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Tag: juntos

  • Gabriela Berlingeri Is Focused on Self-Love — and Her Jewelry Line Celebrates That

    Gabriela Berlingeri Is Focused on Self-Love — and Her Jewelry Line Celebrates That


    Even for those who seek to be the center of attention, the spotlight often comes with a heavy price. In a world where gossip rules much of the mediasphere, even non-celebrities can end up caught up in the maelstrom of intense public attention. Especially if they’re closely associated with someone famous and recognizable. Gabriela Berlingeri experienced that, and to a degree very few can relate to, during the time she dated one of the most famous people on the planet — Bad Bunny.

    The story of how Berlingeri and the Latin trap artist had a chance meeting and started up a relationship back in 2017 has become part of his lore. The two were together for several years and even collaborated on a handful of songs. She was even shouted out in “Acho PR,” a single off his latest album “Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana.”

    The details of when and how the relationship ended have been kept close to their chests, in tune with what was already a highly private romance. And while media outlets have covered every last one of Bad Bunny’s moves in the last year, Berlingeri has immersed herself in her passion project — her jewelry line, DiciembreVeintinueve. Named after her birth date, the brand has also aided her in discovering new and healthy perspectives on self-love and life beyond a high-profile relationship.

    Raised all her life in the beachy Isla Verde neighborhood of Carolina, Puerto Rico, Berlingeri has always counted herself as close to nature. She describes her family as one filled with “creators,” a trait that she feels proud to follow.

    “My grandmother makes stained glass, my dad designed all his tattoos, plus he loves painting. My aunt is an architect. My family has been quite creative,” Berlingeri tells POPSUGAR. “The act of making something yourself, with your hands, is amazing.”

    In her case, Berlingeri gravitated toward jewelry. “Lots of people say they can’t sleep with their jewelry on, but I always sleep with them,” she says. “I wake up, and even if I’m not wearing anything else, I’ll have my jewelry on me.”

    Her interest only increased after she worked alongside a local jewelry designer and learned how to craft pieces herself. In 2019, she began to plant the seeds for what would eventually become DiciembreVeintinueve (or D29, as it’s also known). The brand launched in November 2020 following pandemic-related delays, and since then it’s churned out beautiful necklaces, bracelets, earrings, rings, and more, all made in-house by Berlingeri and her team using locally sourced materials.

    Berlingeri says she has long-term ideas for collections but prefers to be inspired in the moment when it comes to individual designs. When asked how she comes up with them, she says: “It’s very random. I’ll sit down, go over what pieces I have at hand, put on my AirPods, and start linking them together. It’s like building a puzzle.”

    This month D29 is releasing its Valentine’s Day collection with pieces such as the Nabelle “Unicorn” Necklace, and a two-piece “Thelma and Louise” Necklace to share between best friends. This year’s theme is dedicated to self-love, healthy friendships, and the important bond between one’s mind, body, and spirit when you begin to focus on you. Last July, they dropped the Rhea Collection, a line inspired by the colors of Puerto Rico’s natural basins, rivers, forests, and beaches. It was an idea that suddenly sprang to Berlingeri only a few months ago. She decided to take a road trip around the island to look for further inspiration. It shows in a variety of the pieces — just look at the green tourmaline stones that make up the collar of the Medare Necklace, which she points out can represent not only the green of the flora but also how river and ocean water can sometimes take on a green hue.

    “The stones we use in our collections are natural, semiprecious,” she shares. “I’ve had lots of beach inspiration before, but this time I wanted to include more of the rivers and forests. Puerto Rico is known for its beaches, but we have many beautiful rivers and I wanted to capture their colors.”

    Another piece, the Casa Necklace, shows a palm tree in the foreground and a mountain range in the background, which reflects a view many locals live with every day — the coast on one side and the central mountains on the other. As Berlingeri puts it, “Lots of people will relate because we’re a small island. Getting to a beach is not that hard, although I know there are vicissitudes.” She recalls a news report she saw once about communities in the highest points of Puerto Rico, where people had gone their entire lives without leaving their towns. “There’s lots of poverty in Puerto Rico, up in the mountains, more than people realize,” she adds. “There are families living there who have never seen the ocean, and they have no way [to visit the coast].”

    As she speaks candidly and enthusiastically about this collection and future projects, including soon expanding D29 to sell bathing suits, her excitement is palpable. She’s surrounded by a dedicated all-women team of people she considers close friends, including head designer Shelby Díaz Esquerdo, who spearheads the waste-conscious One of One initiative, which reuses discarded elements to create one-of-a-kind jewelry pieces.

    Berlingeri knows escaping attention for whom she was with in the past will take a while, but she’s adjusted her life around what helps her ignore the noise and move forward with her goals.

    “What’s most important for me right now is maintaining myself happy and at peace,” she says. “You have to push through a lot in order to feel well and stable. And I want to create things that fulfill me, and focus on my work.”

    Berlingeri is putting that into the theme of her new line, too, framing it around the idea of having her customers buy Valentine’s Day gifts for themselves.

    “I’m in an era of: love yourself! It’s a great moment to say, ‘I’m going to get this for myself,’ during this season of consumerism, [which was] created to make you spend money.”

    “I’m in an era of: love yourself! It’s a great moment to say, ‘I’m going to get this for myself,’ during this season of consumerism, [which was] created to make you spend money,” she says. “It’s a great opportunity for someone to think about themselves for the first time and not think about other people.”

    Building up D29 and making it successful was exactly the kind of healthy distraction Berlingeri needed the last year, adding that it was “100 percent” a form of therapy for herself.

    “I get [to the office] and I’m happy. To me, getting here frees me from everything else; it keeps my feet on the ground — busy,” she says. “Sometimes I have days off and think, ‘What do I do?’ I don’t want to depend on anybody to make plans.” Right now, she loves to go to the beach by herself; she knows special spots where she can have privacy, avoid overeager fans, and simply enjoy the surf.

    That’s what this whole era is about for Berlingeri: focusing on herself, what brings her joy, and what makes her excited about the future. And that’s never too much.

    Although one of designer Coco Chanel’s famous quotes goes, “Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off,” Berlingeri begs to differ. “I’m sorry to Coco Chanel, but more is more,” she laughs. More work, more happiness, more time with friends, and all for the sake of no one but herself.



    Juan Arroyo

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  • Tell Me Más: Neysa Blay’s Sobriety Journey Has Transformed Her as a Music Artist

    Tell Me Más: Neysa Blay’s Sobriety Journey Has Transformed Her as a Music Artist


    When indie rock musician Neysa Blay sat down to start writing songs for her new album, “Nada es Suficiente,” she found herself in an unusual predicament. She’d been sober for nearly a decade at that point, putting considerable distance between her turbulent past and the more placid present. “I’m really good at writing when there’s chaos and noise in my head, and when things are kind of bumpy,” she says. But now she’d overcome so many of her inner demons. “How do I learn how to write from a good place?”

    The LP, which drops in May, bridges the gap between her innate rebellious spirit and the more conscientious Blay that has emerged over the past few years. Previous singles, such as the softer “Te Gusta/Me Gusta” and no-nonsense “Quise Que Fueras Tú,” toggle between vulnerable and headstrong; she might be rough, but her heart is undoubtedly open. Her newest track, “Úsame,” channels 1980s hair metal in its sound and visuals. But to get to where she is now, the budding rock star had to survive a difficult road.

