FEATURE:
Modern Heroines
Part Sixty-Four: Camila Cabello
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ON this outing…
PHOTO CREDIT: Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times
I wanted to spend some time featuring Camila Cabello. I am including her in Modern Heroines, as I feel she is one of the most inspiring women in music right now. Her third album, Familia, is out soon. I will come to that soon. Born in 1997, Cabello is a Cuban-born American artist. She rose to prominence as a member of the girl group Fifth Harmony, formed on The X Factor USA in 2012. I feel her solo work is more prominent and impressive. Her 2018 debut album, Camila, was released to great acclaim. She followed that with Romance in 2019. I will bring in a review for that album before moving on to some interviews. I am looking forward to the release of Familia. Romance was a more expressive and expensive album compared with Camila. This is what AllMusic wrote in their review:
“Is there a name for the opposite of a break-up album? Because that's what Camila Cabello's sophomore effort Romance feels like: a record as bursting with ecstatic emotion and erotic desire as the exuberant delirium of having just fallen in love. It's a palpable vibe she put on display during her blush-inducing performance of the single "Señorita" with her duet partner (and rumored boyfriend) Shawn Mendes at the 2019 American Music Awards. The performance ended with Cabello and Mendes teasing a kiss, a bold move that left the audience excited for what the rest of Romance would hold. What Cabello does reveal on Romance is an artist continuing to refine her distinctive pop persona as she happens to be deep in the sway of love.
Working with a respectable cadre of songwriters and producers including Andrew Watt, Finneas O'Connell, Justin Tranter, and others, Cabello digs deeper into her Cuban heritage with songs like the aforementioned "Señorita," the horn-accented "Liar," and the yearning "Used to This," that display her growing sense of maturity, balancing pop, reggae, and R&B flourishes with even more Latin embellishments. If 2018's Camila was about striking out on her own after leaving her former group Fifth Harmony, then Romance is about Cabello defining herself in the pop landscape and setting herself apart from contemporaries like Ariana Grande, Dua Lipa, and Taylor Swift. There is one break-up song on the album in "Should've Said It," a defiantly steamy anthem in which Cabello reclaims her independence from a former flame against the backdrop of a Santana-esque guitar hook. She strikes an equally swaggering, rock-inflected stance elsewhere, leaning into her throaty, scritch-scratch vocals on "Shameless" and showcasing her knack for soaring falsetto balladry on "Living Proof." Along with catchy hooks, what makes Romance particularly compelling is Cabello's candor and willingness to share her experiences and emotions in striking detail. On "Easy" she sings, "I never like my crooked teeth/You tell me they're your favorite thing/Anything else?/The stretch marks all around my thighs/Kiss 'em 'till I change my mind about everything else." If Romance is an album about Cabello feeling loved and seen by someone else, it's just as much about her seeing and understanding herself as an artist”.
I want to move on to an NME. Promoting Romance, Cabelllo discussed the changes on her second album. She also discussed what it was like being seen as a role model:
“At 22, the Cuban-American singer-songwriter has already put in seven years of service to pop music: in 2012, she auditioned for the short-lived American incarnation of The X Factor as a solo artist, but ended up being shoe-horned into a girl-group called Fifth Harmony. They had some absolute bangers, but never gelled as convincingly as their UK contemporaries Little Mix. Since going solo four years later, Cabello has shown herself to be a smart and playful operator – after some pop fans mocked her and Mendes for failing to kiss “properly” during their performance at this year’s VMAs, they posted an – ahem – tongue-in-cheek Instagram video in which they demonstrated how they “really kiss”.
The 13-track ‘Romance’ only has two featured artists: North Carolina rapper DaBaby cameos on ‘My Oh My’ and Mendes obviously shares vocal duties on ‘Señorita’. Cabello says the latter, which spent six weeks at Number One this summer, “is totally different” from much of the album because it “felt like it came about as a one-off”. At the same time, it had to make ‘Romance’’s final cut because it’s “become part of the story now”.
She doesn’t believe in collaborations for the sake of it, which is pretty refreshing at a time when the charts are packed with team-ups that seem designed to satisfy a Spotify algorithm. “I think you just know on a song-by-song basis,” Cabello says matter-of-factly. “Either a song just screams for somebody [to feature on it], or it doesn’t.
