Graphic by Ella Sylvie
Have you ever found out about someone and immediately knew that they were the kind of person who was destined for something special? People like this are bright buds of potential, and with the right timing, audience or moment, you know that they’re going to go off and impact the world. Singer-songwriter Alma Grace is that kind of person. With a sound inspired by her theatre background, a vibrant cultural heritage and the legacy of spinning social justice into songs, I was absolutely delighted to have the chance to interview her on her inspirations, and the meanings behind the songs off of her newest EP, “Frida.”
While the start of Alma Grace’s music career may have started on the stage (her favorite past role having been Audrey from “Little Shop of Horrors”), it really bloomed with a moment of confidence at age 16. A professor at the Clive Davis Institute was discussing songwriting with a friend while they rode the subway when Grace decided to approach her and ask for advice on how she could be a songwriter. That professor later became her mentor, laying the path to where she finds herself today. While she believed this moment of gutsiness to be out of the ordinary, this punchy and plucky confidence truly shows in her songs, like the powerful energy from her single, “Fine Lines.”
One of Grace’s biggest icons of inspiration comes from the artist Lauryn Hill. Hill’s poignant lyricism at such a young age and her skillful ability to turn pain into art inspired Grace to do the same. In Grace’s life, the inspiration comes from her activism. Coming from a family of Mexican immigrants, with some of mixed status, she was heavily involved in the protesting of deportation policies of U.S. presidents from Donald Trump to President Biden. She organized and was primarily active in central Harlem, and later as she got older, worked directly with policy with internships in the Senate and contributing to immigration reform. Shaped by both a religious household which ingrained the idea to make the world a better place and a love for the arts, Grace intersected the two and put her heart into the songs that she produced. Recognizing that music, and art as a whole, are incredibly valuable and can sometimes be just as valuable as the work that she did on the streets. Her single, “Adios Maria” stands as an example of this activist inspiration, as the song “acts as an homage not only to her Mexican immigrant family, but to the single mothers who raised [Grace],” and many like her too.
The title of Grace’s newest EP, “Frida,” is one that carries a deeper meaning than one may understand upon first glance. To many, Frida Kahlo is a Mexican painter, most notably known by her portraits which depict her infamous unibrow, but to Grace, she means so much more. She explained that as a child, her grandmother would bring her memoboralia of Kahlo, and from there she started a collection. Gradually, as she aged, she discovered a newfound appreciation for Kahlo, not simply as an icon of Mexican culture, but as an inspirational and radical figure. Grace looked up to her as a socialist feminst inspiration, and was able to find a love for her own bushy eyebrows, despite criticism from casting directors, through Kahlo’s own. By titling her EP “Frida,” Grace is dedicating the album to the guidance of the artist and to her own experiences with grounding herself in her identity and culture. She is also citing the similarities that exist between her and Kahlo, and how the late artist served as an inspirational figure who helped her feel understood throughout her life.
One of my favorite tracks from the new EP takes the same sentiment of acting as an homage to Kahlo along with a representation of Grace’s own life and wonderfully mixes the two. For all who may be searching, “Girl Fight” may be your next bisexual anthem. The first song that was written for the EP, the track was created after Grace had been ghosted by a guy, only to later meet the girl she was ghosted for. This interaction led her to the recognition that not only was this girl hot, but she was funny and charming, while the man initially linking the two together “really was nothing special.” Paired with the remembering of one of Grace’s favorite “Frida stories” where Kahlo would have affairs with the same women that Diego Rivera would cheat on her with, leads to the kind of song that you would want to play at a sleepover. A smooth but present track which mixes sensuality with some mild humor through the charmingly catchy lyrics.
Grace wants listeners of “Frida” to come away with “a sense of empowerment.” Through her lyrics and nearly hypnotizing voice, Grace implores her listeners to connect to her own mantra, stating that now, “I am beautiful and heard, and able to get through the worst parts of my life.” It is this sentiment that Grace believes is one of the most valuable and powerful aspects to music and art, and is ultimately what she seeks to create with her work: a moment of being seen.
If you have the chance, I highly recommend giving “Frida” a listen and checking out more of Alma Grace’s past work. Now that you’ve been given the chance to understand the creator, let her music understand you and potentially find a way into your playlists. I can say that it definitely has for me.