Camilla Cabello has played a few different girls in her career. As a member of the X Factor\–forged
girl group Fifth Harmony, she stood out to the show’s judges as an accessible,
all-American pop star—so much so that after four years, she opted to embark on a solo career in 2016.
In early releases like “Havana” and “Señorita,”
the Cuban-born singer served up a 21st-century Carmen Miranda fantasy, seemingly geared to anglophone consumers.
Cabello dug deeper into her heritage in her 2022 album, Familia.
Yet the vulnerable ballads of a dutiful immigrant daughter weren’t only about her own identity but her relationship to Latino culture more broadly.
In songs like “Lola,” she contemplated a parallel universe in which her parents never left Cuba and Mexico to pursue greater ambitions.
In the lead-up to her new album, C, XOXO, Cabello broke things off with her longtime flame, Shawn Mendes,
and ditched Los Angeles for the city that raised her: Miami.
She then called on star producers El Guincho and Jasper Harris to help assemble an edgier sonic vibe for her, inspired by the hip-hop sounds she grew up with.