User:Rosquitos/Samantha Hudson

Samantha Hudson (Born on September 11, 1999 in León, Spain)  is a Spanish artist, singer, actress and internet celebrity. She first entered the public consciousness after releasing her song "Maricón" (Faggot) in 2015, which was recorded as a school project for an audiovisual culture class. The song, accompanied by a music video posted to YouTube, was both rebuffed and lauded by audiences and was the subject of protest by religious organizations and conservative political groups alike. Hudson combines pro-LGBT activism and social vindication, often though transgressive performance art in a camp context.

In addition to "Maricón", Hudson has released other audiovisual works, including "Burguesa Arruinada" (Ruined Bourgeoisie), "Por España" (For Spain) and "Dulce y Bautizada" (Sweet and Baptized). She has also made cameos on several television series, is the protagonist of the 2018 documentary film Samantha Hudson, una historia de fe, sexo y electroqueer (Samantha Hudson, a Story of Faith, Sex and Electroqueer) and cohosts the podcast ¿Sigues ahí? (Are You Still There?) on Netflix alongside Jordi Cruz. In 2021, she performed in her first show, Eutanasia Deluxe (Deluxe Euthanasia) at Teatro Lara in Madrid. That same year, she also released her first non-compilation album, Liquidación Total (Total Liquidation). Two years later, in 2023, she released AOVE, an EP inspired by the hardcore techno of the '90s.

Biography and career
Hudson was born in 1999 in León, Spain and subsequently moved with her family to Majorca. When she was 11 years old, she became extremely devoted to the Catholic Church, later becoming frustrated due to the Church's lack of "interest [...] in the LGBT collective". At 13, she believed she was a transgender woman and began experimenting with different gender concepts and subsequently deciding against defining herself as transgender. In an interview with El País, she said "[at that age] I liked my appearance when it matched a feminine role [...] I just wanted to be that way".. In a subsequent interview with Vogue, Hudson stated that the name "Samantha Hudson" came about at the suggestion of a friend while discussing and fantasizing about the idea of being "a suburban mom in the US on her way to pick up her kids in a seven-seater car".

In 2017, after graduating high school, Hudson moved to Barcelona to focus on her music. That same year she was severely injured during a trip to Seville after falling from a balcony, and was hospitalized for several weeks.

In 2018, she moved to Madrid and from 2019 to 2021 she gave a weekly performance at a concert hall in Chueca, often with Paco Clavel. From March 2021 until summer of that same year she performed in Eutanasia Deluxe at Teatro Lara in Madrid, her performance being centered on trash culture. She would later perform she show in Valencia and Barcelona.

For Madrid Pride 2020, which was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Hudson participated in a hate-awareness campaign #ProtégeteDelOdio (ProtectYourselfFromHate) alongside other public figures including actresses such as Carla Antonelli and politicians like Eduardo Rubiño. Toward the end of 2020, she began hosting the Netflix podcast ¿Sigues ahí? alongside former television presenter Jordi Cruz.

In February 2021, she gave a monologue during the gala of the 8th Annual Feroz Awards where she underscored the "abandonment of gender" though a simile on the progressive abandonment of film genres.

At the end of 2021, Hudson was awarded the Premio ODA 2021 by the Observatorio de la Diversidad en los Medios Audiovisuales (Observatory for Diversity in Audiovisual Media) for her "efforts in improving social inclusion for the LGBTIQ+ collective in Spanish media".

In June 2022, at that year's Primavera Pro event for professionals in the music industry, Hudson led a debate on "poor taste in music" alongside director and camp culture representative John Waters. That same year she also won an award —along with film director Pedro Almodóvar and youtuber Carolina Iglesias— given by the Spanish Ministry of Equality for "being a model for youth who feel unseen given current sexual norms".

In May 2023, she released an EP entitled AOVE, whose style deviates significantly from previous albums and is based on the hardcore techno of the '90s. In October of that same year, she was nominated by the MTV Europe Music Awards in the category Best Spanish Artist, winning the award on November 5, 2023.

"Maricón" and controversy
"The moment I don a crown, [this] constitutes a political act. The moment I put on a princess backpack, I'm fighting against a system that oppresses me. And when I wear pink and go out into the street and 'attract attention,' I'm rebelling against a society that rejects me and denies me the right to enjoy my own life. Because I'm really at risk for being who I am."

In 2015, at age 15, Hudson (then Iván) was assigned a project for her audiovisual culture class at Josep Maria Llompart de Palma High School. She decided to write an explicit song and create a music video criticizing the Catholic Church and its position on sexual diversity. The song, entitled "Maricón" (Faggot), was posted to YouTube in October 2015. In subsequent interviews, Hudson stated that she found inspiration for the song when visiting a church to listen to The Song of the Sibyl in Mallorquí: when entering the church, she described feeling rejected due to the looks from other parishioners. Her professor gave her a 90% on the assignment, but not before undergoing review by other faculty. During this review, all of the teachers confirmed that they supported the work except for the religion teacher, who decided to mobilize protest against its release. The teacher later complained in a post on his blog, describing Hudson's "tiresome and repetitious (machacona y reiterativa)" manner of displaying what he describes as "faggotry (mariconería)". In the same post, he clashes with other faculty members who insisted that the assignment was "simply flawless (simplemente impecable)", concluding with a wake-up call to the rest of the Catholic community. The video was subsequently removed from YouTube temporarily.

Then-representative of the Citizens political party in the Parliament of the Balearic Islands, Olga Ballester, described the video as "blasphemy" and complained in light of the Government's inaction on the matter. The ultraconservative organization HazteOír collected 48,000 signatures requesting disciplinary action against the teacher. Hudson was excommunicated by the Bishop of Majorca as a result of releasing "Maricón". Some media outlets have described Hudson's activism as contrary to "convention", challenging issues such as heteronormativity and gender roles with sarcasm. In a 2022 interview with El Periódico, Hudson asserted that "the point of [her] discourse –and that of [her] generation– is to blur the limit".

She has also often defended a culture of "mediocrity" and "absurdness": in a 2022 interview with Público, she commented that "People have the right to be mediocre, to simply devote themselves to being silly and absurd and that shouldn't be a basis on which you decide to treat them more equitably or more derogatorily". Similarly, in a 2023 interview with Glamour, she remarked that "embracing failure is to be a winner".

Her aesthetic has often been described as trash and compared to works by John Waters:   in a 2022 interview with La Vanguardia, Hudson described trash culture as a "real treasure". Vogue magazine has referred to her an "electrodiva".

Personal life
Despite Hudson initially deciding against labeling herself as non-binary, in a 2021 interview she affirmed that she "could include [herself] on the non-binary spectrum". During the same interview and on other occasions she has agreed with the name Iván and with being referred to in both the masculine and female gender. In another interview with Heraldo de Aragón in 2021, she confirmed that "she could not be restricted to a single musical genre or gender" in a play on words given that the Spanish word género refers to both. In October 2022 she defined herself as asexual. On the political spectrum, she identifies as "anti-capitalist and Marxist". In several interviews, and in a 2020 article for Vice magazine, she defined herself as a "cross-dresser on-call 24/7".

In an interview with Viajando con Chester in February 2023, Hudson recounted that she had had consensual sexual relations while underage and that she had come to realize that these were abuse.

Studio albums

 * 2021: Liquidación total


 * 2023: AOVE

Compilation albums

 * 2019: Los Grandes Éxitos de Samantha

Tours

 * 2021-2022: Gira Liquidación total
 * 2022-2023: Gira Liquidación total por cierre