    Raised in the beach-friendly town of Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico, Blay’s adolescence was marked by an inner tug-of-war between the love she has for her hometown and the constraints it imposed not just on her career, but on her as a person. As an openly gay woman who recognized her orientation very early on, she felt hampered by the societal mores of her surroundings.

    “That created a lot of angst because I didn’t understand why. I felt like a part of me had to pretend. The town all of a sudden would become too small for me,” she shares. As time passed and she grew into her teenage years, the colors of Cabo Rojo began to take on a different shade. “I remember [being] young, free, happy, fulfilled, and then I started growing up. [And a] sense of doom started falling in,” Blay adds.

    Her only respite then was music, which she began to explore between the ages of 8 and 10 after seeing students who were taking music classes out of an office space her father rented to a local music academy. From there she began to take guitar and singing lessons, which didn’t surprise her parents who noticed during her younger years that she had a knack for song.

    “[They] would play a lot of boleros, and I would love that music,” she recalls. “They’d hear me singing along and they’d be like: ‘There’s so much passion there. There’s so much emotion. You’re not a 40-year-old chasing a married man.’”

    As she grew older, the encroaching pressure of how she was expected to live her life was beginning to push her towards volatile spaces. As with many people who go down the same path, Blay found herself searching for ways to abate the anxieties that were overwhelming her. This led to what would become a years-long stretch of substance abuse that would nearly derail her relationship with her family, with partners, and her career dreams.

    For nearly seven years, Blay spiraled through a life almost entirely dominated by extreme drug and alcohol use. She moved to San Juan, where she found herself in circles that directly and indirectly encouraged her lifestyle. She would attempt to lean into her music but found herself unable to.

    “Because of my addiction, I wasn’t functional, so I couldn’t do gigs. I wouldn’t show up. I would miss a lot of opportunities,” she says. She admits to crafting unreasonable ideas about how to become a working artist — ideas spurred by the effects of her vices. “I had a very distorted idea of what [pursuing music] would look like. I thought I could be singing while pumping gas and somebody would discover me. I had a very romanticized fantasy vision of how you do this.”

    Eventually, she hit what she refers to as her “ultimate emotional bottom”.

    “I was very broken. I lost everything. I couldn’t keep a job . . . My parents had just kicked me out of the house, and they had stopped any financial help,” she says, adding how she had also just gone through a breakup as well.

    That Christmas she was invited over to her parent’s home, where she was given an option: enroll in a wilderness therapy program and try to overcome her addictions. As Blay tells it, she felt “beat” at this point in her life, and accepted, deciding she had nothing else to lose. “That was a Thursday. Saturday, I was flying out.”

    She recognizes what stage of the addiction cycle she was in at this time, and how difficult it was for her loved ones to get her there. “Dealing with an addict, it’s like you can’t save them, you can’t rescue them. But when the time is appropriate, you got to let them hit that bottom,” she reflects. “If you take a person that’s unwilling into treatment, [the help is] going to go in this way and out this way. You don’t want to get better, and you kind of have to want it for yourself.”

    Looking back, Blay credits wilderness therapy with saving her life. As opposed to rehab, which she says can sometimes be “cushy,” wilderness therapy is an outdoor program of intense activities for people suffering from behavioral disorders and substance abuse that include hiking, camping, and more, with the goal of “enhancing personal and interpersonal growth.”

    “They broke me and then built me back up,” she confesses. “When you go in they don’t tell you when you leave, which is different from treatment because when you go to treatment, you’re like, ‘I’m going to do 30 days,’ and you’re already one foot in, one foot out . . . Here [there’s] no future information. I don’t know when I’m getting out. I don’t know what we’re doing today. I don’t know where we’re hiking today. And that really helped release a sense of control of my life.”

    After three and half months, she was finally deemed ready to leave the program. From there, she spent another three months at a treatment center in Chicago, to underline the progress she had made. Eventually, the day came when she was told she could relocate to wherever she wanted. “I’m already thinking in my head, what do you really want to do? Music. Music has always been in the background. Music has always been the priority,” she says.

    She convinced her parents to trust her to move to Miami, despite it being as they called it, the “cocaine capital.” Initially living in a treatment center followed by a halfway house, Blay soon found herself in her own apartment, with a job, going back to school, and getting around with a scooter.

    “I was pretty much learning how to be a person; how to be a normal, functioning human being. And I think it was one of the greatest experiences,” she says.

    In 2017, she connected with Sam Allison, an engineer at the iconic Criteria Recording Studios, and recorded “Veneno,” her first official single. That song made its way to experienced producer Marthin Chan, who became a fan and produced her debut EP, “Destrúyeme.”

    Songwriting and working on her craft while sober opened up an entirely new world of possibilities for Blay, who says “All of a sudden I was able to finish things, and not stop because anxiety was too crippling.”

    Not too long ago, she chose to move back to Puerto Rico, settling back in Cabo Rojo. She jokingly referred to it as “returning to the scene of the crime.” But there were earnest reasons behind the decision as well. Her relationship with her parents had grown stronger and more accepting since they saw how much she’d grown in the last decade and even embraced her new partner as well.

    But for Blay, there was another, deeper reason: “I wanted to tackle the sense of not belonging, to tackle the feeling of, as a lesbian, I’m not welcomed and loved in the community. I wanted to tackle all of the negatives. I wanted to take that narrative, change it, and own it,” she says. “I wanted to create new memories. I came with a mission of reclaiming Cabo Rojo for myself.” Her first gig after moving back? Onstage at Cabo Rojo’s Pride celebration, with her father in attendance supporting her.

    Before that was a creative sojourn to Mexico City, where she teamed up with producer Felipe “Pipe” Ceballos and cooked up “Nada es Suficiente.” Making this album, years into sobriety, was a learning experience. She realized the way she accessed and channeled her emotions had changed considerably. Where she once wrote from a place of a chaotic mindset and “spitting fucking venom,” she now approached the same scenarios from a contemplative, self-reflective angle.

    “I think that’s been one of the biggest changes in sobriety in terms of creativity,” she says. “I’ve grown and I’m also allowing my songwriting to grow along with me on this journey of being a good person.”

    Juggling the responsibility of maintaining her sobriety while also working through the anxieties of being an independent artist, without the privilege of self-medicating, has led Blay to incorporate new tools she hopes to share with others. She’s a proponent of DBT, or dialectical behavioral techniques, which allow her to face anxiety in healthier ways.

    “There’s simple stuff like realizing when you’re anxious and how it’s manifesting, and taking ownership of it by self-soothing. Self-soothing can be taking a nice hot bath for 10 minutes. It can be some breathing exercises,” she shares. “And then there’s… radical acceptance, [which] is when you have to accept that things aren’t under your control. And I love the word radical. Because it is. It’s just, ‘Shut the fuck up. You’re not in control. You have to accept that this is the way that things are. You can either cope with it, accept them, or you can just spend the whole day trying to fight something you can’t.’”

    It’s a rule that sums up her journey so far—one that led her to emerge from darkness and now points her on the path toward making her longtime dreams a reality.

    “With time, what I have learned is that whenever I’m feeling anxious or fearful, that’s the direction I have to run towards. Right now in my life, I see the anxiety and I’m like, ‘Buckle up,” Blay says. “That’s where we got to go.’ Like, ‘Oh, this is terrifying. I have a lot of anxiety.’ Okay, keep fucking going. This is where you need to be.”

