Carolina Giraldo Navarro, a.k.a. Karol G, has been named Best New Artist at the Latin Grammy Awards, topped Billboard’s Top Latin Albums chart, embarked on headlining tours across the U.S., and collaborated with one of her idols, Shakira. Suffice it to say, the Colombian singer knows music very well.
In fact, at 32 years old, she’s already broken plenty of records in the industry. Her fourth album, Mañana Será Bonito, not only became the first all-Spanish-language album by a female artist to ever secure the number one spot on the Billboard 200 chart—it was most-played album in the world on Spotify for five weeks straight.
“We never sat down and said, ‘Okay, let’s think of an album concept que rompe, that will be number one,” Karol G tells ELLE in our June/July 2023 cover story. “I was just singing about my life. How can that be meaningful for people? If people are connecting with the album, they are connecting directly, literally, with me. Because that is the album: stories from my life, in songs.”
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Born in Medellín in 1991 as the youngest of three sisters, Karol G first became immersed in music via her father, Juan Guillermo, who played in a band and often brought his precocious daughter along to his gigs, noting her vocal talent and penchant for rhythm. Soon she began joining him onstage, performing and singing duets. “That’s when I fell in love with singing,” she says, adding that she grew up listening to Colombian folk music, reggaeton, salsa, and even the Backstreet Boys.
But for summer 2023, it’s all about what’s new—and that includes her new single “Amargura” and Rema’s collaboration with Selena Gomez. Below, Karol G shares more of the songs she’ll have on repeat all summer long.
Claire Stern is the Deputy Editor of ELLE.com. Previously, she served as Editor at Bergdorf Goodman. Her interests include fashion, food, travel, music, Peloton, and The Hills—not necessarily in that order. She used to have a Harriet the Spy notebook and isn’t ashamed to admit it.
