To paraphrase trans icon Sasha Colby: Sevdaliza is your favorite Latina’s favorite non-Latina. After a string of ultra-viral perreo slow-burners alongside Villano Antillano, Tokischa, and Pabllo Vittar, the Iranian-Dutch singer’s transatlantic crossover was seemingly sealed with a late-2024 duet with Colombian superstar Karol G on the track “No Me Cansare.” However, following the May announcement of the alt-R&B diva’s third full-length album, Heroina, fans began to notice a suspicious recurrence of reggaeton and transhumanist visuals across her work. The whispers of “It’s giving Arca” became thunderous when, on May 13, the trailblazing Venezuelan singer and producer posted screenshots from the “Heroina” music video, where Sevdaliza appears in a mechanical exoskeleton evocative of Arca’s KiCk i album cover.
The since-deleted Instagram post, originally captioned “tired,” also included DM screenshots dating back to 2016, when Sevdaliza first reached out to Arca with an invitation to collaborate, indicating the mutant queen had long been a source of inspiration. Arca then took to a Discord stream to vent further, saying, “If someone does a look fabulously and you live for it, don’t just do it again. You try something different to gag them back.” She also revealed Sevdaliza commissioned a sculpture from the Spanish artist Carlos Sáez, a longtime collaborator of the “Rakata” singer, adding, “I didn’t invent anything, ok. But like, c’mon now.”
Fast forward to July 1, and tempers flared again. In another deleted Instagram post, Arca shared screenshots of a DM conversation with Sevdaliza following their May fall-out. “Since you can’t work with me, you’re just gonna go after all my collaborators?” she wrote in the heated exchange, calling out a rumored new song with Venezuelan producer Safety Trance. “You say protect the dolls but gaslight and victimize yourself for having ripped off a doll. Calling me mother and then not knowing the kick 1 cover, exactly, it’s fake praise and fake empowerment and then the corny ripoffs.”
So, is this just salacious chisme? Maybe, but coming off a contentious Pride month filled with cowardly corporations and increasingly antagonistic governments, it’s especially poignant to draw distinctions between aesthetic co-optation and the elevation of LGBTQ+ artists. I’m talking about how viral sensation Jools Lebron’s much-quoted “very demure” tagline incurred trademark disputes and branded exploitation, or how Young Miko features on tracks with TINI and Karol G were used for queerbating showbiz theatrics.
Ojo, this is not an accusation directly leveled at Sevdaliza. The immense success of “Ride or Die Pt. 2” with Villano Antillano and Tokischa made the song’s carnivalesque melody an inescapable social media soundbite. Likewise, with the devotional hook to the “Alibi” Remix, performed with Pabllo Vittar, Yseult, and Anitta, everyone seemed to happily ride their body-rolling TikTok dances to the bank.
But this year, in the run-up to her album, Heroina, Sevdaliza has already released three singles solidifying her trendy pivot from R&B and avant-club into full-blown Latin American rhythmic territory. On “Maria Magdalena” with trans Brazilian duo Irmãs de Pau, she twists the famously infectious Tetris melody into booming baile funk, while the incandescent perreo of the title track bridges Persia and Argentina with a sensual guest spot from La Joaqui.
This deliberate pandering marketing to Latin American audiences would be correctly labeled as “culture vulture” behavior if not for the clear similarities between “Heroina” and Arca’s KiCk i, as well as the clinical grotesqueries of her “Cayó” music video. Sevdaliza’s increasing use of Spanish language lyrics and noisy deconstructed reggaeton is directly indebted to Arca’s work, and her copycat tendencies were even allegedly noted by fellow alternative superstar, FKA twigs.
As for Arca’s screenshot defense strategy, yeah, it’s messy, but the intent to protect an avenue she so clearly paved is tantamount for her own legacy as well as that of trans peers who so often go erased. There are no clean hands in online creative disputes, and, hopefully, this one is soon resolved. But for now, all we can do is quote another messy club diva and say, “The girls are fighting.”
