Over the course of her first two full-length releases as Half Gringa, Chicago-based singer, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter Isabel Olive has demonstrated stunning emotional intelligence and songwriting elegance. Her 2025 full-length release, Cosmovisión, captures Olive at her most self-possessed, addressing “mythology, mortality, and everything in between.”
Indeed, Half Gringa seems to revel in addressing what cannot be grasped or expressed so easily. She commonly switches between English and Spanish in her songs. It’s a tribute –– as is the band name –– to her upbringing by a Venezuelan mother and an American father in a Midwestern town. This record is distinctly Half Gringa because it is only Olive who stands in front of these particular ancestors, who wields this particular perspective and experience, this particular “cosmovisión.”
The Chicago Reader named Half Gringa’s debut, Gruñona as among Chicago’s Best Albums of the Decade while VICE named her sophomore full-length, Force to Reckon as one of 22 Essential Albums of 2020. She has supported artists Iron & Wine, Television, Sarah Shook & the Disarmers, Flaming Lips, Madi Diaz, and more.
