Karol G was in Europe completing her “Mañana Será Bonito” stadium jaunt across the world when she got the idea for what could follow her 2023 album of the same name.
The stakes were high: “Mañana” had unlocked a new level of global stardom for the reggaeton artist, making her the first woman to win a Grammy award for best música urbana album. The tour was equally successful, raking in over $300 million from 62 shows between August 2023 and July 2024 as the highest-grossing run for a Latin female artist.
With her fifth studio album, “Tropicoqueta,” Karol set out to capture the emotions and empowerment she felt on stage. She recorded it while traveling to perform in stadiums for a diasporic population of Latinos that ranged in demographics, stretching from Switzerland to Venezuela.
“We could be in Berlin, and people would come with Ecuadorian flags,” Karol tells Variety. “Flags from countries across the whole world, who all have their own unique musical flavors, and it felt good that they saw themselves represented by me. That inspired me to visualize all parts of this album, built on different sounds from all over Latin America. It was a challenge because we had so many different genres involved, and I knew we had to get them all right.”
Determined to execute her vision, she started this album differently than she has others — filling an entire notebook’s worth of distinct details (one note reads “90% live instrumentals”) and ideas for what would become “Tropicoqueta,” everything from emotions and song titles to musical inspirations (La India, Rocío Dúrcal, Myriam Hernández) and the “dream collaborators and producers” needed to create the palette she had in mind.
Featured on the album are Manu Chao, Marco Antonio Solís, Eddy Lover, Greeicy and Mariah Angeliq. Karol’s boyfriend and Grammy-nominated reggaeton artist Feid is an unlisted contributor on hidden track “Canción 13,” or “Verano Rosa” as it appears on her YouTube channel. The album also has instrumentals and production from such acclaimed artists as including Edgar Barrera, Leo RD, Tainy and Pharrell Williams, the latter on the anthemic “Ivonny Bonita.”
“All of the producers on this album were called in with intention,” she adds. “On ‘Ivonny,’ I really wanted Pharrell to put his touch on a song, but also have it sound like me. When Pharrell did his instrumental, Edgar and I added more of a Latin touch to it.” That was the addition of an exhilarating conga pattern, and piano keys and a trumpet section played by Arturo Sandoval.
Her fifth overall and longest album yet, totaling one hour and 20 minutes and 20 songs, is an homage to Latin identity through music. It ranges from a vibrant Colombian vallenato to a Mexican ranchera, bachata, merengue, pop, cumbia and her usual hard-hitting reggaeton. Karol also sings in English for the first time in her records on the pop song “Papasito,” which started in Spanish, and was changed to English as a better fit to the story of the song.
“I did the translation myself because I wanted it to sound true to how I speak English,” she says. “The story is about me seeing this guy at a party and just instantly feeling attracted to him… and maybe the guy is American, so I’m speaking my best English to get him to fall in love with me.”
There’s also the cinematic “Ese Hombre Mio,” which Karol recorded in Guadalajara, and recruited a former collaborator of the late Juan Gabriel to arrange the 57 different instruments heard throughout.
“I don’t know what is going to happen with this album,” Karol says. “But no matter how its recieved, I’m going to fight for it because I am super in love with it. Every week I find a new favorite.”
The record was preceded by two singles, “Si Antes Te Hubiera Conocido,” a massive radio hit in 2024, and “Latina Foreva,” an ode to Latin women. The track is built on reggaeton beats and a sample of “Oye Mi Canto,” and its pre-chorus makes a beat of the words “tits and ass.” The internet criticized the song as a failed attempt to empower women by sexualizing them, a claim Karol had already received in the last year when she and five top male artists in reggaeton — ranging from Feid to J Balvin, Maluma and more — released the song “+57,” and were accused of sexualizing young girls with the lyric “a baddie since she was 14.” Karol issued an apology and the age in the lyric was changed to 18.
“I feel like the bigger the project gets, the harder the people get with me,” she says. “I think there are different opinions on how I should and shouldn’t be acting at this point in my career and it gets so confusing sometimes that it becomes hard to handle.”
On the criticism of “Latina Foreva,” she says, “It’s difficult, because the video is incredible but I knew having us in bikinis with me singing about about tits and ass… I just knew it was going to be a talking point. But the way I see it, I am just singing of my realities. I don’t want to change myself to have to please anyone, either. I have emotional songs on this record that are soul-touching, and then I have my fun and sometimes raunchy songs — Latinas are everything. Why can’t we just be everything?”
Before the release of her album, Karol released a documentary on Netflix that captured the highs of her stadium trek. One of those moments was the day “Mañana Será Bonito” hit No. 1 on the albums chart in the United States. In the scene, Karol’s father calls her and congratulates her before telling her to be wary of her expectations, reminding her that after every peak, there’s usually a fall.
She’s realistic about whatever is coming next. “Not everyone will enjoy this album the same,” she says. “There’s a lot going on and these sounds and styles mean different things to different people, but I couldn’t be prouder of how it’s come together. It’s exactly what I pictured when I started writing in that notebook.
“I know there’s more people watching me, and because of that, I know not everyone is going to like me,” she concludes. “I have to really follow my heart, and that’s what you’ll find in this record.”
Read the full article here
