Chilean pop star Francisca Valenzuela is showing off her stylistic range while she’s been rolling out singles ahead of the January 17th release of her first album in five years, La Fortaleza.
Her latest, “Flotando” is an airy, soulful ballad, a crooning number about the embrace of her lover, the only one who could sweep her off her feet. The accompanying video is Valenzuela going back and forth between dreaming up the full glamour of a pop star and passionately singing in front of a piano, in an empty theater with an imagined lover.
“Flotando,” is a softer, dreamier song than Valenzuela’s most recent release, “Héroe,” from last fall, which featured a reggaeton baseline and was anything but soft. “Héroe,” is a song about empowerment and inner strength. Where “Flotando” is a dreamscape, “Héroe” is a high powered fantasy. “I wanted it to be strong and fragile; feminine, bold and fierce; defiant and empowering,” Valenzuela told Remezcla in October.
Valenzuela was depicted as revolutionary, Botecceli’s Venus, a Kill Bill style assassin, a leather corseted dance leader. The colorful, high impact visuals of “Flotando” and “Héroe” are the standard operating procedure for Valenzuela, who always delivers stunning videos to accompany her music. She is credited as co-director and editor of “Flotando,” alongside fellow Chilean artist Sebastián Soto Chacón.
“Making music and videos is a collaborative process,” She wrote on Instagram. “Thank you very much to the Floating team – video, single, song – for bringing your talent, professionalism and good vibes to this project and helping me realize a vision.”
With the range of styles between “Flotando” and “Héroe,” there couldn’t be more anticipation for Valenzuela’s fourth album, due out on Friday.
Check out Flotando here: