By Jay Stracke
For decades, clubs, bars, and performance halls have been havens for queer people everywhere. They’re where heavy hearts and cheerful spirits gather together, dance in the moonlight, and come alive. It is within these spaces that p1nkstar, an Austin-based translatinx performance and pop music artist, created an instantly recognizable name for herself.
Originally from Mexico, p1nkstar arrived in Austin five years ago and soon became involved in the Texas capital’s art scene. From there, she was introduced to Austin’s nightlife and—as quick as a whip of her ponytail—rose as an evocative queer leader, space maker, and performer. “I loved everything and everyone,” p1nkstar recalls of her time entering the club scene.
But it was clear that she too was loved by her fans.
She has since performed at SXSW, Fusebox Festival, Babes Fest, OUTsider Fest, and Gender Unbound, and has exhibited nationally at the Blanton Museum of Art, the Visual Arts Center, and the Roots & Culture Contemporary Arts Center in Chicago.
And that’s not all.
Her prolific performance career has led her to receive two Best of Austin Awards for her space-making work in the arts and nightlife scenes, to perform multiple opening gigs for Dorian Electra, and to curate a group of Austin-based queer performers for an opening performance for Charli XCX. “There is a really vibrant community of queer people in Texas, and it’s just finding a way to put them on stage or [to center] them,” p1nkstar says, reflecting on her work for Charli XCX. “[It’s about taking] these artists that people don’t pay attention to and helping them shine. That was always my experience in Austin…with people throwing parties as well—they were always really open to having me do things.”
Photo: Josh Gonzalez and p1nkstar
Her desire to highlight the work and experiences of queer and trans artists of color strongly inspired the production of her debut EP, Number 1 Hits! “For this EP, I worked with really amazing producers that all live in Austin and are all queer people of color,” p1nkstar says. “They’re all super talented production geniuses.”
p1nkstar’s new EP—produced by Mr. Kitty, Ben Aqua, and Boy Sim—not only serves as an example of a queer, creative, and collaborative power, but as an intersection of identity. And at this intersection, you’ll find a futuristic world saturated by a thousand hues of pink—a place where hyperpop fuses with neo-perreo and club music, inducing finger tapping and hip shaking. “I think they’re all bangers,” p1nkstar says of the EP’s tracks. “They’re all kind of different. They all touch on different themes and different styles of pop music, and they’re all my favorite songs in many different ways.”
“I think it’s a new narrative that is not very present in hyperpop,” she adds. “I haven’t seen a lot of queer people of color making this [type of] music, this weird, hybrid hyperpop with Latina influences, in Texas. I think that that’s powerful.”
Listen to p1nkstar’s debut EP Number 1 Hits! below or on Soundcloud.
