Karol G is crying, and if you know anything about the weepy Colombian star, this isn’t much of a surprise — she cries a lot. But these tears are different. These tears come from years of shaping what she thinks is one of the most important albums of her career. That project is Tropicoqueta, and it’s one she made with a momentous goal in mind: to harness the classic sounds of her culture and translate them into a songs that beat with a heart that is all her own.
“I’m going to be super honest, I feel like I made the album of my dreams,” Karol says.
We’re sitting in the basement studio of Republic Records, but it doesn’t feel like it at all. The singer has transformed the space into a sunset-hued slumber party. A warm glow emanates from orange lights and matching orange flower bouquets decorate the room. There are tangerine notepads scattered about, and she’s asked listeners to write down their initial impressions of the album.
The Colombian singer is at the center, her hair is tied back into a high pony tail and she wears laidback bootcut jeans. She’s taken off her wedge sandals and sits barefoot on a fuzzy chair, leaning in, ready to reveal her soul with her new project. Over the course of an hour, Karol shares how Colombian showgirls and throwback pop inspired several songs and details her hope to change the Latin music landscape with this project.
When did you start to conceptualize Tropicoqueta?
I began thinking about this album when I was on the U.S. leg of the Mañana Será Bonito tour. I started thinking “what’s next?” from the moment I turned Mañana Será Bonito in because I know it takes time. The process was terrible because I wasn’t ready to think about what came next after an album and tour as massive as that one. I felt a lot of pressure. I started thinking maybe I should do an album in English or I should experiment with new sounds I’ve never tried before. I started thinking about all of these weird concepts that would never make sense for Karol G.
It took a while but I kept coming back to an idea I had after I played Coachella in 2022. I did an homage to all the important Latin songs that had crossed over and opened doors. I remembered when I told my team I wanted to do that at Coachella, it was like I was saying I wanted to be that kind of artist in the future, the Latin artist that is super Latina for the world. I visualized my future self to be part of that list of artists one day. I started to go back to that idea and stayed with it. I asked myself, “Who is Karol G? Where do I go? What am I going to do?”
Everything took a clear direction when I was touring in Europe. It was super inspiring to see every city on that tour had an audience that was 90 percent Latino. I realized, “Wow I’m filling all of these arenas with Latinos.” It was incredible to think of my music as worldwide, but it was the Latinos that were giving me the opportunity to put on these shows around the world. I started to embrace it, especially when I would see people in different places start to cry and explain they were in another country to find better opportunities. They would tell me, “You bring us a piece of home.” That was so powerful for me. It helped me realize this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. I want to represent a little piece of home wherever I go for all the Latinos in the world.
In what ways did you feel that you accomplished this goal with the album?
This album has 20 tracks, and every one has a different feel. I have a vallenato, a cumbia villera. Obviously, there’s reggaeton. There’s pop from the pop I grew up listening to. I have funk. It’s a mix of things. At the end of the day, as I was talking to my team I told them, “You guys have a hard job ahead of you,” because it’s an album that isn’t for one audience specifically. There’s a song for little girls and songs for my tia or a 70-year-old woman who grew up listening to this music.
People think I disappeared for no reason but the reality was, this album was a lot of work. The album is about 95 percent live instruments so that it would sound like our true roots. This album gave me the opportunity to work with the maestros of each genre that’s presented, to make the most incredible musical arrangements. “Ese Hombre Es Malo” has 57 instruments that we recorded live in Guadalajara.
It must have been super challenging to do that and authentically portray each genre.
It’s super crazy and I’m really nervous. I understand the challenge of the album, but I love it. It’s perfect for me. I grew up listening to so much music at home that I identify with all of it. I’ve never felt like just a reggaeton artist. I know I make reggaeton but each of my albums has had something that isn’t reggaeton from “200 Copas” or “El Barco,” which is like bossa nova with bachata mixed in. I always had nods to other styles.
It feels incredible that I am able to make a piece that moved away a little bit further from that and that gave me the opportunity to sing all the styles of music I like. At first I couldn’t figure out who we were targeting with the album. But I feel like it’s for all Latinos who grew up like me, who grew up listening to everything that we are, not just one specific genre. At the end of the day, if there’s people who don’t like all the genres, they’re at least going to find one genre they can connect with.
We’ve seen you experiment with some of these genres, like dembow, a bit in the past. How did it feel to revisit some of those?