    POPSUGAR: First celebrity crush?

    Neysa Blay: Judy Garland in “The Wizard of Oz” 💖

    POPSUGAR: Favorite mocktail?

    Neysa Blay: Ginger beer, lime juice, mint leaves and soda water

    POPSUGAR: Favorite beach in Puerto Rico?

    Neysa Blay: Playa Buyé on a weekday at 9 a.m.

    POPSUGAR: Three artists you have on repeat right now?

    Neysa Blay: A very gay playlist: Charli XCX, Troye Sivan, and Slayyyter

    POPSUGAR: Favorite mantra?

    Neysa Blay: “If they can do it, so can I.”

    POPSUGAR: Favorite guitar?

    Neysa Blay: Gibson SG (played by Angus Young)

    POPSUGAR: Dream collaboration?

    Neysa Blay: Marilina Bertoldi





    Juan Arroyo

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  • How Arcángel Is Grieving His Brother's Loss and Transforming Through the Process

    How Arcángel Is Grieving His Brother's Loss and Transforming Through the Process

    Eighteen years ago, before his debut on the 2005 compilation album “Sangre Nueva,” not many were familiar with Puerto Rican reggaetón artist Arcángel. In the early days of his music career, Arcángel would sing on mixtapes for his friends and for locals in the rough San Juan neighborhoods of Villa Palmeras and La Perla, where he grew up. But these days, he has millions of listeners tuning in to his music, making him one of the biggest stars of the genre.

    As Arcángel sits down for our virtual interview, his usual sunglasses are off. He looks straight at the webcam — not the screen — as if having a face-to-face conversation.

    There’s a startling amount of empathy in his eyes, which is both surprising and not when you consider his tumultuous early years, marked by hustling on the streets and finding ways to get by. People tend to associate that kind of life with cynical personalities, but there’s a fine line between cynicism and empathy, and what breeds one can easily lead to the other. You can’t have either without pain as a catalyst. As he talks, his eyes also betray another emotion swimming somewhere in his gaze — a latent sadness.

    Just past midnight on Nov. 21, 2021, a car accident in San Juan took the life of Arcángel’s younger brother, Justin Santos. Only 21 years old at the time, he was driving a vehicle that was struck by another, driven by a woman who prosecutors later alleged was under the influence. In the time since, the case has been marred by setbacks and delays, with the driver’s defense counsel successfully suppressing the alcohol blood level test results on various grounds. The process has been slowly moving its way up the judicial ladder, most recently into the hands of the Court of Appeals. A recent ruling reinstated the test results, paving the way for the start of a trial this year, more than two years after the incident.

    Since his brother’s tragic death, Arcángel has been vocal about how it has devastated his family and his own life. Still, he got back to recording, releasing “SR. SANTOS” in 2022 and “Sentimiento, Elegancia y Más Maldad” in November of last year. He’s gone on worldwide tours, continuing to fill up stadiums in dozens of countries across Europe and North America. But behind the scenes, he’s frank about how he’s not the same person people have known him as.

    “Sometimes, the better things are going for me, the sadder I feel.”

    “Sometimes, the better things are going for me, the sadder I feel,” he says. “I see all these great things happening and all I can think is if the kid were here, he’d be so happy.”

    While he’s still more than adept at rapping, as he proved during his Christmastime beef with Anuel AA, Arcángel acknowledges that the spark he once had has dimmed.

    “The creative process isn’t the same anymore and never will be again. I used to say I had a gift because in the studio I could listen to a beat and write [a song] like magic, out of thin air. I didn’t need a pen or paper. Lots of producers could tell you that,” he says. “I don’t have it anymore. It abandoned me.”

    He has no illusions, either, about why he’s been overcome by such creative doldrums.

    “After November [of 2021] it all went to sh*t, and since then nothing has changed. I need a team now to help me. I used to only need a music engineer and a good beat, and I took care of the rest,” he shares. “But I don’t have that touch anymore; it left, and maybe it’ll come back. But I hope it comes back soon because I don’t have 20 more years of career left.”

    Only a year passed between the accident and the release of “SR. SANTOS” — a time during which Arcángel submitted himself to getting a full-torso tattoo of his brother’s visage in his memory. The album was more trap- and rap-oriented, exploring street-level themes. His most recent project, “Sentimiento, Elegancia y Más Maldad,” includes more uptempo tracks that are more in the vein of his cheekier reggaetón roots.

    When asked if this is due to an improvement in his emotional state, he shoots down the notion.

    “My mind is f**ked up, understand? But I have to work. My mental health is not in good shape.”

    “My mind is f**ked up, understand? But I have to work. My mental health is not in good shape,” he shares. “I never knew what it was to doubt myself. I was someone whose self-esteem was always so high that people confused it with arrogance. Now people tell me I’ve changed so much, and I tell them I haven’t changed. It’s just that my self-esteem is not the same. I know people say I’m more humble now, but it’s because I’m more insecure than before.”

    At this, the also-Latin trap artist takes a pregnant pause. “I have to be mentally unwell for people to see me as humble,” he says incredulously. “I would love to recover my mental health and self-esteem so I can be arrogant in people’s eyes again.”

    In past interviews, old comrades like De La Ghetto would reminisce about the old Arcángel and be impressed by how brash he was, no matter who he was talking to.

    “I don’t like [being like that] anymore,” says Arcángel. “Everything I say, people take it like . . . there’s always a misinterpretation of everything, so much that now I prefer to not say anything and stay quiet. Or I doubt what I’m going to say, if it’s right or not, so I don’t say anything. And it bothers me because I’m not like that.”

    This past summer, Arcángel’s social media was littered with photos of his tour stops, with dynamic shots of soldout crowds everywhere from Spain and Italy to Baja California and Chicago. In some, you can spy fans holding up placards with Justin’s name, or messages of condolences and emotional support. It’s a genuine display of affection from his fans, and Arcángel recognizes that, but he’s also blunt about the limits of others’ support.

    “Bro, I don’t want any more gifts that have anything to do with my brother. I don’t want any more jackets, any more shirts, any more hats, any more keychains. They don’t change anything . . . “

    “How is a sign going to make me feel better? Because it has my brother’s name on it?” he asks candidly. “Bro, I don’t want any more gifts that have anything to do with my brother. I don’t want any more jackets, any more shirts, any more hats, any more keychains. They don’t change anything. What am I gonna do, open a museum? What I would like is to have him next to me.”

    Despite this inner anguish, he still sees a faint silver lining. “I feel I’m good at adapting and I’ve learned to feel comfortable in uncomfortable circumstances. And that’s what’s happening now,” he says. “You’re seeing an Arcángel who’s comfortable in a very uncomfortable situation. That’s what time has taught me.”

    He won’t share whether he’s sought out therapy or other forms of mindfulness to work through his feelings, but he does point to two manners in which he distracts himself.

    “I work. I make music. I’ll go to the studio,” he says, adding: “I have a very big house, and sometimes I’ll just walk around for a long time. So much so that at 8 or 9 p.m., my feet hurt, and I ask myself why and it’s because of all the walking I’ve been doing. I’ve been walking all day and didn’t even notice. I walk a ton, fast, and I start thinking so much that my brain gets tired and that helps when I get one of those intrusive thoughts that f**k me up. I don’t have space for those.”

