Page 12 - aruba-today-20220411

a12 people & arts
Monday 11 april 2022

Camila Cabello finds joy in her roots for

new studio album

old and the new in songs
like "La Buena Vida" ("The
Good Life"), which Cabello
sings in English accompa-
nied by Mariachi Garibaldi
de Jaime Cuellar, with a
Spanish chorus sang by
the Mexican band and the
singer's father, Alejandro
Cabello. She debuted it
last October on an NPR Tiny
Desk (Home) Concert cel-
ebrating Hispanic Heritage
Month, where she present-
ed it as one of her favorites
from her then-upcoming
Camila Cabello wears a creation for the L'Oreal Spring-Summer
2022 ready-to-wear fashion show presented in Paris, on Oct. 3, album.
2021. "That was one of the songs
Associated Press I wrote with (producers)
Ricky (Reed), Cheche
By SIGAL RATNER-ARIAS lia sin ir pa' Cuba" ("He has Alara and Edgar Barrera.
Associated Press lived his whole life without We were playing songs that
NEW YORK (AP) — Camila sugar / He met Celia with- I listened to when I was a
Cabello says she found joy out going to Cuba"). kid: I played some Alejan-
in her roots while working With 12 songs in English, dro Fernández, we were
on "Familia," her new studio Spanish and Spanglish, in- listening to mariachi songs
album. The pop singer and cluding the singles "Don't that my dad would play
songwriter, born in Havana Go Yet" and "Bam Bam" when I was younger. We
to a Cuban mother and a with Ed Sheeran as well as were like, 'What can we do
Mexican father, immersed collaborations with WILLOW that is like interesting and
herself in the music she lis- ("psychofreak") and Cuban weird?'"
tened to while growing up singer Yotuel ("Lola"), Ca- They tried combining a
and even ventured to write bello released her third solo rhythmic pop song with
for the first time a couple of record under Epic Records mariachi and were excited
songs fully in Spanish. on Friday. with the result. "Yeah, they
"I was curious what the pro- "My heritage and roots are killed it on the production,"
cess would be, because my such a big part of who I she said.
process in English is very like am, and more and more There's also "Lola" with Yo-
me on a mic, and I just sing something that makes me tuel — which she co-wrote
whatever kind of comes feel really connected and with Mike Sabath and Scott
to my head, including lyr- joyful and something I wan- Harris — about a woman
ics. So I was like, 'I wonder na get closer with as I get that wants "patria y vida"
what's gonna come out in older," she said referring to (homeland and life) as
Spanish,'" she said in a re- her parents and grandpar- opposed to "homeland
cent interview via Zoom ents when asked about the or death," Fidel Castro's
from Los Angeles. title of the album, which in motto. The line comes from
The first thing that came English means "family." the Latin Grammy-win-
out was "Hasta Los Dientes" But she also mentioned ning song of 2021 "Patria y
(Spanish for "to the teeth"), her close friends and col- Vida," by Yotuel, Descemer
a pop tune featuring Ar- laborators, her "family by Bueno, El Funky, Gente de
gentine urban singer María choice," as she called Zona, Yadam González,
Becerra about feeling jeal- them. "It's like really about Beatriz Luengo and Maykel
ousy for a boyfriend's past. community and how im- Osorbo.
And then "Celia," a rhyth- portant relationships are for It became an anthem
mic song which seems to me, and I think for all of us," of the demonstrations in
reference Celia Cruz, the she said. Cuba that year after some
Queen of Salsa, in the cho- Musically, the pop album of its authors dared to ex-
rus: "Ha vivido toa la vida features classic rhythms press their disagreement
sin azúcar / Conoció a Ce- like mariachi, mixing the with the government for
the first time.
"I was so excited when Yo-
tuel said yes to writing on
that song ('Lola') and col-
laborating on it with me
because, to me, "Patria y
Vida" changed history and
gave people a lot of brav-
ery and hope that things
could change in Cuba,"
Cabello said.q