There’s a phrase that Judeline, the enchanting singer from Spain, hears all the time: “Enjoy your youth.”
“Everyone always says, ‘These years go so fast,’ and they tell me, ‘If I was your age, I’d be doing this, I wouldn’t have done this,’” she explains.
Some of that impulse makes sense. After all, Judeline is only 22, but she’s already experienced a massive, breakthrough year, thanks to her stunning debut, Bodhiria, an experimental album from 2024 that landed three Latin Grammy nominations, including for Best Alternative Music Album. It won her fans all over the globe (including Trent Reznor and Atticus Finch, who tapped her for the TRON: Ares soundtrack) and set her on course for months of shows and performances and new experiences.
“I’m doing things I’ve never done before, eating food I’ve never met before, connecting with people I’ve never met on my life,” she says. “I’m living through things I’ve never experienced, so this whole period for me has meant lot of reflecting about what it means to be young.”
That feeling — both the euphoria of seeing things for the first time and the threat of life going by too fast — ended up deeply influencing her new EP, Verano Saudade, which she released in December. Through five songs, she interrogates what it means to live in the present and examines that comment she kept getting from people about enjoying her youth.
“I kept wondering what will go through my head when I’m their age,” she says. “Will I think the same things? Will I agree with them? Can you really change your youth while you’re living through it, or do those thoughts and feelings only happen when you’re older and looking back?”
For Judeline, the new EP has represented a different way of making music. Bodhiria was a complex, labyrinthine concept album about toxic love that melded flamenco, joropo, and trap beats, all of it centered on Judeline’s voice. Verano Saudade is lighter and more intuitive. “With Bodhiria, we thought things through a million times,” she says. “With this, we were quick and direct and if we liked something, we went with it.”
Still, it’s all tied together by her mesmerizing vocal style. So much of that otherworldly sound has attracted new listeners, but none has surprised her as much as Nine Inch Nails reaching out. “I did not have that on my bingo card,” she says with a laugh. She hadn’t been a hardcore Nine Inch Nails fan, but she had tons of friends who were. “I knew their work and the magnitude of it and what they’ve meant in film, and the electronic and rock fusions they’ve done,” she says. “I knew the respect their name evokes, but I had never listened extremely in-depth.”
A perpetual student, she made sure that changed quickly. “Even though I wasn’t a super close listener, in that moment, and every day since, I became one, and everyday I’ve been more of a fan.” She ended up singing on their track “Who Wants to Live Forever?” Listening to the song for the first time reinforced just what a huge moment the whole thing was. “It’s so clear when you hear the music just what experts they are,” she says. “It sounded so beautiful and high-quality.”
Now that the EP is out, she’s spending the early part of the year getting ready for some arena shows, including a major performance at Madrid’s Movistar Arena on Feb. 22. And she already has ideas brewing for her next album. “I’m experimenting with more and more melodies and sounds from different cultures, with a lot of respect and admiration,” she shares. “I want to study music from around the world. I want to discover what sounds good to me. I have so much left to learn and study.”
What else does she feel she wants to do in her youth? “I don’t know,” she says with a laugh. “I feel that I’ve started to like going home and falling asleep way too early into my twenties. I wish I would have liked partying and staying out late and meeting people more, but I like the feeling of being home in my bed too much.” Still, there’s a lot she’s happy with. “I’m traveling a lot and discovering a lot of the world with amazing people and putting my energy into things I love,” she says. “I don’t regret that.”
