Two years ago, the singer-songwriter Elena Rose was in the studio with her producer Maff and her little sister Cristina “Pichu” Hernández. They were listening to a breezy, beach-like beat that would become the massive hit “Caracas En El 2000,” and Rose was brainstorming lyrics to go along with the song. Her first thought was to write about her childhood back in Venezuela: “It felt very tropical, and so I had the idea of [talking about] having fun and not having plans or anything to worry about. I just wanted to speak about my childhood, you know – about missing that so much and missing that innocence.”
However, as the song took shape, she realized she was writing about her home country. “It became more about talking and talking about the city and expressing how grateful I am that I grew up there,” she says. She added little details that she’d always loved about Caracas: roller-skating down the famed Cota Mil highway, sharing cheese empanadas with friends, hearing macaw parrots calling in the distance. “Caracas En El 2000” ended up being a wistful ode to Venezuela, one that touches on what the country was like before the economic downturn and hardships it has faced in recent years. (“What I would give for something like this/Coca-Cola shaved ice and the dollar at one thousand,” Rose sings in the chorus.)
From the first verse, Rose establishes just how much she’s yearning to go back home, also speaking to the experiences of so many people who have had to leave Venezuela. (“I eat an arepa and I’m missing my home/What I wouldn’t give for something like this/Me and you in Caracas like in the year 2000.”) But Rose decided she didn’t just want the song for herself. She decided to bring her friends and fellow Venezuelan artists Danny Ocean and Jerry Di to the track, letting them add their own memories to the track. “It was like a big two-year process with the song, and it just made it more and more and more meaningful,” Rose says. The music video includes homages to the country, with scenes where each artist recreated what their lives were like in Venezuela.
Quickly, it racked up thousands and thousands of views — it currently has 23 million. Then came more praise: In September, “Caracas En El 2000” was nominated for Song of the Year at the Latin Grammys, alongside hits by Karol G, Shakira, and Jorge Drexler. Drexler ultimately took the award, but the recognition was huge for Rose. She got her start as a songwriter, getting credits on songs by people like Karol, as well as Becky G, Myke Towers, Jennifer Lopez, and Anitta. But the nomination — and all the love around “Caracas En El 2000”— was an overwhelming kind of endorsement of her career as an artist. “The fact that everyone has connected with the song, even the people that are not from Venezuela or, for example, the Academy that has recognized it this year the way it has, it means everything to me,” she says.
Having that experience helped Rose prepare for her new EP En Las Nubes – Con Mis Panas, a project that takes the same freewheeling, fun-loving spirit of “Caracas En El 2000” and enhances it. Through eight songs, Rose bounces between vulnerable balladry and upbeat pop songs. She enlists people like Puerto Rican rapper Álvaro Díaz and Colombian singer Greeicy, finding ways to adapt to their style and fitting them onto the new project.
“Every song is like a little corner of this house that I build in the clouds,” she says. “There’s a lot of versatility in sounds and exploring a little bit of everything. I’m showing me and everything that I am made of… So many things that have made me: different sounds, different people, different places. I kind of want to just put all of that in one space.”
She’s most proud of the opener, a song called “Qué Es Estar Enamorado,” which borrows from old boleros. The idea for it came from a memory Rose had of her sister when they were kids. “About 15 years ago, when she was still a baby, she asked me, ‘How does it feel to be in love?’ And I was only able to answer her 15 years later. This song is the answer to that very innocent, yet powerful question.”
To her, the success of “Caracas En El 2000” and En Las Nubes kicked off a rediscovery process that has shown her how much she wants to inspire and connect through her music. “Mainly, I just wanted to show who I am and how I feel in a very vulnerable way,” she says. “And that helped me so much because I found my way and who I want to be in the world.”
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