The Dominican Republic is a dream country. It’s a whole different culture in the streets, in the neighborhoods. They have their way of dancing, their way of speaking, their way of dressing. It’s like a colorful music video on the street. There’s so much inspiration. It’s incredible to make music that touches on that rich Dominican culture. Even the final rhythm in “Un Gatito Me Llamo” is different, it’s a new wave of dembow. With its sounds and rhythms, dembow has its own language that everyone can connect with. When you hear a dembow, you just want to dance. It’s perfect for a party song and so infectious, I had to include it.
What kind of music helped inspire the sounds on the album?
My playlist is crazy because it’s a bit of everything. People might think I just listen to reggaeton all day. I listen to reggaeton, but I also listen to pop, ballads, musica mexicana, Colombian music, Argentinian music, because they have a cumbia that is visionary. I wanted my album to feel like “this is Karol G’s playlist.” It’s a playlist that has a little bit of everything and that the whole world can enjoy it. It’s a way for me to thank every sector for what they’ve given me. That’s what this album is.
Who is the most random artist on your personal playlist?
I have the weirdest songs. I’ll tell you what I’m listening to at this moment. I’ll jump from Egyptian music to Cigarettes After Sex, which is my favorite band. Every time I’m going through something, I listen to them because their music makes me feel everything. I’m super into Sade. I don’t know why, but the more I listen to her music, the more I feel like she was influenced by Latin music a lot. There are a lot of conga sounds in her songs, which makes her music feel super Latin. I’m listening to a lot of old Cuban music, a lot of old salsa, and a lot of artists from the past to give me that nostalgic feeling that I wanted to bring to this project. I’m very lost when it comes to new artists.
What did your creative process look like on this album and how did it compare to previous albums?
With my last album, I wasn’t very conscious of what I was doing. I just vented in the studio and made songs about my feelings. The visual narrative of that one was just me showing people what I was doing to get out of how I was feeling. The process of Tropicoqueta was completely different. I made each song with a lot of intention and knew how I wanted each to sound like. It was all planned.
It’s kind of like when a family prepares to have a baby versus when it just happens. Obviously, you’re just as happy either way. But when you prepare, you can set up their room, you buy them clothes you love, you think about their name. Everything is planned so that when they’re born, everything will be super special. I guess this is the baby everyone talked so much about me having.
The album title, Tropicoqueta, is so unique. How did you come up with that?
I wanted the name to be super Latin. With each of my albums, I’ve been in a certain mood. In my last era I was feeling very “Bichota” and this era I feel more tropical with all the sounds I’ve been listening to. At first, I thought of naming the album Latina Foreva but that didn’t feel right for a project full of love, heartbreak, partying, and dancing. Every album has always given my fans a personality to embody. I can imagine someone going out on a dance floor and saying “I’m going out there to dance super Tropicoqueta!”
Speaking of “Latina Foreva,” that was the first single off the album. What made you decide to enter this new era with that track?
I decided to go with a reggaeton for the first single because I didn’t want to leave that side of Karol G behind. It’s been such a big part of my music. The video for that one is incredible. It’s a sarcastic take on how “hot” Latinas are. The song is about all the aspects of being Latina: our curves, the way we’re the life of the party. The energy we carry has just been contagious.
The song samples Nina Sky’s “Oye Mi Canto” because that is one of the most Latin-sounding songs in the world to me. It wasn’t planned either. I always knew I wanted to write a song about being a proud Latina. I’ve had the idea to write about our curves, how scandalous we are, and how joyful we are. When I was making the song, I remembered that beat and wanted to include it. I made a lot of music with Edgar (Berrera) and Rios, but when I played them this beat they didn’t vibe with it that much. In the studio, I wrote La Guru, who is a Colombian artist I’ve worked with before and I thought, Maybe she’s the one who could help write this song. It flowed so easily. I loved that a woman helped me write it because you would think the bars were written by men. It’s like a cheeky joke in the song.
With each album cycle, you’ve had a different hair color that reflects the specific album. Did you dye your hair a more natural brown with that in mind?
When we started making the album, I thought I was entering my orange hair era. But I wanted to remain faithful and honest to the root of the album and go back to my origins and this hair color supports that message in general. After all, when have you ever heard of a Latina who was born with orange hair?
Who were the main producers on the album?
