Barbarita Palacios: the heiress of rock and folklore shaking up La Carbonera

Barbarita Palacios is not just another artist. Her surname carries weight, but she wears it with the ease of someone who grew up on stage. Daughter of the mythical showgirl and singer Egle Martin, and with a family tree that includes the Carabajals and the Casallas, this singer, songwriter, and producer has already carved out her own clear path. This Saturday she performs at La Carbonera, a venue that promises to be the perfect setting for her explosive blend of rock and folklore.

Palacios has released three albums: ‘Si va’, ‘Criolla’, and ‘Vivir así’, the latter re-released on vinyl by Club del disco and winner of the 2026 Gardel Award for Best Singer-Songwriter Album. She is accompanied in her band by Javier Casalla, Nicolás Rainone, and her son Lucero Carabajal, and together they are part of Gustavo Santaolalla’s touring band. ‘Vivir así’ features collaborations with top artists: Ricardo Mollo, León Gieco, Santaolalla himself, Barbi Recanati, Daniel Melingo, and Luciana Jury, among others.

—Your life is marked by music and important names. How do you live with that?
—It’s natural. Since Mom passed away (Egle Martin died in 2022), everything is inside me. I clung to rock and my own path, fusing it with chacarera. I was born on stage, and at some point my moment came. Rock helped me as a counterculture.

—Much of the rock in your story comes from artists of your mother’s generation…
—Of course. My first participation on an album was from my mother’s belly, on a Color Humano album. She was close friends with Javier Martínez, Edelmiro Molinari. But she was closer to the Rio de la Plata sound, candombe, milonga. I always wanted to create my own fusion of rock with all my influences, with the desire to make people dance. Rock is in our DNA: I like Manal, Arco Iris, Pappo, Los Redondos.

—Do you see a closer connection between folklore and rock than with tango?
—Now that Mom is gone, I’m revisiting her work. There’s a lot of tango. She was a terrible composer, but always in the shadow of others. At the La Carbonera concert, we’ll perform two of her songs, one with lyrics by Pipo Pescador and another with a recitation by Homero Manzi.

—Do your songs have a more combative attitude than traditional rock?
—Rock has always been countercultural, and I identify with that. But it never had, and neither do I, a partisan stance.

—Why is ‘Vivir así’ your most personal album?
—Because it’s a journey through my entire life, a synthesis. I’m no longer in opposition to anyone. I am everything I was and everything I want to be. My musical and emotional history is there. On this album, I made the decision together with my band, which now includes my son Lucero, who was in my mother’s band as a child.

—How was the repertoire and the guests put together?
—It came together freely, without pressure from a record label. We started with ‘Baguala desesperada’ and then the others followed. As for the guests, for example, for ‘Mestizo’ we needed a guitar hero and we called Ricardo Mollo. Much of the production we owe to Gustavo Santaolalla, who produced our first albums and suggested we do it ourselves.

—What do you like about artistic production?
—Thinking about a project, its concept. What is Barbarita, where is she going. I did it with myself for ‘Vivir así’, but we also produced Luciana Jury and others. I give tutorials on what to do with what an artist brings.

—We’re going to present the album on vinyl at La Carbonera, a beautiful place with great sound, divine lights, a big stage. I’m bringing my sound engineer, lighting designer, and the whole band. We’ll play songs from all my albums in electric format, and also surprises with guest artists.

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