Lorena Eclatt, known onstage as Lani, moved to Des Moines as a child with her family. She shares her Colombian culture with the city she now calls home. Photo: Anthony Arroyo
Writer: Kendra Esau
Des Moines may not be the first place that comes to mind when you think of Latin fusion music, but Lorena Eclatt hopes to change that.
Known simply as Lani on stage, the self-taught singer, songwriter, keyboardist and accordion player was born to Colombian immigrants in Coral Springs, Florida, and grew up here in Iowa. Her background has inspired her to promote Latino music and culture here in the Midwest.
“I moved to Des Moines when I was really young, so it felt like it was home to me,” she said. “It helped me be a lot more introspective than I probably could have been if I was in Florida.”
Some of that introspection came from Iowa’s long winters, which forced her to spend time indoors and look inward to write her songs. “I really love Des Moines’ quietness,” she said. “It helps you listen inside of who you are and what your feelings are.”
A PROMISING START
Lani’s musical journey began when she picked up a violin in the fourth grade. From there, she taught herself to play piano through YouTube tutorials. She originally wanted to be an author, but with the piano, that goal took a new form.
“I started storytelling through music instead of books,” she said. “The songwriting process came slowly, but after I started to discover the piano, I wrote all of my teen angst, all my little romances and all my heartbreaks onto the paper through the piano.”
In high school, she sang in the show choir and spent as much time on stage as possible while writing her own songs on the side. Afterward, she set her sights on a music degree from Drake University.
She began performing professionally in 2021, and her career took off from there. She released her first album, “Love, Lani,” in 2023, and it explores themes of love and heartbreak with a Latin sound. She also released a variety of singles over the course of 2024, including “This Christmas” and “Sabor De Mi Herencia” (“Taste of My Heritage”).
A ballad called “To Be Loved” is about her boyfriend. “I wanted to write something just so raw, like this is how you make me feel,” she said. “To be loved is to be understood, to be seen, and you give me that.”
She wrote another single, called “La Rosa,” about a friendship gone wrong, partly to expand her repertoire. It’s “a little more fun,” she said. “It’s spicy.”
In October 2024, the Iowa Music Awards named Lani the Latin Artist of the Year after she was nominated by her fans. “It was a nice surprise to open up my Instagram to see that I was nominated,” she said. “It was a great experience.”
THE BEAT GOES ON
Lani is steadily making a name for herself here in Des Moines. Aside from her music career, she works as the property manager for Mainframe Studios where she helps other local artists secure affordable studio space and the amenities they need to create their work.
She also collaborates with a network of other Des Moines musicians, bridging gaps between communities — from Drake, from church and even her family. She plays keyboard for the Latin combo band Son Peruchos and fiddle for Dueling Fiddles. She’s a keyboard vocalist at Plymouth Church and serves as the house musician for the Downtown Disciples.
Whenever she performs, she tries to amplify Latino fusion. “I’m hoping we get more people to open their horizons to a new type of music, that people come out to sing, dance salsa, dance bachata, dance cumbia, and that they continue to experience Latin culture to its fullest,” she said.
To Lani, Des Moines is a special city with a lot of art to offer. She’s on a mission to get the rest of the world to agree. “In the next five to 10 years,” she said, “we’re going to see a shift that’s really going to bring Des Moines to a different level, and I’m hopefully working to push that even further.”
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