 to 4 p.m., I stopped and had a coffee and then from 6 to 8 p.m. Two sets of an hour and a half, more or less.

-From the street you were also able to perform as an opening act for some artists.

-The first time was at the Gran Rex, with the Spanish singer Manuel Carrasco. He uploaded a lot of material to the networks about what he did on the street, he liked it and called me, this was in February 2020 and then the quarantine arrived. When it happened I signed up for a songwriter contest with 4,000 other bands and I won with fly awake and where are the nights. On the jury were Leo Garcia and Nito Mestreif I remember correctly. A month later Ciro called me from Los Persas, and I played with him at the Opera. I didn’t act as an opening act but we did together dog love and he let me sing alone fly awake; then I returned to the street. It was 2022.

I also played with The Tipitosin Mar del Plata, and I also opened for Eruca Sativaat the Auditorio Oeste, and then I had the chance to open two concerts at Movistar for No Te Va Gustar, alone with the guitar. Good songbook.

I was surprised that they didn’t call me from a label. I won a composer contest, I sang at the Opera with Ciro and nothing. Well, I didn’t take material to a label either; I always felt on the outskirts of the recording circuit. I was very alone and when playing on the street I didn’t hang out with musicians.

-What is your feeling about going from a corner to a stadium?

-There are differences, but the adrenaline of playing in a corner is the same or worse than playing in a stadium. Standing there and receiving the rawness of people, but also praise; Everything comes to you, like “Who are you? Don’t bother!”. Anyway, I had a good time. “Penduleé” always. I think my career started when I stepped on the first tile, on the street.

-You held a protest in the street topless against the recording industry. What was the origin of this protest?

-Yes, I didn’t initially think about doing it topless but my partner at the time, who is an actor, suggested it to me to draw attention. I made a scotch tape bikini and a huge mess ensued. It was a time when I was afraid that rock and musicians would be left aside; Nobody came out to say anything.

-Why did you believe that?

-For him autotune (a musical tool that corrects the tuning of voices and instruments) and all that; I remember that it was the time when the urban hit very hard and it’s like AI, we don’t know how that ends. Now it’s something else, autotune It is a tool and luckily today it is something positive.

At one point you went to Madrid

I went to Madrid, in 2023, for seven months to raise money to record the album. It is forbidden to play on the street, so I would play at 1 in the morning or I would show up and start playing until they took me out. In the middle, Gabriel Sarlo called me, who today is the CEO of Riña (an artist production company), and told me that he had heard me and that he would leave the studio for me to record whatever I wanted. A study that sounds very good. There I recorded I left my body (which went viral on networks) and Disguising the obviousso I brought them and put them on my disk.

-And what happened that you came back?

-He couldn’t find me; I didn’t see rock; I couldn’t find the expression I wanted; I was going very urban electronic. I was doing well, I raised 10,000 euros, I went to the bank every so often to exchange coins for bills and I came back with that money with which I could rent and I locked myself in to record the album without having to go out and sing on the street. I traveled to Madrid because they called me for an audition The Voicebut I don’t want to be in those contests; I don’t want to go out to those types of places, I compose my music; They recently called me about a contest here on Channel 13 and I rejected it.

-The seals didn’t look for you, but why didn’t you go knock on someone’s door? Did you feel insecure?

-Fear, fear of being boxed; I heard a lot of stories like this. Artists who sign and nothing happens and you end up held hostage. I don’t want to be anyone’s hostage. I was afraid. Although yes, maybe I should have taken my demos to a label, but I didn’t. My album is independent, because I also don’t want to leave the artistic aspect in anyone’s hands. Anyway, I think it’s all set up to go on a label. I already have the material for my second album.

Denisse Romano grew up listening to The Beatles and Spinetta thanks to her father. She began playing the guitar at the age of eight and composing at the age of 14. “I was already making my recordings at that age. Although I did jazz dance for quite a while, music is my thing, I always knew it,” said the singer who admits that her seed is the song, although a “male” part of her brain leans toward rock, while the “female” part leans towards pop.

-How did you choose the songs for Cement Madness?

–My music is a portrait of what happened during the ten years of playing on the street, personally, artistically, emotionally, and it speaks of the mental state that it generated in me.. There are ballads, there is a rock song, a rap and I even decided to play a drill, which is mega urban (a subgenre of hip hop). The album talks about what I saw on the street.

I saw humanity from a different place. I have a special attachment to surgeons, drunks, street kids. I had a lot of connection with them. Busking woke me up. In Florida and Perón I looked at the people and saw that they function as if they were asleep; They come and go in a hurry, with a coffee in their hand and the whole time it felt like they were asleep, running on automatic.

The album brings together songs from different times. At one point, I had a fight with rock. Very structured and closed and that’s why I incorporated several things that are not pure rock. The album is a mix of songs that are not rock in the strict sense. I started rapping and writing not so easily. I felt a lot of indifference on the part of rock, they didn’t give me any attention, except for Ciro, Manuel Carrasco, No te Va a Gustar and Coldplay.

-I wanted to support Coldplay and I had nothing behind me, no manager, no label. I felt like I had to be there (I sang Coldplay on the street for a long time). So I went to sing in Puerto Madero and on the fifth day that the band was here the tour manager saw me (or something like that), filmed me and I told her that I wanted to be in River; He takes my data and after a while Chris Martin appears when I was just singing Fix You and stays listening. They invited me to River, two tickets in the VIP, but what ended up happening is that In the Coldplay movie, which closes with the song Fix You, I appear singing the coda on the street, which the production company had filmed.

After playing in Humboldt (Humboldt 1358, CABA), Denisse Romano’s plans are to participate in a festival and continue working on the dissemination of her first album. Restless, in any case, she does not relax and on her own, she sent a message on Instagram to the producer of the British singer Raye, whom she admires, and there was a quick response asking for some demos of her music.

-Ten years singing in the street, what is your balance?

-The street was not a waste of time, on the contrary, it gave me a place and I prefer that my past be having emerged from the street, where I still sometimes sing. I feel like it has magic.