Edgar (Barrera) was one of them. I worked with Edgar a lot. When I started the album I made a list of the things I wanted. I wanted songs to sound like this or that, I wanted these instruments, and I thought about the team I wanted to have. Obviously, Ovy (on the Drums) was part of that team too and will always be part of my team. I have a lot of music with him on this album. But I also made a lot of music with Edgar and (Puerto Rican songwriter) Rios. I made “Si Antes Te Hubiera Conocido” and “Mi Ex Tenía Razón” with them and we fully connected from there. We made 53 songs together, of which eight became real songs.
That’s so many songs. Do you have a favorite of the ones that became actual tracks on the album?
“Ivonny Bonita” is probably the most important song on Tropicoqueta. A couple of years ago, after the whole process of Mañana Será Bonito, I was processing a lot of personal stuff. I was really disappointed in myself because I felt like I had let myself get immersed in a sadness that I couldn’t get out of. I wasn’t doing anything to get myself out of it. I was on a trip with friends in the Bahamas and I heard a song that went “Ivonne, my baby” and I found that name incredible. It sounded like the name of a very mysterious woman. The name is super chimba. After that trip, I said, from here on out my name is Ivonny because I thought, “If Carolina isn’t able to get out of this, Ivonny will be able to.” She was like a strange alter-ego I created that I really internalized. With every little thing I’d be like “what would Ivonny do?” Even on Zoom calls, I’d use the name Ivonny.
Nothing really happened with that until I got into the studio with Pharell. He showed me some beats and I knew I wanted him to sound super Latino because that was the vibe of the album. We experimented with a few things and made a few songs. Then, just when I was about to leave, he made an impressive beat that really captured what I was going for. I had to leave and I was in Medellin when I decided to make a song for Ivonny. When we made the song, I imagined trumpets and keyboards and I called [Cuban-American musician] Arturo Sandoval, who is an incredible master of music. I was super nervous because I never know what perception artists who play live instruments have of urbano artists. Many have a negative perception, while others seem to admire what we do. It took me by surprise when [Sandoval] loved the song and recorded the trumpets and keyboard. It gave the song such an important element.
What about that song makes it a crucial track on the album?
I had a lot to thank Ivonny for. She ceased to exist, but she really helped me for a while. I feel like as women we overcome so many things in our day to day lives. We never really give ourselves credit for all the things we actually do. We don’t give ourselves our flowers. So I wanted to make a song for the Ivonny in each and every woman and say the things we never dare to say to ourselves. Normally, we look in the mirror and say “Ugh, I don’t love this,” instead of saying “How pretty.” Even when we look beautiful, we always focus on what we don’t love.
I sat down and I asked myself what I liked about myself as this alter-ego. What was revolutionary or different about this version of myself that I had to create to get out of everything that was happening? As much as the song describes me, it also describes the message I want to convey to all women with every project I do. That line in the bridge, “She thinks the best is yet to come / Even though her heart has been broken / She doesn’t stop loving, Even though love hurts her,” that really represents the heart tattoo I have. People always ask me why the heart has spikes, and I always said, “I never really regret the things that happen to me, and I don’t want to stop loving.” I’m a romantic and a lover at heart. That phrase represents Carolina the most, but I think the general message of the rest of the song truly expresses what I would like women to feel about themselves when they listen to each song on the album. No matter what it’s about — love, heartbreak, whatever — I want them to feel confident and sure of themselves.
It feels like you made the album for women. It’s very much an album made by a woman for women.
The visual narrative of Tropicoqueta is inspired by the Latina vedettes from many years ago, who were criticized a lot because they used their bodies to put on a show. But that was the only way they could be seen. These women went on stage to put on a show for men and became famous that way. In all the interviews you see with all these women, you realize that they became so iconic because they said, “This is my moment to shine.” They went out and gave it their all, no matter what they had to do, whether it was be nude, whether they had to dance, whatever it was. They did it with so much passion and so much soul because it was the only time they had to be seen and appreciated. Tropicoqueta is a tribute to all of them.
It makes me very happy to hear you say that. I feel like I completed the task I set out to accomplish. I want everyone, men and women, to experience my music. But at the end of the day, I sing for women. My music is very much for women. There are many male artists who can make men feel many ways, but we’re still lacking female artists to create a safe space for women. With this album, I want every woman to find emotional support in this album, no matter what they’re feeling. If they’re happy, sad, or feeling crazy, I want them to be able to find a song that represents them.
