Moana A's "Wild Card" is Your New Women's History Month Anthem

Wild Card Moana A LAIN Artwork.png — [Moana A’s artwork for “Wild Card.” Photograph by Sarah Lleon]

For those of you who follow along with my Wednesday features on Instagram, Moana A will be a familiar face from March 4th, 2020!

Moana A grew up on a sailboat in the Caribbean, but is now a Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter who also stars in the hit YouTube show, Badanamu, among her other impressive projects. Her first album, “Dotted,” was produced thanks to an IndieGogo crowdfunding campaign in 2013, and was followed by an endorsement by Daisy Rock Guitars. Since then, Moana has regularly toured the world, making stops in Abu Dhabi, Indonesia, India, the Mediterranean region, the Caribbean, and all over the United States.

You might know Moana from her cover of Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone,” which I featured on Instagram, but she also has an array of other impressive originals that shouldn’t be overlooked, many with similar feminist messages.

One of her other recent releases, titled “Wild Card,” is meant to assert Moana’s position as an artist who doesn’t feel the need to fit the mold, but also show other women that they don’t need permission to be who they are. The track sees Moana A joining forces with LAIN, a Los Angeles-based writer and producer originally from Mexico City who has worked with Mayssa Karaa (Grammy-nominated singer / Sony Classical), Fato (Pepe Aguilar, Alejandro Fernández), Carlos Castro (Selena Gomez), Roxanne Seeman (Earth, Wind & Fire, Barbra Streisand), Dalton Diehl (Aaron Cole), and RIVVRS (Primary Wave) in the past.

Thanks to their combined talents, Moana A and LAIN have created a modern western female empowerment song for the ages.

Moana ArtistShot2 copy.jpg — [Moana A posing in a beautiful blue dress. Photograph by Vince Trupsin.]

“Wild Card” is a confident, catchy track that will be fresh yet familiar for fans of musicians like Kelly Clarkson, Marley Wildthing, and Chenoa Summers. Its anthemic, easy-to-sing-along-to choruses and dramatic instrumentals follow the twists and curves of the track, forming an overall dynamic, well thought out song. The lyrics are more than just pretty words, emphasizing Moana A’s goal of showing women they should be apologetically themselves from the first measure: “I won’t close my mouth, my eyes, my heart / I’m a lady but that’s not all / Not on display, I’m a doll / I am loud, boy / I’m a scandal.” “Wild Card’s” underlying western aesthetic makes it easy to picture a strong, independent cowgirl striding confidently through the swinging doors of a modern-day saloon, metaphorical gun drawn and ready to face the world.

Moana A’s “Wild Card” is the perfect song to listen to throughout Women’s History Month, or whenever you need a reminder that nobody else dictates your life.