Karol G holds nothing back on new album with Drake and Bruno Mars
Karol G has spent years filling stadiums with songs that get everyone dancing. On her new album, she is showing a more personal side of herself.
Released on Friday, August 7, No Me Arrepiento de Sentir Tanto is the Colombian superstar's 14-track sixth studio album.
The album features artists such as Drake, Bruno Mars, Judeline, Rusowsky and Cigarettes After Sex frontman Greg Gonzalez.
Translated to ‘I Don't Regret Feeling So Much,’ the album stretches Karol G's sound across emotional ballads, dreamy pop, reggaeton, electronic music and Afrobeats.
There is still plenty to dance to, but this time the party comes with tears, writes Music News Blitz’s Zinhle Radebe.
Learning to be alone
The album began taking shape during a solo trip to Hawaii last November.
"Everything started when I went to Hawaii," Karol G told Elle. "I did a lot of hiking alone. I would climb the mountains alone. I would stand there gazing at the sky."
Away from the crowds, she found herself thinking about the loneliness that can come with her career.
"In making this album, I put a lot into being alone," she said.
‘Te Llevas To’ opens with the anger of a relationship falling apart, while ‘Bebiendo Lágrimas’ finds her writing love off altogether. On ‘Ahí’, Drake sings in Spanish as Karol G tries to forget the past and enjoy the moment.
"I cry a lot. I'm super sentimental and I've hated myself a lot for that," she told Elle. "But at the same time, I'd rather suffer because I lived too much, because I loved too much, because I had too much fun."
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Bruno Mars joins her on ‘Still’
One of the album's biggest surprises is ‘Still’, a duet with Bruno Mars and Karol G's first song performed entirely in English.
The pair trade vocals over an 80s-inspired pop and R&B backdrop, singing about the kind of love that lingers after a relationship ends.
"Even though it may hurt / 'Cause I'd still love you / Even with a broken heart," they sing.
Karol G does not want the track reduced to an English language crossover moment.
"There's a song on the album that's entirely in English, and I don't want people to just see it as, 'Oh, Karol G's new English song,'" she said in a TikTok video.
She said recording in another language had always been something she was open to as long as it happened naturally.
"This song found me," she said, adding that it expressed "exactly what I was feeling."
Judeline and Rusowsky also appear on ‘Bby WOW’, while Gonzalez joins Karol G on ‘Después de Ti’, which she debuted during her Coachella headline set in April.
READ MORE: Album review - ‘Blue Island’ by Ravyn Lenae
When the emotions reached the stage
Days before the album's release, Karol G broke down in tears during her August 2 concert outside Washington, D.C.
"I'm so, so, incredibly grateful for the love you always give me," she told fans.
"When I stand on this stage, it feels like I'm seeing a different reality. You all make me feel like you truly love me, that you support me, that you give me confidence."
She also gave the crowd an early listen to another track from No Me Arrepiento de Sentir Tanto, singing about pretending to have moved on from an ex when deep down you haven't.
"If you see him, tell him I'm fine, that I've never been better, that I'm over it, that I've finally forgotten… lie to him, please”
No more hiding
Karol G announced No Me Arrepiento de Sentir Tanto during her July 29 concert at Toronto's Rogers Stadium, revealing its blue artwork across the stadium screens.
"The next version of me will be new to people," she previously told Elle, "but it's always been there, dormant."
The album arrives during a major year for Karol G. In April, she became the first Latina artist to headline Coachella and she is currently taking her Viajando Por El Mundo Tropitour through stadiums across North America.
But behind the stadium shows and major collaborations, No Me Arrepiento de Sentir Tanto leaves room for a side of Karol G that does not always make it onto the stage.
She may still be La Bichota, but this time she is not pretending that being strong means never crying.