    Instead, he gives that space over to planning for the future, and that includes his inevitable retirement. He knows there will come a point where he won’t be able to rap about what he usually does in a way that feels earnest, and he intends to go out on top before that happens. But despite everything, does he still feel optimistic about the future? “Yes,” he says before pausing. “But it’s because of [the team] I have around me. Because I trust I can pass the baton to them and they’re gonna know what to do. All I want to do is win. And now I’m learning to be a team player. The panorama has changed, and I’m not interested in being just the solo captain. I want to contribute to a team and do my role.”

    One role he’s eyeing: being a producer of new talents. His biggest one right now is Chris Lebrón, a young Dominican artist whom he’s taken under his wing. When he envisions a second career in his post years, he’s filled with dreams of hearing his name but under a new context.

    As he puts it: “If and when one of the artists I developed wins a Grammy, and they thank me in their speech, that’s gonna feel f**king great. More than even me winning one myself.”

    There’s no doubt that Arcángel would trade just about anything to have his little brother back, and not a soul would blame him. But the mightiest of hearts can’t change reality. All one can do is change for the better, depending on whatever life throws at you.

    “I don’t like the Austin I used to be. I much more like the one I am now. I love the one I am now. I respect the person I am now more than who I was 10 years ago,” he says. “I’ve been through a lot.”

    For Arcángel, this is solace and peace: this new self, his work, his family, the memory of his brother, and his dreams for the future. It’s all he has, and for him, it’s more than enough.

    Juan Arroyo

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  • Ivy Queen Is Manifesting 2024 to Be Her Year

    Ivy Queen Is Manifesting 2024 to Be Her Year

    The legendary Ivy Queen — often referred to as the Queen of Reggaetón or La Caballota — once said in an interview, “In the life of every woman, there’s a point when you blossom and when you flourish.” And for Ivy Queen, after decades of cementing her place as a pioneer of the genre, that time is now.

    Born Martha Ivelisse Pesante Rodríguez, Ivy Queen first became recognized in the reggaetón scene back in the ’90s, when the genre was still considered underground. She was the first female member of the all-male rap collective formed at the studios of The Noise, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. And her first live performance — where she rapped “Somos Raperos Pero no Delincuentes” (“We Are Rappers Not Delinquents”), wearing what would then become her signature style of oversized jeans, a T-shirt, braids, and long acrylic nails — launched her on a legendary career. She has since created music that has empowered generations of women, inspiring today’s reggaetón feminist wave and artists like Karol G, Becky G, Natti Natasha, RaiNao, Young Miko, Villano Antillano, and more.

    Today, La Caballota is in her blooming era and finally receiving her much-deserved flowers. Just look at her accolades in the past few years, from hosting Spotify and Futuro Studios’ “Loud,” a podcast that reveals the true history of reggaetón, to being honored at the 35th edition of Premio Lo Nuestro with the Premio Lo Nuestro Legado Musical Al Genero Urbano Award last year, to receiving the Icon Award at the Billboard Latin Music Awards for her contributions to the male-dominated genre.

    We recently caught up with Ivy Queen backstage at San Juan’s Distrito T-Mobile right before rehearsals for Dick Clark’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest in Puerto Rico. The reggaetonera looked more peaceful than ever with a white candle lit right in front of her. Ivy refers to herself as a very spiritual person, and she doesn’t go anywhere without a vela blanca. (In October, for example, she appeared on NPR’s Tiny Desk and lit a candle during her performance that had an image of Bad Bunny on it.)

    “The vela represents light and those that have passed,” Ivy Queen tells POPSUGAR. “For instance, my father passed away, and I feel his spirit is always with me. My father was a musician. He used to play guitar . . . when he passed, I was at a concert and I had this feeling before when I was taking a bath [earlier that day], that I had to visit him at the hospital. Through my mind I kept saying, ‘Wait for me, wait for me, please papi, wait for me.’ I just had that [intuitive feeling].”

    Ivy explains that the candle also serves as a spiritual tool she uses to cleanse any space that she enters to protect her energy. It was something she learned very early on in her career, as she navigated a genre and a world that was entirely dominated by men.

    Part of that navigation came via the stars — literally. In the early days of her career, Ivy started diving into astrology to understand her strengths and her weaknesses as she moved up in the music industry. “I learned the elements. I learned my birth chart. I asked my mother what time I was born,” she says. “It was around the ’90s, [and] I used to love Walter Mercado. Every time his show would come on, they’d show the wheel and I was like, what the f**k is this? So, I started to learn my sign and I was always ruled by my sign. I know it’s a water sign. I know what signs don’t match when it comes to business.”

    Ivy’s sun sign placement is in Pisces; her moon is in Sagittarius; and her rising is in Scorpio.

    “With the Scorpio, I have to protect my energy,” she says pointing to the white candle. While Mercado was one of the only mainstream figures at the time who had an entire program dedicated to Latine spirituality and astrology, he wasn’t the only one who inspired Ivy’s spiritual journey.

    “My favorite artist was Celia Cruz. She came from Cuba, which is one of the houses of the spirits. It comes from Mother Africa — la madre tierra. So literally I learned watching these people,” she remembers. “Walter was also a Pisces. I was like, let me see if he only talks about the good parts of that sign because he’s a Pisces but no. These are stuff I wish that they taught us at a young age to embrace. You know the moms and abuelas that were curanderas — I was raised by that.”

    At 51, Ivy Queen looks better than ever. Her skin is still youthful and radiates from within. Her long blonde extensions hit past her hips. Ivy also still sports the long and artful acrylic nails she’s become known for, but her most noteworthy trait is how she carries herself with grace, confidence, and poise. She credits her spirituality to playing a huge role in how she’s learned to embrace her divine feminine energy.

    “You have to attract the energy,” she explains. “If you feel like you’re all f**ked up, vieja y jodida [old and messed up], your body will react to that. La mente es bien peligrosa, pero tambien es bien poderosa [the mind is very dangerous but it is also very powerful]. Like, [it’s about] how are you going to use your powers, you know?”

    It’s no surprise that Ivy is a big believer in the law of attraction and manifestation. For her, that comes in the form of writing and praying — to God, to the Angel de la Guarda, and to her ancestors. La Caballota has also learned to be still and pay attention to the signs. This year, she wants to finally check some major goals off her bucket list.

    “I will be touring [this year]. I wanted to start in Puerto Rico because I’m from here. Then I announce the tour in the US — the dates,” she says. “And then I decide if the story of my life is going to be a series or a movie. I will be producing it.”

    Right before Ivy Queen rang in the new year, she already noticed some signs confirming that 2024 is going to be the year she spreads her wings and sees all those goals manifest into reality.

    On Dec. 30, her daughter landed in Puerto Rico, a day before Ivy Queen performed at Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve, and gifted her a monkey plushie with a little hat and the Puerto Rican flag. The reggaetonera decided to take the plushie with her everywhere for good luck, and at the beach, she noticed a black and white feather that appeared out of the blue. She also noticed a crow standing on a branch right behind the plushie. For her, these were all signs.

    “I was asking for 2024 [to be the year] I need to elevate. I was asking the spirits like Venus because she’s the Goddess of love, I was asking for signs . . . send me a sign,” she says. “I see it as maybe the feather is a sign that I’m flying to another step. I want to be moving a lot, and birds, they go everywhere. So, I pay attention to signs and I put my own meaning behind it. I took it like, OK 2024, I’m going to be busy and I’ll be doing well.”

