Renata Flores is a Peruvian powerhouse reshaping what Latin music can sound and feel like.
A warm April night at the Jazz cafe in Camden became the stage for a performance that refused to sit quietly within any familiar definition of Latin music. As part of La Linea, London’s annual Latin music festival returning this year with a proudly 90% female line up, night four belonged to Renata Flores. The young Peruvian artist from Aycucho, brought a voice, presence and message that transformed the room into something far larger that its four walls.
The evening opened with UK-based artist Fedzilla, whose mix of hip hop, global bass and Latin influences set the tone for the night. It was a warm-up in name only. By the end of her set, the room was fully alive.
So when Renata Flores stepped into the spotlight, the transition felt seamless. From the first few seconds, it was clear she had no interest in conforming to the genre’s commercial expectations. Instead, she offered a sound that was both deeply rooted and forward-thinking. Singing in Quecha, one of the oldest Indigenous languages of the Andes, Flores brought ancestral tradition into a contemporary, global soundscape. For those unfamiliar with Quecha, as I am, the experience of the show was less about understanding every word and more about feeling the weight of history carried in her voice.
“Me siento como en familia,” she told the crowd. It was her first time in London, yet the room felt like home; the audience embraced her as such. Between songs, she spoke candidly about her community, her grandmother, and the realities faced by Indigenous people in Peru. These interludes were not digressions but essential context: her music operates as activist storytelling, shifting from moments of contemplative soaring melodies, to bursts of sharp, percussive electronic power.
Musically, the night was a fusion of worlds. Flores’ electronic hip hop foundation intertwined with acoustic guitar, flute and even a fiddle. When dancers in traditional dress joined her on stage, the performance gained a
visual rhythm that matched the music’s cultural depth. The audience responded in kind, a celebration,
The final stretch of the night saw Flores bring out a full band, shifting the Jazz Cafe into something close to a small-scale carnival. The room lifted with it and the audience became part of the spectacle.
For all its energy and joy, the night was not designed for passive consumption. “Relaxing” scarcely applies; nor is this music designed to meet every listener halfway. From the outset, it surged with intensity, at times teetering on the edge of chaos. Flores’ music certainly demands engagement and curiosity. But for those prepared to meet her on those terms, the reward was a captivating performance that expanded the vocabulary of Latin music and reaffirmed its capacity for both political weight and communal joy.
Leaving the venue, the conversations spilling out onto the street said as much as the music itself. People weren’t just buzzing, they were reflecting, trying to articulate what they’d just witnessed. It was that kind of night.
London’s Latin music festival La Linea runs 20th April to 6th May at various venues across London.
