Amore Is Making the Absurdist Pop She Wants to See in the World

Going Up is a profile series featuring artists we love who are on the verge of breaking through.

María Moreno Martínez was building prosthetic arms as part of her science degree when she realized she was destined for something else. It was 2020, and though she was on an engineering track at university, she had also received extensive classical piano training in Murcia, Spain, where she grew up. “Something switched in my mind,” she says, “and I knew that I had this urge inside of me.” On the piano, she began writing her first-ever original song, “La Arena,” a jazzy bit of neo-soul with nostalgic lyrics about the beach and unexpected harmonic layering. She had played in bands before—including with the Chilean songwriter Javiera Mena, with whom she now has a song—but this was her first attempt at expressing her own creativity. “I ended up here really organically, without any plans. I was just like, ‘OK, I’ve got this song, I’m gonna release it. I didn’t think about it more than that, because it wasn’t my life plan.”

“La Arena” was Moreno Martínez’s first release as Amore, and no disrespect to the engineering community, but I’m so happy her plan shifted.