    Considering la reina’s track record for manifesting all the career milestones she’s set for herself, we have no doubt that 2024 will be the year of Ivy Queen

    Johanna Ferreira

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  • The New “Mean Girls” Cast Looks Different Than the Original — and That's the Point

    The New “Mean Girls” Cast Looks Different Than the Original — and That's the Point

    The very first shot of the 2024 musical reimagining of “Mean Girls” is a vertical frame. Two characters, Janis (played by Auli’i Cravalho) and Damian (Jaquel Spivey), film themselves singing a song that sets the stage for the story to follow. They’re troubadours for the TikTok set — and this is a “Mean Girls” for a new generation.

    The Cady Heron, Regina George, and Aaron Samuels of the original film, released in 2004, had never seen an iPhone — those wouldn’t debut for another three years. “Instagram,” “Twitter,” and “Snapchat” would have sounded like gibberish. Karen was just a name, and Donald Trump was just a business mogul.

    Twenty years later . . . well, things are different. We’ve seen not just a technological revolution, but a cultural one. More Americans have become more aware of how rampant racism and discrimination — from microaggressions to hate crimes — are in this country. And while we still have a long way to go, people have a greater understanding of the harm caused by failing to adequately represent a diversity of identities on screen.

    In 2004, the original film did make jokes about racial stereotypes (“If you’re from Africa, why are you white?”), but it didn’t go so far as to cast a person of color in any of the main roles. (Actually, that was a joke in the original movie, too: Kevin G asks Janis if she’s Puerto Rican. “Lebanese,” answers Janis, played by Lizzy Caplan, who’s white.)

    The new “Mean Girls” cast is notably more diverse than the original, and the cast tells POPSUGAR that they’re grateful for the ability to bring their characters into 2024 by integrating more of their individual identities.

    “I got to bring a little bit of myself to the character,” says Bebe Wood, who plays Gretchen Wieners. “I was talking with [director Arturo Perez Jr.] and he was like, ‘Wait, I heard somewhere that you’re Latina . . . We should just add something in there.’”

    “[I]t was exciting to add just a little nod to my heritage within the role.”

    The addition to the script was small — a single mention of her abuelito — but for Wood, the impact was huge. “I’ve never been able to play Cuban American before,” she says. “So it was exciting to add just a little nod to my heritage within the role.”

    Avantika, who plays Karen Shetty in the new film, was similarly grateful to be able to embrace her background on screen. “It really meant a lot when . . . at the initial table read, [screenwriter Tina Fey] was like, ‘Is there anything about the name like Karen Smith that you want to change?’” Avantika says. “And I was like, ‘I’m South Indian, I’ve never gotten to play someone who’s openly South Indian, and I speak Telugu at home; would it be possible to bring in the last name from my culture?’ . . . And so we decided on Karen Shetty. That’s really special to me that [Fey] gave me the space and freedom to bring that.”

    Karen isn’t the only character to get a new name: Janis Ian is now Janis ‘Imi’ike, reflective of Cravalho’s Hawaiian heritage. Cravalho wants to get to a place where diversity in film is the rule, rather than the exception. “Every film that I’m in, I get asked about: ‘Why is representation important in films?’” she says. “Thank you for asking me that question — but can we move on a little bit? A space that I’m trying to move out of is being asked always about, ‘How important is it to you to be the first pioneer?’ I am excited to open the doors and just break through. [But] I don’t want to be the first.”

    This name-claiming is especially meaningful in a film where name-calling and misnaming cause so much harm. The Plastics, “fugly slut,” “dyke” (in the new version, updated to “pyro lez”): they’re all names and labels doled out like candy-cane grams, and the students of North Shore High feel the burn.

    “Maybe you don’t label me and I won’t label myself and I can just be whatever I want.”

    Spivey says that he tries to ignore labels that other people stick on him; they aren’t the truth, he says. “Even in the film, Regina calls Karen stupid, so therefore Karen feels like she’s stupid. But I have a strong feeling if Karen didn’t listen, she wouldn’t feel stupid. You know what I mean?” Spivey tells POPSUGAR. “So for me, I think a lot of people can be like, ‘Oh yeah, you’re a plus-size queer actor.’ I am, but I’m also just an actor. So maybe you don’t label me and I won’t label myself and I can just be whatever I want.”

    This sentiment is echoed by this generation’s Regina George, Reneé Rapp. Rapp is openly bisexual (and has hinted in prior interviews and on social media that her Regina might not be as straight as the character’s relationships with Aaron Samuels and Shane Oman might indicate). But she also makes clear that only she has the right to comment on her sexuality.

    “I’ve come out a lot of different times in my life and with a couple of different things, and it recently has changed a lot for me,” says Rapp, perhaps referring to her portrayal of Leighton Murray, a college freshman who comes out as a lesbian on “The Sex Lives of College Girls.” “But I cannot tell you how many times I’ve received comments in the last month or two that are just like, ‘Oh, congrats on [coming out] again,’” she says, her tone changing to the vocal equivalent of an eye roll. “And I was like, bro, actually fuck you. You suck.”

    There’s power in claiming and coming into your identity. And the people who try to put you in a box or use your individuality to hurt you? Rapp is right: they suck.

    Angourie Rice says she’s learning to let go of the opinions and expectations others have of her — not unlike her character, Cady Heron. “When I was 17, I had a really great year in terms of work and publicity, and it was my final year of high school and I graduated. And that felt like a really successful year for me. I think when you’re a young person working in the industry and you get success at a particular point in your life, there’s maybe a pressure to sort of stay at that point in your life,” she says. “[You think], ‘Oh, that’s when I got the most validation, therefore I should be like that always.’”

    But Rice is looking to grow and sees how relying on external affirmation for her sense of self-worth could be holding her back. “For me, [I’m working on] releasing that constant need for validation because I got it so much at this particular point in my life,” she says. “I’m not 17 anymore.”

    Stepping into the role of ultimate teen heartthrob Aaron Samuels came with similar pressures for Christopher Briney. But in playing Aaron, “I just tried to be Chris,” he says. “I really wanted to break free of expectations of what I thought people wanted to see when they see Aaron Samuels.”

    It takes a special kind of environment to be able to foster so much freedom and vulnerability in the actors’ performances — and the cast says they felt supported by one another immediately.

    “The friendships came easy. It was so easy, so fun to work with these people. I loved it so much,” Rice reminisces. “I think also we were all so committed to making the movie the best it could possibly be, and I learned a lot from both Jaquel and Auli’i. Auli’i stands up for herself so much. Jaquel is one of the funniest performers I know. And so just being in a room with these two people and learning so much from how they work and who they are was a treat.”

    Spivey agrees. After all, he says, Fey set the tone from day one that the whole film is about high school — that you have to have fun for it to really translate. As he puts it, “It’s an actor’s dream to be able to step into a space and feel comfortable enough to play — and to play as much as you can and discover.”

    Abbey Stone

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  • 10 of Shakira's Best Fashion Moments: From Low-Rise Jeans to Voluminous Dresses

    10 of Shakira's Best Fashion Moments: From Low-Rise Jeans to Voluminous Dresses

    You can’t talk about Latin music without mentioning Shakira. The Colombian artist broke into the music scene back in 1991 after dropping her debut album, “Magia”; embraced her rock en español roots with her 1995 hit album, “Pies Descalzos“; and started taking the world by storm after crossing over with hits like “Hips Don’t Lie” and “Beautiful Liar,” contributing to Latin music becoming a global phenomenon. While she’s produced many era-defining moments throughout her three-decade-long career, her style is just as referential and unforgettable. Since attending the first Latin Grammy Awards in a vibrant red ensemble with one of her signature waist belts, Shakira has become a red carpet style mainstay. She continued with a streak of sultry, risk-taking looks that only she could rock, including naked dresses, ab-baring crop tops, and low-rise jeans (even shredded), becoming the epitome of Y2K fashion.

