Renata Flores — UC RIVERSIDE 10/22/25
Renata Flores, the Queen of Quechua Rap, brought her stripped-down set to UC Riverside just days after playing the Hollywood Bowl with Shawn Mendes. The Peruvian artist opened on grand piano, sharing stories about her grandma and learning Quechua. She mentioned how her songs are first written on piano, though she rarely gets to perform them that way. This night was different, intimate.
Renata went viral in 2015 with a Quechua cover of Michael Jackson's "The Way You Make Me Feel," learning the language at 13 with help from her grandmother. Now she fuses trap and hip-hop with Andean instruments, revitalizing a language spoken by millions but long stigmatized in mainstream culture. Her lyrics tackle indigenous rights, female empowerment, and state violence. Between songs, she played Quechua versions of trap, her voice moving effortlessly between genres. She taught us a few Quechua words, the crowd of all ages repeating them back.
Language as resistance. Music as preservation. Ranata Flores doing both with stunning clarity.
