After the incident, she wanted reconstructive surgical procedure, and had mind irritation so extreme that when she tried to lookup, all she noticed was black. Even as soon as she was effectively sufficient to go away the hospital, she had hassle strolling various steps. Lafourcade had been a talkative, impetuous baby, however, within the months after the harm, she was laconic and subdued. Docs informed Silva Contreras that her daughter would possibly by no means be the identical. “They mentioned I won’t make it in class, I won’t make it in a profession,” Lafourcade mentioned.
“I informed them ‘No,’ ” Silva Contreras mentioned, taking a look at me intensely over the desk at dinner after the son jarocho present. “ ‘I’m going to convey her again.’ ” Silva Contreras informed me that she knew her daughter had a uncommon musical potential (when Lafourcade was simply 9 months previous, her mom had overhead her harmonizing with the tones of their vacuum cleaner). Now Silva Contreras tried to make use of music to assist Lafourcade regain her growth. “The primary drawback was certainly one of willpower,” Silva Contreras mentioned. “I wanted statement, imitation, curiosity.” Impressed by Montessori-style training, Silva Contreras adopted the place Lafourcade’s curiosity led. If in the future she needed to bop, they danced; if one other day she needed to sing songs, they sang songs. Silva Contreras is satisfied that this winding path introduced Lafourcade again to herself.
Selecting round a kale salad, Lafourcade mentioned that the mark this expertise left on her—moreover a skinny scar, formed like a horseshoe, between her eyebrows—was a perception in her personal instinct. In these early years, following her predilections was how she regained motor abilities and relearned methods to converse. After two months of therapeutic, she went again to high school, the place music remained her obsession. Across the time she turned ten, Lafourcade and Silva Contreras moved to Mexico Metropolis, and she or he grew to become preoccupied with the concept of changing into a singer. Silva Contreras didn’t take this severely at first. However she helped Lafourcade make a recording studio of their toilet, with a keyboard and an eight-track set. Someday, Silva Contreras received an surprising name from the Mexican media conglomerate TV Azteca; Lafourcade had referred to as the corporate looking for a job, and now it was providing her a tryout for a musical program. Silva Contreras determined to let her audition, pondering it may very well be an academic expertise. “There have been 100 ladies there. All of them seemed like Barbies,” Silva Contreras remembered. Stunning her mom, Lafourcade was successful, and, at simply fourteen, she joined a teen pop trio referred to as Twist, acting on a TV present of the identical identify.
At dinner, Lafourcade talked about these years with no trace of enjoyment in her voice. “I used to be too younger,” she mentioned. The opposite members of Twist teased her once they noticed an embroidered bag her mom had made her. They mentioned that she was “too hippie,” and that she was going to get kicked out. Throughout the desk from me, Lafourcade smiled with sharp satisfaction. “However the reverse occurred,” she mentioned. After lower than a 12 months, the TV station disbanded Twist, however the group’s supervisor started working to construct a brand new act round Lafourcade. At one level, the station introduced in new potential bandmates for her. “They had been these scrumptious ladies. They had been teen-agers however they seemed like adults. They seemed just like the Spice Ladies,” Lafourcade mentioned. “They’re too tall—I’ll look ridiculous,” she informed her supervisor. “You’ll develop,” he mentioned, shrugging. (At forty-one, she nonetheless hasn’t reached 5 ft.) She started recruiting associates from her college, a music academy referred to as Fermatta with a campus in Mexico Metropolis. By this time, she understood that her voice was just one a part of why the business appreciated her, or different feminine artists. “I picked associates I believed had been very fairly,” she mentioned. “However I realized they weren’t ‘TV fairly.’ ”
Ximena Sariñana, who at present is a well-known Mexican singer and actress, was a 12 months under Lafourcade at Fermatta. Sariñana remembers Lafourcade as “absolutely the fashionable woman.” “I might be within the cafeteria with my nerdy musician associates who solely listened to grunge and Pearl Jam, and all of the sudden Natalia would go into the cafeteria surrounded by a bunch of girlfriends,” Sariñana mentioned. “She’d be making a variety of noise—she was so modern, loud, and all the time, all the time very herself, very comfy in her personal pores and skin.” Someday, Sariñana was doing her homework together with her headphones on when Lafourcade got here up and tapped her on the shoulder. In a pleasant tone, Lafourcade informed Sariñana that she had heard Sariñana was an excellent singer. Lafourcade received extra severe: “However are you a actually good singer?” she requested. Lafourcade was nonetheless writing and recording her personal songs, and she or he wanted backup. “After we hung out collectively on the piano, and I understood what she needed to do, I used to be, like, O.Okay., I perceive why she would wish actually good singers,” Sariñana mentioned. Inside a number of semesters, Lafourcade had dropped out of college: she had a report contract with Sony.