    Apart from her unmatched imprint on fashion in the early aughts, the Colombian star has also donned classic silhouettes while mixing in modern trends. In 2009, she memorably made minidresses red-carpet worthy with a yellow strapless number at the American Music Awards, a gold shattered-glass dress for an album release party in 2017, and an iconic LBD from David Koma for her big win at the 2023 Latin Women in Music Awards. She’s even fostered relationships with designers like Burberry, making her fashion campaign debut in the brand’s 2022 holiday project, as well as Viktor & Rolf, infamously wearing a white “no” trench coat during Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week, effortlessly embracing the no-pants trend.

    Shakira continues to prove her timeless beauty and staying power with looks that match her professional evolution. Most recently, she wore an open-back, sequined Versace dress with side cutouts at the 2023 VMAs and turned heads in a black, strapless Mônot gown for her first Cannes Film Festival last year.

    Ahead, take a look at Shakira’s best style moments — dating back to 2000.

    Naomi Parris

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  • The Ewing X Yandel Collab Celebrates the Latine Community's Love For Sneaker Culture

    The Ewing X Yandel Collab Celebrates the Latine Community's Love For Sneaker Culture

    Jordan Keyser
    Jordan Keyser

    Uptowns. Jordans. Foams. Classics. Maxes. Gazelles. Stan Smiths. In today’s world, these aren’t just sneakers — they’re cultural legends. These iconic kicks helped elevate what began as a daily aspect of life for Brown and Black folks living in inner cities to a global culture. But as the masses have embraced sneaker culture and streetwear, the roots and the people at the heart of the movement tend to get overlooked. In their latest collaboration with reggaetón superstar and legend Yandel, Ewing Athletics and Product Line Manager, Jonas Guerrero are trying to change that, by paying homage to a community that has worked alongside the Black American community in elevating sneakers to becoming the art form that they are today: Latines.

    “As a Latino, I’ve always been big on [shining] light on our community. I want to tell Latin stories,” the 37-year-old designer tells POPSUGAR.

    Telling Latine stories through sneakers is a sentiment that Guerrero admits, that even to him, at times sounds ironic. After all, sneaker culture has its roots in hip-hop, an art form that has included contributions from Latines since its inception. But, akin to the way genres like rap and reggaetón have become more commercial over the years, Guerrero has observed a similar transformation in the sneaker game.

    “Before it used to be more about individuality, standing out, you know, having a voice. Now, it’s all monetary,” he adds. “You can have x amount of money and buy anything, whereas before you had to know someone to know where to get it.”

    But while Guerrero brings that old-school passion and mentality to his work, his latest sneaker design, the Ewing x Yandel Rogue, which is set to drop in early 2024, bridges the gap between the past and future. Guerrero cites the Nike Mag, a shoe he refers to as the “holy grail” of sneakers, along with reggaetoneros Wisin y Yandel’s classic album “Los Extraterrestres,” as influencing his design process and getting him into a more alien, futuristic mindset. This is reflected in the Yandel Rogue’s gray, white, and scuba blue colorway.

    “It’s a shoe for the future,” he says. And at a time when Latine artists like Bad Bunny have become some of the biggest stars in the world, a collaboration with an icon like Yandel, who not only remains relevant but helped reggaetón reach global heights, is a fitting way to acknowledge where Latines are going while honoring the many contributions our culture has made to street style over decades. The Puerto Rican artist has been having quite a successful year. Yandel became a two-time nominee at the 2023 Latin Grammys, recently signed a deal with Warner Music Latin, and also made history at the Empire State Building in New York by becoming the first Latin act to perform at the venue during Hispanic Heritage Month.

    “A big portion of [the Ewing Athletics] consumer base is Latino. And while we’ve done all these rap collabs, I wanted to pitch something based on Latin music.”

    “A big portion of [the Ewing Athletics] consumer base is Latino. And while we’ve done all these rap collabs, I wanted to pitch something based on Latin music,” says Guerrero. So he pitched them the Yandel collab. And as fate would have it, the reggaetonero was already a fan of the brand, having purchased a pair of Ewing Athletics kicks a week prior.

    “I’m a big fan and collector of sneakers and a big fan of NY Knicks legend and NBA Hall of Famer Patrick Ewing. Now, I get to have my own shoe in collaboration with one of the shining stars in the sports world,” Yandel states in a recent press release.

    But for Guerrero, who is Puerto Rican and Dominican, this project is more than just a collaboration with an artist he grew up idolizing. It’s the culmination of everything he is — his story. The child of first-generation immigrants, Guerrero grew up in the Bronx. Unable to afford the more expensive brands like the Jordans and Nikes his peers were wearing, he would take markers to draw his own “Jordan” or “23” on his Filas and British Knights. As he got older, his creations became more complex with bandana print and or knock-off Gucci print.

    “I was trying to make it my own,” he says.”I’ve always been into sneakers and individuality. I’ve always been unique and wanted things a certain way.” But despite this early penchant for customizing kicks, Guerrero never thought that he’d be in a position to design his own.

    “My goal was never to be a designer. I always thought, ‘I’m a poor Dominican kid from the Bronx, I can’t be a designer.’”

    “My goal was never to be a designer. I always thought, ‘I’m a poor Dominican kid from the Bronx, I can’t be a designer,’” Guerrero admits. Not only did he not have the right college degree for it, but he also never saw people like himself in those positions. Fortunately, he was able to beat the odds and leverage his passion for kicks into an internship at Complex Magazine, where he wrote about sneakers. This opportunity would eventually lead him to Ewing Athletics.

    “With time, as the people here started seeing what I was capable of, they gave me an opportunity,” Guerrero recalls. That opportunity started small, giving his opinion on new samples. But his earnest passion for sneakers was evident, and eventually led to more responsibility and the opportunity to turn his creative vision into a reality. Even so, Guerrero is candid about his struggles with imposter syndrome and having to work to overcome them.

    “It’s something that’s been difficult for me because, like I said, I never saw myself doing what I’m doing now. A lot of it was not believing that I could do it. Now, I know what I bring to the table,” he says. “I go super hard, and I don’t take it for granted because I know that this could all end in an instant.”

    With that mentality, Guerrero knew that it was important to nail the collaboration with Yandel, not just for himself, but for the brand that believed in him and their customers. The Yandel Rogue marks the biggest Ewing collab so far, and it’s also the brand’s first time partnering with a Latin music star. Therefore, Guerrero felt extra pressure to do his due diligence and tell the story as best as he could. And that meant telling it in Spanish.

    “When you open the box, the comic that comes with it is in full Spanish. The little hang tag that comes on the sneaker is in full Spanish. It’s something that we’ve never done before. It’s us telling our story through the sneaker,” says Guerrero.

