Viral YouTube video helps singer Reymar Perdomo give voice to Venezuela diaspora

SHARE Viral YouTube video helps singer Reymar Perdomo give voice to Venezuela diaspora
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Venezuelan singer Reymar Perdomo’s heartfelt song “Me Fui” about reluctantly leaving her homeland in search of a better life went viral on YouTube. | YouTube

LIMA, Peru — A year ago, Venezuelan migrant Reymar Perdomo was singing for spare change on jammed buses, struggling to make ends meet while building a new life in Peru’s capital.

Her life took a turn when she wrote a heartfelt reggae song about leaving her homeland that went viral on YouTube and has brought tears to many in the Venezuelan diaspora which has spread around the globe.

Now, Perdomo is doing appearances at concerts and on TV along with her street performances, as her song has become the unofficial anthem of Venezuelans who have fled their country’s economic implosion.

“This song gives me goosebumps” says Junior Barrios, a Venezuelan migrant who listened to Perdomo perform her song “Me Fui” — Spanish for “I Left” — recently at a busy plaza in Lima. “Leaving your home from one day to the next day isn’t easy, and this just makes a whole bunch of emotions surface at once.”

According to the International Organization for Migration, more than 3 million Venezuelans have left their country since 2015 as food shortages and hyperinflation became rampant in what was once a wealthy oil-exporting nation. By the end of this year, that number is expected to grow to 5.4 million or more.

“Me Fui” is Perdomo’s retelling of how she reluctantly left Venezuela with her “head full of doubts,” pushed by her mother, who told her there was no other way for her to make something of her life.

The song, which the 30-year-old plays with a ukulele after her guitar broke while busking, talks about how she was robbed and faced other hardships as she had to cross four countries to reach Peru, pressing on while “speaking softly and crying along much of the way.”

“I had lots of mixed feelings about having to leave Venezuela and felt a lot of pain. And I just needed to express that in order to move on with life,” Perdomo says after performing on the streets of Lima’s wealthy Miraflores district.

Her nostalgic song ended up on YouTube thanks to a passer-by who recorded her singing and posted the video online.

It also has gotten a wave of attention on radio and television, helping Perdomo get noticed by famous pop artists around South America who have asked her to open for them at concerts. She also produced a slicker version that has had 1.3 million views on its own.

In December, Perdomo was invited to Colombia by a popular satirist and YouTuber who had her sing on a bus, surprising her by bringing along Latin Grammy winner Carlos Vives and Andres Cepeda.

Perdomo says she almost fainted as Vives, wearing a hat and fake mustache, threw away his disguise and started singing the chorus of her song.

“That happened exactly a year to the date after I left Venezuela” Perdomo says. “And for me to be there, performing with one of my favorite singers, singing my song, just felt like proof that God exists.”

Perdomo used to be a music teacher at a public school in the rural state of Guarico and once participated in a televised talent show. She says she never voted for Venezuela’s socialist president Nicolas Maduro but that, as a government employee, was required to sing at pro-government rallies, something online critics have held against her.

Though she is becoming something of a symbol of the Venezuelan exodus, Perdomo says she still struggles to get by. Her mother, brother, sister-in-law and year-old nephew have joined her in Peru, and all share a small rented apartment in one of the city’s working-class districts. Only Perdomo’s brother has found a permanent job — as a bouncer at a nightclub. So the street performer works long days to help her family get by.

Fans who spotted Venezuelan singer Reymar Perdomo at a park in Lima, Peru, pose for photos with her. | AP

Fans who spotted Venezuelan singer Reymar Perdomo at a park in Lima, Peru, pose for photos with her. | AP

But now social media fame is opening new doors.

Perdomo says Vives has invited her to perform on a regular basis at his club in Bogota and that she’s speaking with groups in Colombia about the possibility of recording an album focused on the plight of migrants.

These opportunities have her thinking about moving again — this time to Colombia’s capital.

“This has been a tough year, but it has also been amazing” Perdomo said. “I think that, to help people and do what you love, you don’t need a lot of money. You just need to believe in yourself and be willing to work real hard.”

Venezuelan singer Reymar Perdomo (right) performs with Omar Rumbos at a fair on the beach of San Bartolo, Peru. | AP

Venezuelan singer Reymar Perdomo (right) performs with Omar Rumbos at a fair on the beach of San Bartolo, Peru. | AP

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