Bilingual Music Mama Flor Bromley Brings Virtual ‘Fiesta’ into Your Home

01 Apr Bilingual Music Mama Flor Bromley Brings Virtual ‘Fiesta’ into Your Home

by Marisa Torrieri Bloom

If the last few weeks has taught me anything, it’s that I still need love and joy — and music. Like most other parents, I’m stuck mostly indoors with my kids, engaging in the once-unthinkable balance of homeschooling and working. Trying to stay sane. 

So when I heard that musician mama Flor Bromley, a bilingual singer-songwriter and guitarist, had released some fun, family party music — I could not have been more ecstatic! Flor’s new single, “Fiesta de los Globos” is a celebratory song, sung in Spanish and infused with horns, keys and an aura of springtime joy.

Flor Bromley

“The world needs hope,” Flor tells Rockmommy. “Kids essentially need a sense of normalcy. They need to know that everything will be ok, even through changes, so why not release stress and turn it into a big party, a big balloon party with our families to celebrate togetherness, to celebrate unity?” 

This week, the mother of two — 4-year-old and an 8-month-old — took a break to chat with us about her new single, and the importance of celebration and culture. 

In addition to the new single and a forthcoming album, the mother of two — ages 4 and 8 months — is hosting bilingual musical story times for kids three days per week through her Facebook page: Kids can join Flor, her puppets, and her “Bonita” guitar to learn Spanish through music and stories for 30 minutes on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 11 a.m. EDT.

Rockmommy: Flor, I love your new song “Fiesta de los Globos.” Can you tell us about the creative process that inspired it? 

Flor Bromley: Thank you! I created this song right after doing a concert at a birthday party. There were so many balloons, and I decided that we should play with them and sing along, so I started the process of “Balloon Party” which is a song included in my upcoming album Fiesta Global that has the collaboration of Jazzy Ash on the vocals. The Spanish version “Fiesta de los Globos” was created especially to be released as a single because Spanish is my native language, and I wanted kids to enjoy this song in English and Spanish as well. After crafting the song, I decided to play it in NOLA jazz style because of the way the verses and the chorus were intertwined, and producer Sinuhe Padilla, who is also my musical director, helped me make that happen. I’m very happy with the outcome.

Rockmommy: New Orleans is an amazing city (I lived there for two years!) and your song takes me right back there. Who were some of your inspirations growing up?

Flor Bromley: Being Peruvian, you don’t get a lot of NOLA jazz there, but you do get a lot of cartoons, especially the old Walt Disney ones. The 4-year-old me, without knowing, was being exposed musically to Dixieland jazz from early childhood cartoons, and I feel it’s has been engraved in my musical brain since then. In my journey, I re-discovered this type of jazz in my early 20s when I went on a trip to Argentina. I was at a music venue, and the band started playing a NOLA inspired jazz number, and the sound just filled my soul, and I couldn’t stop moving. So I researched more about this music, and I fell in love with the ease of the style and the way it just makes you get up and dance. One of my favorite albums of this style is Louis Armstrong and the Dukes of Dixieland.

Rockmommy: Can you tell me why the song is exactly what the world needs right now?

Flor Bromley: The world is in an intricate state right now. Things are changing. Globally we are all together fighting a big virus that affects everyone in different ways. It’s time for hope. The world needs hope. Kids essentially need a sense of normalcy. They need to know that everything will be ok (even through changes), so why not release stress and turn it into a big party, a big balloon party with our families to celebrate togetherness, to celebrate unity? Which is also what the world needs. Unity.

Rockmommy: What else can you tell us about your upcoming album?

Flor Bromley: Fiesta Global will be released April 24. We have collaborations with Latin Grammy winner 123 Andres, Peruvian award-winning singer Damaris, and jazz family favorite Jazzy Ash. Fiesta Global is a celebration to dance around the world. Because there will always be music. Cultures use music and dance to heal, to mourn, to celebrate. With this album I want to celebrate our world, the different types of rhythms that live inside of us (the way NOLA jazz always lived inside of me since I was 4), and I want to give families a time to dance together, being united in the joy of music.

Flor Bromley’s new record “Fiesta Global” 

Rockmommy: What are some ways families can share traditions and culture and music during this difficult time?

Flor Bromley: This is the perfect time to be close as families, to learn more about each other, to teach your children things that you weren’t planning on doing. So, I encourage parents to research music, find new and old music, to use the best tool we can right now from our homes via the internet, and learn about our roots, learn about cultures, make new traditions and celebrate each other, having a big “Fiesta de los Globos”!

Marisa Torrieri Bloom is the editor and founder of Rockmommy.