    And at the end of the day, the narrative of that story doesn’t belong to any one person or group. It’s the story of the underdog. It’s Patrick Ewing’s story, who put the city on his back and is forever loved and honored even without bringing back a championship. It’s Yandel’s story, going from being a barber in the town of Cayey, Puerto Rico to being one of the most successful Puerto Rican artists of all time. And it’s Guerrero’s story, every immigrant’s story, really, of people coming to a big city full of danger and promise and finding a way to make it. But even with a successful collaboration under his belt, Guerrero knows that he can’t stop pushing, and that success is not something you achieve, it’s something you do every day.

    “I just want to inspire the youth, you know, people that look like us,” he says. “You know, like it’s never too late. You can’t put an age on success.”

    The Ewing x Yandel Rogue will be available for purchase at 10 a.m. ET on January 5, 2024, via ewingathletics.com and yandel.com.

    Miguel Machado

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  • The Ewing X Yandel Collab Celebrates the Latine Community's Love For Sneaker Culture – POPSUGAR Australia

    The Ewing X Yandel Collab Celebrates the Latine Community's Love For Sneaker Culture – POPSUGAR Australia

    Uptowns. Jordans. Foams. Classics. Maxes. Gazelles. Stan Smiths. In today’s world, these aren’t just sneakers – they’re cultural legends. These iconic kicks helped elevate what began as a daily aspect of life for Brown and Black folks living in inner cities to a global culture. But as the masses have embraced sneaker culture and streetwear, the roots and the people at the heart of the movement tend to get overlooked. In their latest collaboration with reggaetón superstar and legend Yandel, Ewing Athletics and Product Line Manager, Jonas Guerrero are trying to change that, by paying homage to a community that has worked alongside the Black American community in elevating sneakers to becoming the art form that they are today: Latines.

    “As a Latino, I’ve always been big on [shining] light on our community. I want to tell Latin stories,” the 37-year-old designer tells POPSUGAR.

    Telling Latine stories through sneakers is a sentiment that Guerrero admits, that even to him, at times sounds ironic. After all, sneaker culture has its roots in hip-hop, an art form that has included contributions from Latines since its inception. But, akin to the way genres like rap and reggaetón have become more commercial over the years, Guerrero has observed a similar transformation in the sneaker game.

    “Before it used to be more about individuality, standing out, you know, having a voice. Now, it’s all monetary,” he adds. “You can have x amount of money and buy anything, whereas before you had to know someone to know where to get it.”

    Related: Explore PS’s Best Feature Stories of 2023

    But while Guerrero brings that old-school passion and mentality to his work, his latest sneaker design, the Ewing x Yandel Rogue, which is set to drop in early 2024, bridges the gap between the past and future. Guerrero cites the Nike Mag, a shoe he refers to as the “holy grail” of sneakers, along with reggaetoneros Wisin y Yandel’s classic album “Los Extraterrestres,” as influencing his design process and getting him into a more alien, futuristic mindset. This is reflected in the Yandel Rogue’s gray, white, and scuba blue colorway.

    “It’s a shoe for the future,” he says. And at a time when Latine artists like Bad Bunny have become some of the biggest stars in the world, a collaboration with an icon like Yandel, who not only remains relevant but helped reggaetón reach global heights, is a fitting way to acknowledge where Latines are going while honoring the many contributions our culture has made to street style over decades. The Puerto Rican artist has been having quite a successful year. Yandel became a two-time nominee at the 2023 Latin Grammys, recently signed a deal with Warner Music Latin, and also made history at the Empire State Building in New York by becoming the first Latin act to perform at the venue during Hispanic Heritage Month.

    “A big portion of [the Ewing Athletics] consumer base is Latino. And while we’ve done all these rap collabs, I wanted to pitch something based on Latin music.”

    “A big portion of [the Ewing Athletics] consumer base is Latino. And while we’ve done all these rap collabs, I wanted to pitch something based on Latin music,” says Guerrero. So he pitched them the Yandel collab. And as fate would have it, the reggaetonero was already a fan of the brand, having purchased a pair of Ewing Athletics kicks a week prior.

    “I’m a big fan and collector of sneakers and a big fan of NY Knicks legend and NBA Hall of Famer Patrick Ewing. Now, I get to have my own shoe in collaboration with one of the shining stars in the sports world,” Yandel states in a recent press release.

    But for Guerrero, who is Puerto Rican and Dominican, this project is more than just a collaboration with an artist he grew up idolizing. It’s the culmination of everything he is – his story. The child of first-generation immigrants, Guerrero grew up in the Bronx. Unable to afford the more expensive brands like the Jordans and Nikes his peers were wearing, he would take markers to draw his own “Jordan” or “23” on his Filas and British Knights. As he got older, his creations became more complex with bandana print and or knock-off Gucci print.

    “I was trying to make it my own,” he says.”I’ve always been into sneakers and individuality. I’ve always been unique and wanted things a certain way.” But despite this early penchant for customizing kicks, Guerrero never thought that he’d be in a position to design his own.

    “My goal was never to be a designer. I always thought, ‘I’m a poor Dominican kid from the Bronx, I can’t be a designer.’”

    “My goal was never to be a designer. I always thought, ‘I’m a poor Dominican kid from the Bronx, I can’t be a designer,’” Guerrero admits. Not only did he not have the right college degree for it, but he also never saw people like himself in those positions. Fortunately, he was able to beat the odds and leverage his passion for kicks into an internship at Complex Magazine, where he wrote about sneakers. This opportunity would eventually lead him to Ewing Athletics.

    “With time, as the people here started seeing what I was capable of, they gave me an opportunity,” Guerrero recalls. That opportunity started small, giving his opinion on new samples. But his earnest passion for sneakers was evident, and eventually led to more responsibility and the opportunity to turn his creative vision into a reality. Even so, Guerrero is candid about his struggles with imposter syndrome and having to work to overcome them.

    “It’s something that’s been difficult for me because, like I said, I never saw myself doing what I’m doing now. A lot of it was not believing that I could do it. Now, I know what I bring to the table,” he says. “I go super hard, and I don’t take it for granted because I know that this could all end in an instant.”

    With that mentality, Guerrero knew that it was important to nail the collaboration with Yandel, not just for himself, but for the brand that believed in him and their customers. The Yandel Rogue marks the biggest Ewing collab so far, and it’s also the brand’s first time partnering with a Latin music star. Therefore, Guerrero felt extra pressure to do his due diligence and tell the story as best as he could. And that meant telling it in Spanish.

    “When you open the box, the comic that comes with it is in full Spanish. The little hang tag that comes on the sneaker is in full Spanish. It’s something that we’ve never done before. It’s us telling our story through the sneaker,” says Guerrero.

    And at the end of the day, the narrative of that story doesn’t belong to any one person or group. It’s the story of the underdog. It’s Patrick Ewing’s story, who put the city on his back and is forever loved and honored even without bringing back a championship. It’s Yandel’s story, going from being a barber in the town of Cayey, Puerto Rico to being one of the most successful Puerto Rican artists of all time. And it’s Guerrero’s story, every immigrant’s story, really, of people coming to a big city full of danger and promise and finding a way to make it. But even with a successful collaboration under his belt, Guerrero knows that he can’t stop pushing, and that success is not something you achieve, it’s something you do every day.

    “I just want to inspire the youth, you know, people that look like us,” he says. “You know, like it’s never too late. You can’t put an age on success.”

    The Ewing x Yandel Rogue will be available for purchase at 10 a.m. ET on January 5, 2024, via ewingathletics.com and yandel.com.