You have some really exciting collaborations on the album. What was it like working with icons like Marco Antonio Solis?
When we made “Coleccionado Heridas,” I felt like it needed a classic male voice that would take me back to a specific moment from a long time ago. I thought about a person who was my grandmother’s favorite artist my whole life. It was crazy to think of him and call him. My sister contacted his manager to ask him. I usually like to contact artists directly, but I needed to create an opening there. I was like How can I call him? What perception does he have of urbano artists? So I called and he was incredible. He was everything you’d expect from an artist you’ve admired your whole life. Being able to meet him was so special. On top of that, his daughters are super fans which helped me a ton. He told me, “when my manager told me you were going to call me because you had something to tell me, I told my daughters and they were like ‘Dad, whatever it is you have to say yes.’ I promised them so whatever it is, it better be good.” He loved the song. He sounds like classic Marco Antonio Solis on it. This song sounds like we went back in time.
The lyrics for that one are really heartfelt.
I feel like Latinos are really passionate, romantic people. At least, I am. I love in an old-fashioned way. I like details. I like writing handwritten letters. I like receiving flowers. People might think I love receiving brand-name gifts, but that seems a little boring to me. I think thoughtful gestures, no matter how small, are really meaningful. For example, I would find it so sweet if someone was like “Karol loves having oranges after she works out, so I gave her an orange.” It’s all in the details. I’m very much like that. So when we made the song, it’s about how loving in that way was left in the past, and how those of us who still do will continue to collect wounds because of it. Even though experts say that way of loving no longer exists, here we are. That’s why we thought having a person who gave that sound from another era was going to be the way to close the feeling of the song.
The album features your first vallenato songs, which is such an important genre in Colombia. How did those come together?
Vallenato music has only ever had one woman mega-artist named Patricia Teherán. She’s the inspiration for that song. I love her, I love her songs, and people have seen me sing them a lot. So I looked for the people she works with. Iván Calderón was the producer and composer on all her songs. We brought the song to him and said, “I want that song to sound like the vallenato that was made at that time.” Iván put together this group of the best musicians he has. Meanwhile, I put together a team full of more mature women who play vallenato for when we perform the songs live. The delivery of the music just feels different coming from a group of people who are older, rather than younger. It brings a totally unique experience.
Your voice sounds different with each genre and every song is so evocative. How much did you think about the delivery for the distinct genres?
I thought about it a lot. I delivered the album and I’m still driving my team crazy about it because every day I find something I want to change. Obviously, with incorporating so many genres, I want to respect and honor each one. So, how do you sing vallenato? You sing it with thick, emotional vocals, because for them, it was very important that the voice prevail over the instruments. I studied each genre carefully and to be able to authentically interpret all of them was a challenge.
You keep referring to the artists you grew up with as sources of inspiration for Tropicoqueta. Who were some of those musicians and in what way did they shape the course of the album?
One of the greatest inspirations for the album were all the women who sang about everything so intensely, they really owned the feeling. On my last album, I feel like I spoke about love with a lot of anger. I don’t feel that way anymore. I’ve turned the page. I’ve matured with life’s experiences and allowed myself to feel more deeply. Listening to women artists like Rocío Dúrcal, La India, Anna Gabriel, Miriam Hernández, Amanda Miguel, Helenita Vargas and returning to them was incredibly important.
The way they write, the way they sing, it comes from the soul. That’s why creating “Ese Hombre Es Malo” was so difficult because I felt like any song I made would be too small for the musical world around me. When we finally nailed it, I was like, “Wow.” I know this one is going to be a song that fans are going to expect me to sing live. For example, I could never cut “200 Copas” or “Gucci Los Panos” from the set list. My fans would be upset if I did that. This one is going to be like that.
Can you tell me about making “Ese Hombre Es Malo” and the difficulties you encountered?
I’m a huge fan of Juan Gabriel’s live album in Bellas Artes. I think the story is even more fascinating. Juan Gabriel wanted to sing at Bellas Artes but they told him that his music wasn’t up to par with the venue’s legacy. And he said, “Okay, I’m going to make my music live up to that level.” He made an arrangement of all his songs with a symphony orchestra and wound up playing at Bellas Artes.
I always wanted to rise to the same challenge with this album. We started a lot of songs, but for me, none of them lived up to the standard of a song like Gabriel’s. This was the second to last song I put on the album, right before the one I added last week. (Laughs.) When I finished the album in December, this was the last one I made.
