If you’ve ever encountered a femme fatale, you may imagine a woman sharp at the edges; enigmatic, untouchable and carved from smoke and danger. What you may not expect is a songstress who radiates the natural glow of an angel and whose warmth disarms you long before her voice ever does. That beautiful contradiction is exactly where Mon Laferte lives.
As we rushed across Las Vegas in the chaos of Latin Grammy week, from packed hallways to elevators buzzing with industry chatter, we didn’t expect to be greeted by someone who felt like a true musical reverent of our time. She was luminous, grounded, and warm.
Mon Laferte calls herself, with a cheeky laugh, “una mujer peligrosa”. She is a dangerous woman, not because she seeks chaos, but because she embodies something far more threatening to the old order: a woman who is free. “Una femme fatale es una mujer peligrosa… porque es muy libre, es muy segura, es libre de su sexualidad.”, she told us, the day before her cinematic appearance at the Latin Grammys.
Freedom, for Mon, is both a declaration and a lifeline.
And her newest work, Femme Fatale, is the vessel where that liberated self takes flight.
A Jazz-Drenched Seduction
Mon’s incredible artistic range has long been undeniable, but on Femme Fatale she ventures even deeper: into the smoke-filled lineage of jazz. Here, she captures the essence of the iconic women who shaped it. “I was listening to so much jazz… Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, especially the women,” she says. “Everything I lived and breathed at the time was that, so when I started writing my own songs, it was inevitable.”
The result is a record steeped in an elegant darkness: alternative pop wrapped in velvet, jazzy chords that move like candlelight, and a dramatic flair she embraces fully. “Me siento libre y me siento dramática,” she smiles. “That’s why I’m a Femme Fatale.”
But even as she shifts genres from electronic, regional mexicano and into jazz, she insists there’s a through-line that never wavers: “Creo que sí, sigo estando presente… mi idea es que siempre tenga mi esencia.”
It’s that essence—Mon’s raw, emotional, unpretentious nature—that turns this album into something inevitable and irresistible.
A Multifaceted Creator
What surprised us most was how her eyes lit up not when speaking about awards or accolades, but when sharing her love for the lyrics. “Escribir las letras fue lo que más me gocé,” she confesses. In this season of grounding, Mon sat alone with her laptop and let her love language pour out.
As her eyes sparkled, she went on to share how deeply she values when her fans see the other sides of her artistry. Often fans will approach her not to praise her voice, but to praise her visual art. “No sé si me emociona más… es como algo más nuevo que la gente está conociendo de mí,” she says, with reverence.
It’s no surprise. Mon’s was a house where art roamed untamed and lyrics spilled over breakfast, melodies sneaked through doorways and paintings came to life on living room floors. There was never a line dividing one craft from another. She doesn’t fit a single title. Mon is a creator made of many worlds.
The Sacred Power of Female Collaboration
When speaking about her collaboration with Natalia Lafourcade and Silvana Estrada on “My One and Only Love,” her face softened. “Es la energía femenina hermosa,” she says. Natalia, pregnant at the time, transformed the studio into a sanctuary. They talked about life, motherhood, bodies, and intuition. And we can feel that connection through these songs—that reverent, grounded sisterhood—all engrained throughout this album.
Mon has crafted many albums, but this one changed her. “Cada disco es aprendizaje… pero cada vez me exijo más. Pongo más atención al detalle,” she admits. She’ll swap a single word if it means the message lands deeper. Because what she wants for us, her listeners, is simple and enormous at the same time: “Quiero que lo sientan todo… que hagan catarsis.”
Music that makes us feel deeply is Mon’s mission.
An Unforgettable Moment Above Las Vegas
As we began to wrap our interview, we asked, half expecting her to decline, if she’d gift us a few seconds of her favorite track from the album.
She nodded, took a sip of water, and then began an unforgettable serenade.
“La femme fatale dice un titular con bastante liviandad, como si me conocieran, si soy negro en primavera … welcome, el show debe continuar”
A cappella. Bare. Unprotected and unexpected.
It was Femme Fatale, as only she can deliver it.
In an instant, her angelic voice silenced more than thirty people in the room. The chatter evaporated. The air became still. We could hear a pin drop.
And in that tiny, suspended moment in a Las Vegas suite, Mon Laferte did exactly what she set out to do:
She made us feel everything.
All Photos by Val Chaparro.
