Q&A with Rizha
Rizha is the fearless, Euphoria-generation pop singer and artist, jumping in head-first on her songs that range from feminism to relationships to sexuality and mental health. The Argentine, Madrid-based Tamara Ronchese, is currently straddling the world of entertainment as both singer Rizha and as an actor under her birth name. She would be perfect as a bold foreign exchange student for Season 2 of the HBO series Euphoria... Zendaya, are you listening? The 21-year-old queer singer, songwriter, producer, and composer has been playing guitar since age six and writing songs since she was eight. With an alternative and electro-pop flair, Rizha sings effortlessly in both Spanish and English. She completed her debut album "Finally" at sixteen, releasing it in 2017. She's been on a hot streak ever since with recent hits like "Fever Dream" featuring DEVA, "Live The Weekend" featuring GIRLI, "Fly Con Vos," "20", "Cute Bitch", "Se Te Ve Venir," "Oxytocin," "By Your Side," and "Happy Bummer Day".
On the acting front, Tamara is a star of the wildly popular Spanish teen drama Skam España (a Moviestar adaptation of the Norwegian series Skam). She plays the LGBTQ character, Joana. Rizha can be found with a different hairstyle or hair color on just about every project, from purple to blue to pink, and she's got fans all over the world, with many in Russia and Spanish-speaking countries. In many ways, Rizha is very much the anti-pop star, not conforming to any style, a form of attire, or sound, and her punk rock-like attitude and risque lyrics completely reflect this. Rizha speaks her mind in every way- in the way she speaks, expresses herself visually, and in how she writes her songs. She's got a lot of depth too, super into philosophy and science, obsessed with space, and not taking herself too seriously along the way. A new single is on the horizon, a down-tempo track with nostalgic arcade-infused effects in the vein of Lorde, Billie Eilish, and Hayley Williams, but we'll have to wait a little for that release. Until then, Rizha spoke with IndieWavves about her family's creative influence on her, what her ideal music festival would look like and why she recognizes that we are all part of a way larger world than we even realize.
IndieWavves: Your father is filmmaker Fernando Ronchese who has directed some of your music videos, and your mother Malvina modeled at eighteen. Did your parents' creative interests rub off on you at a young age?
Rizha: I think so. On my mom's side, my grandma is an artist, she paints and does sculpture and stuff, and my other grandma on my dad's side played the piano. As a kid, I would star in short films I made with my dad; those were so much fun. I draw a lot because of my mom and her mom. I even had a huge interest in writing short stories as a kid and preteen, but I remember being particularly interested in my grandma's piano. I would play it all the time and write songs on there until I got my first guitar. So I would say my family being artistic made it easier for me to get in touch with many different arts, and my grandma on my dad's side made me fall in love with music. I would always ask her to play "Blue Moon," and she would make the BPM faster and play with such joy that I'd be hypnotized.
IW: You apparently love music festivals. If there was a music festival happening now in Madrid, London, or New York, who would you be running to see perform live and why?
R: I've already seen a bunch of artists I love like Die Antwoord, King Princess, The Prodigy, Lana Del Rey, so I'm gonna answer based on my Spotify right now. I would make a festival and make them all play at different times so I could see them all. 100 gecs, Dorian Electra, Charli XCX, p4rker, blackwinterwells, S3RL, XIX, Fraxiom, Alice Gas, Death Grips, That Kid, GFOTY, IC3PEAK, Ghostmane, Cment…and many others I'm forgetting.
IW: You have fans from all over the world, you are bilingual, you have a tattoo in Russian, and many Russian fans. Before the internet, artists had to rely on their songs being played in another country or have to tour globally, but now you can post something - a photo or a song and it can go global. Do you create your music and your art with the world in mind?
R: Not really, but I do like including little gifts or surprises for specific countries in what I do sometimes. That's my way of saying, "Hey, I think it's really fucking cool you support me from all the way over there!"
IW: A lot of young women and members of the LGBTQ+ community look up to you. Your music resonates with them, your style, songs, lyrics, videos, the character you play on TV. What has been the most validating thing for you regarding the responses you get from fans?
R: I'm happy that me singing about "mis movidas" as they say in Spain, helps them go through their "movidas”. I hope being fully OK with who I am now inspires them to give zero fucks and be themselves.
IW: You really like aliens, space, creatures, E.T., lots of characters. You yourself could be considered a character. Why would you say you are so drawn to these creatures, and are there elements of them that are a reflection of you?
R: I've been interested in space from a very young age. The immensity of space, I think, puts humans in their place. Like no, we're not that special, no, we're not entitled to consume and destroy everything, and everything is way bigger and far more interesting than we think it is. I love philosophy because it never stops digging into everything, and I love that. I think people often get too trapped in everyday life because it's easier to focus on that. I know it is far more useful to you in your everyday life to think about what you're gonna eat or how you're gonna make money. Then why are you here having to eat or make money in the first place? Especially if you have people depending on you. But I think we forget that there's a lot more to life than our responsibilities, and that's really sad. I definitely don't think of myself as an alien, but I hope I get to leave earth in my lifetime.
Written by Michael Menachem
Photo courtesy of Nacional Records