I was with Edgar in Medellín when he got a phone call. Now, Edgar is a really quiet, reserved person but he burst out laughing so hard I had to ask what was so funny. He told me he just got off the phone with his friend, a real cabrón whose wife just kicked him out of the house. I was like “What’s so funny about that?” He wouldn’t stop laughing, and then he told me how this friend has a different woman everywhere. He felt like he had permission to be with other women on his little trips and his wife knew about it, but since he didn’t bring them home, it was fine with her. But then this one woman started leaving things like lipstick in his bag and clothes, so the wife would realize he was being unfaithful. The wife told him to leave the house right away. It’s a super sad story, but at that moment, I knew that’s what the song had to be about. I wanted to write about that woman who got tired of being the other woman. The song feels like a poem.
It’s a mariachi with a symphony orchestra. We recorded it in Guadalajara, Mexico and one of the arrangers was part of the Juan Gabriel songwriting team. It was amazing to see it come together live, having all those people there playing, and learning about a bunch of instruments. We were there for the recording of each of the instruments. It was super special being there with the maestro who directed everything and being able to say which transitions best fit my vision of the song.
Where did the inspiration for the title track come from?
At Colombian parties, whether it’s a wedding or quinceañera, we have something called “hora loca.” They bring out glasses and hats so people can dress up, and it’s an entire hour where they play like songs with choreography and everyone dances along. It includes songs like “Mayonesa” and “Macarena.” Obviously, I had to have a song on this album that could be played during “Hora Loca” and it has its own choreography too. With “Tropicoqueta,” I wanted to make a song that even the tia making food in the kitchen would want to dance to.
This album celebrating Latin culture and icons feels very well-timed, especially with everything going on in the country and all the anti-Latino rhetoric.
People are really opening their eyes to how important the Latino community is in this country. Everywhere I look, I feel like people are beginning to understand and see the Latino community’s hard work. It does feel like the right time to release this album. I thought about this when I made “Papacito,” the English song on the album. Even though it’s in English, it’s not how an American artist would sound. It has my mega-accent and is simply how Karol G would sound if she made a song in English. It’s a techno merengue that I wrote in Spanish at first but then I thought why not make it in English? I liked the idea of doing that because when we were on the U.S. tour, I realized that there are so many Latinos whose first language is English. I want them to be able to hear themselves in that song.
What do you hope to accomplish by incorporating a variety of classic Latin genres?
Reggaeton and urbano music have become super prevalent in the music world. In a certain way, those genres have imposed themselves a little too much. But Latinos are a lot more things than just those genres and today’s younger generations might not recognize that. I mean, damn, when I was heartbroken, I used to dedicate songs by Rocío Dúrcal, Myriam Hernández, and Amanda Miguel. The lyrics were just written with a different kind of blood than today’s music is. Today’s music is still valid and important, it’s just different.
When I played the album for someone in the music industry he was very emotional. He told me that he found it incredible because his children are such big fans of today’s music and artists, but that it’s difficult for him to introduce them to music that represents Latin culture in other ways because younger generations don’t connect as much with those artists anymore since they’re artists from the past. But a current artist has the power to open the door for them to learn a little bit. It would be super special for me to be the artist that does that.
Last year, I did an interview in Italy and I said “I want to represent Latin music” and the journalist said, “Of course, like reggaeton and urbano!” And I said, “No, in general.” And he kept saying reggaeton or Latin hip-hop. I told him Latinos are made up of a bunch of different cultures, different traditions, and therefore different sounds so Latin music is a universe full of possibilities. From that moment, I realized there’s work to do.
After making such a smash hit with Mañana Será Bonito two years ago and releasing your documentary Tomorrow Was Beautiful earlier this year, to now dropping this incredibly important album, how do you feel?
I’m super happy. I don’t think I could have taken a better direction. With music, everything feels so uncertain. There isn’t just one genre of music that’s ruling the charts. In light of this, being faithful to what I wanted to do was the best thing I could have done.
I sat down and said, “Okay, I have the opportunity to do this on another level.” To do that, I had to make the album of my dreams. This album also elevates everything I’ve done. It really blows my mind to think about how at the beginning of everything, I saw it all as so far away and so difficult. I really want to find out how far I can go. So many things have already happened to me that I never thought could happen, so what’s next?
