Blog JOLIE
Argentina's LGBTIQ+ artists
Music, the scene, literature, and television: who said it publicly and what it opened up for saying it.
Por Rita Kandela · Cronista de la noche
Argentina has an LGBTIQ+ history in the arts that runs much longer than its visibility: people who said it when saying it cost them their job, and people who say it today without it being news, which is exactly the point everyone was trying to reach.
A note on the criteria: this list only includes artists who are publicly LGBTIQ+, who said so in their own words. There aren't 100 names here because there aren't 100 verifiable names, and filling the quota by assuming things about someone's private life would mean outing a person who never asked for that.
The list
- 1
Sandra Mihanovich — sang "Puerto Pollensa" and "Soy lo que soy" back when none of this was said out loud.
- 2
Celeste Carballo — Mihanovich's partner in life and on two albums that made history.
- 3
Federico Moura — of Virus, made ambiguity an aesthetic in the thick of the post-dictatorship years. Died of AIDS in 1988.
- 4
Marilina Bertoldi — lesbian, the first woman in 25 years to win the Gardel de Oro.
- 5
Leo García — gay, wrote openly queer songs with Gustavo Cerati backing him.
- 6
Marilina Ross — actress and singer-songwriter, a reference point across generations.
- 7
Miss Bolivia — bisexual, blended cumbia, rap, and feminism.
- 8
Sara Hebe — queer rapper, political lyrics and the dance floor in the same song.
- 9
Chocolate Remix — invented lesbian reggaeton and turned it into a party that tours the world.
- 10
Paula Maffía — lesbian, from La Cosa Mostra to a massive solo body of work.
- 11
Lucy Patané — guitarist and composer, one of the country's finest instrumentalists.
- 12
Kumbia Queers — the tropi-punk band that's been making lesbian cumbia without asking permission since 2007.
- 13
Barbi Recanati — queer, from Utopians to a solo career with a label all her own.
- 14
Susy Shock — trans artist who calls herself "sudaca" (a reclaimed term for Latin Americans) — "I reclaim my right to be a monster."
- 15
Camila Sosa Villada — travesti writer and actress, Bad Girls (Las malas) has been translated around half the world.
- 16
Naty Menstrual — travesti writer and artist, one of the first with her own prose in print.
- 17
Marlene Wayar — social psychologist and travesti writer, a leading theorist of Latin American travesti politics.
- 18
Effy Beth — trans performance artist, an enormous body of work packed into a very short life.
- 19
Batato Barea — literary travesti clown, the heart of the '80s underground scene.
- 20
Alejandro Urdapilleta — actor, Batato's partner on stage at the Parakultural.
- 21
Humberto Tortonese — the third point of that underground triangle, now a mainstream household name.
- 22
Klaudia con K — travesti artist from the Buenos Aires underground.
- 23
Florencia de la V — trans actress, the first to headline shows on broadcast TV.
- 24
Lizy Tagliani — trans host and comedian, one of the most beloved figures on Argentine television.
- 25
Costa — gay, TV host and showman.
- 26
Aníbal Pachano — gay, choreographer and director of BOTY.
- 27
Fernando Dente — gay, musical theater actor and TV host.
- 28
Juan Pablo Di Pace — gay, actor and director with an international career.
- 29
Pablo Ruiz — teen idol of the '80s, came out publicly years later.
- 30
Manuel Puig — Kiss of the Spider Woman, from 1976, is the country's founding queer novel.
- 31
Copi — travesti playwright, cartoonist, and novelist, exiled in Paris.
- 32
Néstor Perlongher — neobarroso poet and founder of the Frente de Liberación Homosexual (Homosexual Liberation Front).
- 33
Osvaldo Bazán — gay writer and journalist, author of Historia de la homosexualidad en la Argentina (History of Homosexuality in Argentina).
- 34
Alejandro Modarelli — gay chronicler, the memory-keeper of the underground scene and Buenos Aires' public bathrooms.
- 35
Liliana Felipe — Argentine-Mexican musician, partner both in life and on stage with Jesusa Rodríguez.
- 36
Lorena Carpanchay — the first trans bagualera in Argentine folk music, out of Salta.
- 37
Ferni de Gyldenfeldt — trans singer; her entry into the Cosquín festival led it to drop its gender-divided categories.
- 38
Valen Bonetto — young, dissident folk artist, her album Otrxs says it right there in the title.
- 39
Ibiza Pareo — queer electro-pop duo.
- 40
Santa Beibi — part of the new wave of Argentine LGBTIQ+ pop.
- 41
Juani Cardillo — young queer pop, part of the wave that broke starting in 2022.
- 42
Marté — another of the new voices in local dissident pop.
- 43
Matías Alemán — gay singer-songwriter from the emerging pop scene.
- 44
Eros White — queer artist of the new generation.
- 45
Anikké — Argentine LGBTIQ+ pop from the last few years.
- 46
Electrochongo — queer project from the local electronic scene.
Which Argentine artists are openly LGBTIQ+?
Among many: Marilina Bertoldi, Sandra Mihanovich, Celeste Carballo, Leo García, Miss Bolivia, Sara Hebe, Chocolate Remix, Camila Sosa Villada, Susy Shock, Florencia de la V, and Lizy Tagliani.
Who was the first Argentine artist to come out of the closet?
There's no single first. Federico Moura lived his homosexuality publicly in the '80s, and Sandra Mihanovich and Celeste Carballo were partners and an artistic duo, in plain view, in that same decade.
Are there recognized Argentine trans artists?
Yes: Camila Sosa Villada, Susy Shock, Naty Menstrual, Marlene Wayar, Florencia de la V, Lizy Tagliani, and Lorena Carpanchay, the first trans bagualera in folk music.
Why doesn't this list reach 100 names?
Because it only includes artists who are publicly LGBTIQ+, who said so in their own words. Filling out the quota by assuming things about someone's private life would mean outing them, and that's not something we do.
Where can I hear Argentine queer music live?
At community parties: JOLIE on Wednesdays at Aráoz 2424, Palermo, and FEL!ZA at Av. Córdoba 3271, programming Wednesday through Sunday. FEMME, the lesbian party, happens at FEL!ZA.
Cómo llegar
FEL!ZA
Av. Córdoba 3271, CABA
De miércoles a domingo, desde las 20. Sede de FEMME.
Ver en Google Maps →Rita Kandela — Sale los miércoles y vuelve a las seis. Escribe sobre la noche porteña desde adentro: la fila, la barra, el after y el taxi de vuelta.