I suggest that the enormous success of ‘Señorita’ must come as kind of a relief. After all, her 2018 debut ‘Camila’ spawned ‘Havana’, which became Spotify’s most-streamed song of all time from a female artist. It confirmed Cabello as a legitimate solo star after her stint in Fifth Harmony, which ended when she quit the group in December 2016, around 18 months before the remaining band members decided to go on hiatus. Now Cabello also has ‘Señorita’ in her arsenal, no one can claim ‘Havana’ was just a one-off.
She also wanted to make ‘Romance’ more bombastic than ‘Camila’, which makes sense when you consider she’ll be touring the UK’s most cavernous arenas – including London’s 20,000-capacity O2 – next summer. “One of the things I was really conscious of when making this album was my live show,” she explains. “I wanted the songs to sonically fill up the room better because on my first album, I had a lot of songs that were quieter. So with this one, I wanted songs that worked really well for live performances.”
She says different tracks on the album have “different kinds of intensity”, which is completely accurate – the ska-flecked single ‘Liar’ even features a loping sample from Ace of Base‘s Eurodance banger ‘All That She Wants’. “But they all have this certain vibe, which is just how I am, which is very dramatic,” Cabello adds. “Because I am very dramatic!”
She’s also happy to be perceived as a role model – something many of us would baulk at, especially at the age of 22. “I feel like I am [one], and honestly, I want to be,” Cabello says earnestly. “I don’t really shy away from that term, and I think it’s because I have a little sister who’s 12. So I’m like, always thinking ‘I hope I’m making her proud and talking about the right things’. But I think it’s also very my personality, too. Whatever my values are, I hold onto them really strongly”.
PHOTO CREDIT: Christine Hahn for Wonderland.
Sticking with 2019, there is a great interview from Wonderland., where we discover more about Cabello’s family, in addition to what Romance represents as a step forward:
“She’s also scaled back her use of social media, and started using her voice to speak out about the issues that mean the most to her, whether that be coming to the defence of her friend and former tour mate Taylor Swift after she lost the rights to her recordings, or sharing her family’s immigration story in the wake of President Trump’s proposed anti-immigration laws. “When it comes to those issues, I share my story because I feel like it humanises a lot of the political stuff,” she says. “Looking at it in black and white, you just see these big, vague terms, but when you see a person telling their story, you connect with the fact that they’re a human being just trying to take care of their kids… I think it’s easier to hate when you’re seeing it from far away.”
Cabello also credits her tight knit family — and specifically, her younger sister Sofia — with keeping her grounded and mindful. When asked if she thinks of herself as a role model, she’s quick to point out that she really just wants to set a good example for her only sibling. “I remember being [Sofia’s age] and how much Taylor [Swift] meant to me,” she says. “I definitely don’t feel like I have to super alter my personality to feel like I’m a good example for younger girls, but at the same time, I am conscious of it. I haven’t sworn in any of my songs because of my sister.”
Most importantly, though, Cabello is looking at this next phase as an opportunity to really get “in her feelings” and create songs that speak to all the many sides of Camila, from the teenager singing “Defying Gravity” at the top of her lungs in her bedroom to the self-possessed young woman she’s become. “There was this whole manifesto for the album and how I wanted it to make people feel. There were moods and tones and what I envisioned for it musically, and I read before every session to every producer,” she says. “But I feel like there’s never a neat little box that music can fit into. Once you’re done, it never turns out exactly the way you were thinking it would”.
Taking things up to date. Cabello was interviewed by Bustle earlier this month. Among other things, she talked about mental-health and how she responded to body shaming online:
“These days, Cabello has a new mantra: “Being at war with your body is so last season.” After photos surfaced of a day she spent on the beach with Mendes, Cabello was subject to a round of rampant body shaming. Though she doesn’t typically read the tabloids, Cabello accidentally stumbled upon the backlash while clicking around on social media. “‘This hurts so bad,’” she remembers thinking. “The whole day I felt insecure. I felt like it was changing how I was thinking about food and eating... really messing me up.” Another body shaming later, she decided to address the hate head-on in a now-viral TikTok. “I actually felt so liberated when I posted that. After that, I went to the airport and so many women were coming up to me like, ‘I saw that TikTok and it resonated with me so much,’” she says. “I actually feel my body insecurities went down after I posted that because I was like, ‘No matter what pictures come out or what people say, I’m now controlling the narrative.’”
