Ileana “iLe” Joglar’s coming of age takes place on the stage. By 16, she was dancing and rapping as PG-13 with her older brothers René Pérez Joglar and Eduardo Cabra Joglar of renowned hip-hop group Calle 13. This would be her claim to fame for 10 years, before parting ways and making that big leap into solodom. Her debut independent album iLevitable won a Grammy Award for Best Latin Rock, Urban or Alternative Album.
Gearing up for her world tour, with the most extensive dates yet in the U.S., iLe is anything but intimidated. “I love the touring experience because I love getting to better know the album through live presentations. Every time we play, we discover something new from each song. That’s something that I love, it wasn’t what I was expecting when we first starting touring.”
Ahead of her opening in Amsterdam, the 20-somethings folkloric singer brings us a brand new audiovisual titled “Que Mal Que Estoy,” with lyrics as painfully sweet as its accompanying video.
“It’s a song Argentine composer Juan Botta Righi wrote around 2007, and I loved it since hearing his raw version. The years went by and it was one of the songs on the album that stuck with me throughout all those years,” she says. “The version in the video is the original version, but a little more elevated and in an acoustic way. It’s pretty simple in instrumentation, but it’s very special.”
On relating to the record’s theme, she adds: “I connect to the song in few different ways, because I also have the emotion of friendship at the time the song was born. It’s mostly sadness, but the song ends in a hopeful way.”
The video itself (above) is set against an open field in Guayama, Puerto Rico, and is complimented by nature alone.
“The concept of the video for ‘Que Mal Que Estoy’ is directly related to the original idea from the song composer Juan Botta. The song has a simple guitar part, sad vocals and a sax solo,” explains director Alejandro Pedrosa. “We made that happen visually using a tight but cozy space where natural errors collide with subtle human expressions. Heartbreak is something that comes hard, at once; so we decided to create a one shot camera treatment focused on the actions of an unexpected wider universe which is open to interpretation, as love is: personal.”
Catch iLe in a city near you, see tour dates below. Tickets available here.
Jul 05 Amsterdam, Netherlands
Jul 08 Bologna, Italy
Jul 11 Barcelona, Spain
Jul 14 Madrid, Spain
Jul 19 Cartagena, Spain
Jul 21 Huesca, Spain
Sep 30 Santurce, PR
Oct 28 New York, NY
Oct 30 Falls Church, VA
Nov 02 Miami, FL
Nov 04 Orlando, FL
Nov 06 Dallas, TX
Nov 07 Houston, TX
Nov 08 San Antonio, TX
Nov 09 San Antonio, TX
Nov 11 Tucson, AZ
Nov 14 Anaheim, CA
Nov 15 San Diego, CA
Nov 16 Santa Cruz, CA
Nov 18 Northridge, CA
Nov 19 San Francisco, CA