Today's Global Hit features a pop singer from Guadalajara, Mexico. 27-year-old Valentina Gonzalez has built a fan following in the dance clubs of Mexico. But she says she done with that part of her career. She's trading in her rockin' ways for a more contemplative solo debut. Jason Margolis has our story.

MARGOLIS: Valentina Gonzalez's voice is well known among certain subsets of people in Mexico. Her old band, Sussie Quartro, got a lot of play in the clubs and on the radio. In fact, when we met at a restaurant in Mexico City, her voice was coming through the speakers. But that's the old Valentina Gonzalez. Today, she's dropped her last name and changed her sound.

Her debut album, called La Valentina, is a collection of mellow, introspective songs, in both Spanish and English. She grew up bilingual and says the two languages are like different instruments to her.
The sound of the CD is hard to place into a formal musical category. So, Valentina invented her own classification.

“I ended up coming up with like, a term just so I could give it a name... Kind of like a very intimate baptism or something. So I call it, Acapella Minimal Poplyphonic.”

OK, Acapella, I get. Minimal -- she says that's because her music has sparingly few instruments and sounds. But that leaves part three: Poplyphonic.

“Polyphony basically means simultaneous sounds, you know? Just poly lots, and phonos sounds. And Poplyphonic, but that was a made up word, of course, that I made, which is polyphony and pop. Popyphonic. (chuckles).”

If you listen to her album, indeed, you will hear many different types of sounds. That instrument in the background is called a hang (hong). It's was developed in Switzerland, and is sort of a hybrid between a steel drum and a gong.

As if the challenge of creating a new genre of music weren't enough... Being a female solo act in macho Mexican society isn't always so easy.

“We're trying to move forward to a different place before fixing the most basic issues in our society. We can't even walk on the street without being sexually harassed, like heavily.”

But Valentina says she can deal with that. What's not so easy is getting gigs as a female soloist. She says the same types of acts get signed at concerts and festivals over and over.

“Inexplicably they're all men, you know, and you're just like, how come, you know, it's like why didn't they even think for a second that they could have a band or a solo project from a female?”

What good are my hands, if they can't move free? What good is my mouth? If I cannot speak...”

This song is called, “Silent Colonialism.” Valentina explores the topic of what it truly means to be free? In her own life, she says she's grappling with her Spanish and indigenous heritages. Valentina dropped her last name, Gonzalez, in part, because, she says, it sounded too European.

New ways of being colonialists... POSTMODERN WAYS OF SLAVERY. New ways of being colonialists...

“I just don't like the fact that we think we are free, but we are not, you know? In any way, whether it's like, just capitalism, or those clichéd words, like globalization. But Just (chuckles) just kind of as a reminder of just like think, before you admit.. think before you think you are absolutely free of any colonial influence still today.”

At this point, you might think Valentina is on a personal crusade. She might be. But the 27-year-old is playful with her music too.
This is the song “Free.”

“It's very little, it's very tiny, it's simple, just piano and voice.”

“It was inspired in a Silvio Rodriquez song, which is one of probably one of the most imp Cuban songwriters... And he just has this phrase Te quiero libere.”

“It's just I want you free, you know? I want you to be free. Like... In Spanish we use it like I love you too. So it's kind of this beautiful almost like a word game. Like, almost like saying, I love you because like you're free. Or I love you free, or I want you free. It's kind of both meanings.”

Valentina's album is in stores now. But it's too early to tell if it will be a commercial success, and whether her fans will embrace or reject the new sound of this former pop diva.

For the World, I'm Jason Margolis, Mexico City.