Therapy has gotten her to a place where she’s realized, “You can work out a few hours a day and never eat carbs and whatever, but that’s just not a balanced life. That’s not what I want… I can’t change to fit that mold.” A lover of eclectic ensembles, Cabello also refuses to dress for her critics: “I’m going to wear whatever, and if there’s paparazzi around, that sucks, but I’m not going to completely reroute who I am for that.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Bustle
It’s become the norm for celebrities to “open up” about their mental health, and like many of her peers, Cabello often talks in the therapy-speak of the moment, pointing fans to resources for handling childhood trauma and anxiety, exhorting them to “do the work.” But unlike other outspoken pop stars, Cabello doesn’t share the details of her own traumatic experiences, though she references them in passing. Instead, she says that she experienced “toxic stress for years” that impacted her mental health later on. “OCD and anxiety was really hard for me,” she explains. “So many times, I was like, ‘There must be something wrong with me. I must be inadequate in some way, because just functioning is hard for me right now.’”
For Cabello, 2020 ended up offering a respite. Instead of hunkering down at home the whole time, she spent months in the village of Iver Heath, England, filming a jukebox musical retelling of Cinderella. On Amazon next month, she stars as the titular character who the internet has been quick to deem the “Girlboss Cinderella.” In this iteration, she’s a fashion designer with her own “Dresses by Ella” label. She has Meghan Markle-like thoughts on the monarchy. (“I don’t want a life stuck waving from a royal box,” she declares in the trailer.) When her “Fab G” shows up — a modern reimagining of the “fairy godmother” played by none other than Billy Porter, for whom the part was written — he outfits her in a sheEO-worthy pantsuit for the ball. (“This is… different,” she says, clearly disappointed. Swapping out his inspired creation for a more traditional gown, Porter snaps, “You said you wanted to be a businesswoman.”)”.
I want to end with this article. Cabello, as we read, once more addressed recent body shaming. Also, she reveals a bit more as to what her upcoming album, Familia, might offer:
“Camila has already confided that her next album will be called Familia and it will see the light very soon. The artist has assured on several occasions that she has been able to work a lot during the confinements derived from the pandemic. The result of this time is Don't go yet, a song that is shaping up to be Familia's first single and that opens, without a doubt, a new stage in Camila's career. One was introspective, of looking back, of not losing sight of the roots.
"There are other songs on the album that are only in Spanish and that have a completely different sound. Who I am as an artist and as a person is something that is always changing," the artist revealed. But above all there is the concept of Family in the broadest sense of the term. "I think that in this society where everything is focused on the individual, and the success of the individual, you experience more happiness when you are with other people; that is the message of the album ."
Camila continues to work and finalize the details of her new album, but she has already told us in advance that: "I would love to collaborate with Rosalía , I love it, I'm a super fan of hers. I send her DMs from time to time and so does she. She does. She knows that I adore and support her very much."
Self-acceptance and 'body positive'
In recent days, Camila's "pro real bodies" message went viral on social media and was widely applauded by women around the world. "I was running around the park thinking about my own things, trying to keep fit, stay healthy. And I am wearing a top that shows my belly button. And I was not putting my belly in because I was running and existing as a normal person who does not he sticks in the gut all the time. And I thought 'Wow' but then I reminded myself that being at war with your own body is out of date. "
I have gained weight during the pandemic. I love eating, cooking and all that, I had a bigger belly. I was running in the park, I saw a paparazzi and I said: oh, now those photos are going to be on the internet. And immediately I hear this voice in my head of insecurity. But then I thought: this is not my voice, but the voice of society, "says Camila Cabello." It is very toxic to think that women do not have wrinkles or cellulite. People have to get used to seeing real bodies".
I will end it there. Camila Cabello is a hugely inspiring artist who has grown as a performer and songwriter. Many people will be looking ahead to Familia. She is an amazing talent; someone whose messages of family, protecting your mental health and being proud of your body has, no doubt, given strength and support to many of her fans. At only twenty-four, we have an artist who is pretty much starting out. I know that there will be many more albums and career highlights. Cabello is someone who will become this superstar who moulds and inspires waves of other artists. There is no telling…
HOW far she can go.