La Perra Blanco, musician: “They wanted to change my name because it doesn’t sound international”

When on stage, The White Bitch She is a torrent of energy. She sings and shakes her body just as the music she plays, rock & roll, demands, and frantically moves the giant electric guitar that she learned to play despite her mother’s opposition. Her vitality is contagious and her honesty seduces. Alba Blanco, the woman who founded the rock group that more and more people are talking about, expresses herself frankly and with the same force as her songs. “If Little Richard, who was black and gay, could play rock & roll, why couldn’t I?” Her role models speak volumes about her spirit: “Bessie Smith came from poverty, she was mistreated for being black and for being a woman. And she would drink a bottle of gin and go on stage to curse the world.”

Alba, who was born in La Línea de la Concepción (Cádiz), is 28 years old and before getting fully into music she worked as a cashier in a currency exchange office. She wanted to be a firefighter, but what she did get to do was participate in caving expeditions. She likes to cook and loves to play sports. When she set up the group, in 2017, she never imagined that she would perform throughout Spain and in several countries in Europe. She may also have participated in the most important rock & roll festival in the world, Viva Las Vegas, held annually in that city. In fact, the offer she received included the possibility of touring the United States. But… “They told me: ‘You are a woman and you have to know how to take advantage of your body.’ What they wanted was for me to wear a dress, heels and put on lipstick. They wanted to change my name because it doesn’t sound international, and they’re right about that, I’ve never heard an English person pronounce it well. That seemed so degrading to me that they must have seen it in my face because the meeting ended five minutes later. We never heard from those people again.”

In January, La Perra Blanco released her second album, Get It Out, and is currently presenting it in Spain and Europe. The increase in her concert schedule is one of the reasons that led her to settle in Valencia. “We started playing a lot and in La Línea there is no airport nor does the train arrive. And I don’t drive. She was crazy, taking the Blablacar loaded with amps and guitar. The musicians in my band were in Valencia and since my partner is from Ibiza and we wanted to live together, being here seemed the most practical.” Her success has been like a snowball that silently descends down a hillside without stopping growing. During this decline, which is actually the opposite, Alba has broken some taboos related to the musical genre she practices. “In the most purist environments of rockabilly, showing up to play wearing dreadlocks like mine is almost as if you were insulting the audience. The first time we performed in England I was terrified by this. Then we went on stage and people loved what we do,” she says. Her independence is her driving force. She has never been featured on the radio, she is not the kind of character they invite to television sets. He has earned prestige by acting over and over again, by putting people in his pocket.

Their concerts are usually attended by middle-aged women, teenagers, and girls. “I love motivating women. Many come up to me to thank me because they don’t know of any female references in this music. It’s not that I see myself as such, but I love knowing that I have that effect.” He sings in English, but his message reaches beyond the language he uses. “I am not able to write in Spanish because I only listen to music in English, I don’t get ideas in my language. My manager insists that I compose something in Spanish, but it doesn’t work out. In the end, what counts is the energy you transmit. I don’t think anyone pays attention to my lyrics when I’m singing them. If I sang in Spanish, people could sing with me. “Well, let them not sing, let them drink and dance.”