Camila Cabello has had a phenomenal 2017. The launch of her solo career has seen her impact on charts across the world, whilst earning her first UK number one with ‘Havana’. She has won awards, including Best Pop Artist at the 2017 MTV EMA, toured with Bruno Mars and performed all over the globe.
Having just wrapped up her debut solo album, due for release next year, Camila has spoken exclusively to tmrw magazine. She is one of four cover stars for the month of December, alongside Maggie Lindemann, Wolf Alice, and Connor Franta.
In her exclusive interview, Camila speaks about what influences her solo music, the importance of using her platform to speak about the current political climate, and much more.
After releasing her debut solo single ‘Crying in the Club’ earlier this year, Camila truly came into her own with the release of ‘Havana’. Initially dropped as a summer double feature, the song’s success skyrocketed overnight, prompting Camila to release it as her official second single.
Speaking to tmrw about her solo music, Camila said: “I think that I’ve just kind of learned to trust my instincts more. There have been songs that are more me than others, and I’ve just learned to go with my gut more. I think that because I’ve spent the whole week with my family [in London] and we were listening to Spanish music that I listened to growing up, it’s very, very romantic, more along the lines of Ed Sheeran and John Mayer. It’s like poetry. I think that who I really, really am inside is still the 16 year old that was listening to romantic songs and singer songwriter songs, and lyrically I feel like I’m just kind of going back to that.
“I think it’s inevitable that I draw from it because it’s such a big part of who I am, it’s such a big part of my lifestyle. The music that I listen to with my family is like all Latin music. I always wanna find different ways of combining different parts of me.”
Camila has learnt a lot about herself as an artist over the year, and cites her support slot on Bruno Mars’ world tour as one of the reasons why she continually pushes herself.
“One of the things I learnt from the Bruno tour is just you know, being realistic with yourself and being like man I need to step up my game, or I need to work a lot harder to get on that level. Sometimes it’s real, you have to check yourself,” Camila said.
“Bruno is obviously, you know leagues ahead of where I am, but I’m saying even short term. Let’s say you’re in school or at an awards show or something and you’re like wow this person is killing it. It might hurt but you have to be realistic with yourself and be like yeah, they freaking killed it. But you know what? Next time I’m gonna step up my game. It’s about being constructive with yourself, but I think that’s normal, its human.”
With millions of fans across the globe, Camila has also learnt the importance of using her platform to speak about the current political climate. She said: “I think that, I just feel kind of a responsibility to use my platform to speak out about that, and I do. I think in politics you can forget the human side of things, and forget that it’s people with dreams and hopes and families and I feel like that’s how I fight. By using my platform and my medium.”
Camila is keen to do this through her music and performances, rather than on social media. “I hate social media, I only go on twitter to interact with my fans, and you know because it’s part of my job. It’s part of me representing my work and realistically it’s just a part of today. But I’m not really a very public person, I’m not on there talking all the time,” she said. “How I speak out about things that are important to me is through my work, through what I do. I had a performance on the Today show where I dedicated it to the dreamers and spoke out about that. ‘Havana’, the music video, it’s all about that and shifting, representing latinos, how we really are as humans.”
If it wasn’t already apparent. Camila isn’t your average celebrity, and she isn’t going to let the extravagant lifestyle consume her any time soon. “I’m just not that kind of person, I’m like a homebody, and I don’t really do a lot of stuff that I would get in trouble for to be honest with you! That’s never really been hard for me because I’ve never had to cover anything up. My lifestyle isn’t anything that might be controversial. Who I am publicly is really more or less, who I am.”
We certainly love Camila for it and she has been defined as a positive role model by many. Speaking about being seen as a role model, she said: “Everybody’s different, so I can only really answer that for myself, but for me, I do feel like, for me the word role model is a compliment and it’s an honour. I like being that person for younger girls. I want to be! I want younger girls to come to my concerts and dream and all of that stuff.”
Camila’s tmrw magazine cover is available to pre-order now.