    Miguel machado

    Source link

  • Tell Me Más: Lúconde Fuses Theater and Urbano in Her Debut Album

    Tell Me Más: Lúconde Fuses Theater and Urbano in Her Debut Album

    Many popular musicians have created fictional alter egos as a way to explore new sonic avenues that they wish to experiment with. David Bowie had Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane, David Johansen had Buster Poindexter, Lady Gaga spent a whole season as Jo Calderone, and the less said about Garth Brooks’s Chris Gaines era the better, but it certainly happened. For them, it’s a kind of performance art — an expression of their interest in stepping out of their comfort zone and giving the endeavor a theatrical flair as well.

    The debate about whether these could be considered merely publicity stunts is valid, but for some artists, there’s a true creative desire to inhabit these personas. For Adriana Rivera, a Puerto Rican singer-songwriter, it’s a culmination of her dream to merge two artistic outputs that have long fascinated and inspired her: music and acting. From this desire and its manifestation, Rivera set herself aside, and in her place emerged Lúconde and their debut album, “La Actriz: Acto I.” The EP is a magical collection of alt-perreo, conscious boleros, and progressive Latin soul. As Rivera explains, “Lúconde is basically the mother personality that serves as a vessel for other personas (or faces, as she calls them) to emerge.” For that reason, she invites listeners to call her by either name.

    Lúconde is an artist with lots of ideas, who has been searching a long time for a way to express them. A child of dancers from reggaeton’s early roots, when it was known as “underground” — her mother was a background dancer for Vico C, while her father danced for Ruben DJ — she grew up in a home that valued both music and performance and the overlap between the two. Lúconde was enrolled in ballet, where dance and expression are inextricably intertwined, and sang in her church’s chorus, where she began to discover her voice and test its limits and range.

    Not soon after, she was convinced by friends to audition for her school’s drama club. In a prescient twist, the monologue used for the audition belonged to a role about a character suffering from dissociative identity disorder.

    “I remember researching a lot. I remember practicing [the monologue] alone at home. I had no training whatsoever, but I remember clicking with that a lot,” she says. “There was a lot of that process that clicked with me very deeply, and I remember thinking, ‘OK, I love music and I’ve always been involved with music, but I think [acting] is going to be something that I’m gonna dedicate myself more to.’”

    For “La Actriz: Acto I,” Lúconde reached back and channeled the lessons from her days doing theater. She recalls being taken by the way acting helped her to connect with her inner thoughts and widen her view of the behaviors of people around her.

    “I learned [to] not take things at face value, which is something that I feel like I’m actively studying within myself and society — just looking at things from different perspectives,” she says. “There’s always more behind someone, which I also think in acting that’s what you [search for].”

    During the downtime that enveloped the world in 2020, she began to think about how she could fuse her interests. She began to write, thinking on topics that were close to her. She began to flesh out the overarching concept of the EP and conjured up what would become the roster of alter egos that embody each track: La Malasuerte, Näia Kiyomi, Lilu, Miss Quinn, Bo Aracnia, Adela, and Nina Sorei.

    Executing out such a far-out idea for a debut EP was a risky proposition, but she was determined to bring it to fruition. Through mutual contacts she got in touch with Gyanma, an indie fan favorite who produces projects for himself and others out of his own studio, called Alas. Whatever trepidation he had about the ambitious ideas she presented evaporated as soon as he put her in front of the microphone.

    “From the beginning, I recognized it was a very unique concept,” says Gyanma, who produced every track on the EP. “Throughout recording and producing the music, every track kept evolving, and when we listened to the final album put together, we knew it was something very, very special.”

    As a companion to the album, Lúconde produced, directed, and starred in music videos for the tracks. It’s here that her different personas can truly be appreciated. La Malasuerte, a trickster changeling that occupies every frame of “Macacoa” with mischievous intentions. Näia Kiyomi, heavily inspired by Jennifer Check of the movie “Jennifer’s Body,” enacts empowered, violent revenge in “6eis.” Lilu and Bo Aracnia both break the rules in favor of righteous anarchy in “Bendito Caos” and “Tus Cartas Póker,” respectively. In “El Frío del Alba,” Adela reflects on the long, sordid history and pain that women have carried throughout the struggle for bodily autonomy, especially in the face of eroding abortion rights.

    “This is very autobiographical. What I’m doing is just taking the Stanislavski technique of acting and transforming it into a philosophy of life, because that’s who I am,” she says. “I feel like acting saved me. Acting gave me so much perspective of life, of people, of society, and of myself. That’s kind of where it all starts, because with each character I’m showing different sides and different aspects of myself, and the actor studies the gray area of life, the gray in people.”

    When talking about her future, Lúconde foresees more projects in the same vein as “Acto I.” For now, she doesn’t see herself dabbling in more mainstream songs divorced from this album’s conceit. In fact, she’s already brainstorming which personas she’ll utilize again, and new ones to introduce as well. As the album’s title implies, it’s simply the first act of what will slowly unfold as a larger all-encompassing project.

    “This project is synonymous with where I am in life right now. I feel like I’m still in the midst of becoming. This project is a lot of the younger, naive aspects of myself,” she says.

    She intends to fully expand the visual side as well, founding her own production company where she’ll be able to control that aspect of development as well as help other artists with their own projects. “La Actriz: Acto I” was an effort that took a long time to come together, but for Lúconde it has been worth everything she invested in bringing it to life.

    “Once I knew that I wanted to be La Actriz in the music industry, I had a direction,” she says. “For me that’s really important; I’ve always [felt] like I have to have some idea of who I want to be. In that sense, now I realize how lucky I am to know who I am a little bit. I still feel like I have a long way to go, but I’ve always had the vision. I’ve always nourished that. I’ve always protected that.”

    The strands that link the light and shadow inside every human being — and the way they can bring people together under better understanding and empathy — are what Lúconde wishes to underscore.

    “Everything is connected: our spirituality, our physicality, our mind, our emotions. As an actor, my body, my mind, my emotions are my tools. The more familiar I am with myself, the better human I will be. That’s what I’m trying to explore with music. I always say, ‘Through my work I am whole,’ because I get to express all of these different aspects of myself.” It’s a passion project that not only makes her feel fulfilled, but hopefully finds fans who’ll also appreciate the different levels of creativity that make it up. “I felt like I wanted to be a creator, and I feel like music allowed me to do all that. And I realized I didn’t have to sacrifice my identity as an actress. Maybe I could just be La Actriz.”

    POPSUGAR: What is your favorite word?

    Lúconde: Curiosity.

    POPSUGAR: What is your favorite quote?

    Lúconde: “You don’t have a right to anything in this life, but there’s nothing you can’t achieve.”

    POPSUGAR: What is your favorite play?

    Lúconde: “No Exit” by Jean-Paul Sartre.

    POPSUGAR: What is your favorite movie?

    Lúconde: Well, I love “Black Swan.” It used to be “The Pursuit of Happyness.” I think now, “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”

    POPSUGAR: Who is your favorite fictional character?

    Lúconde: Raven from “Teen Titans.”

    POPSUGAR: What are you listening to these days?

    Lúconde: Gesaffelstein, Belén Aguilera, and “Scarlet” by Doja Cat.

    POPSUGAR: What person comes to mind when you hear the word “inspiration”?

    Lúconde: My grandfather. We were very close, and he would talk to me about many things. My favorite quote is something he’d always tell me.

    POPSUGAR: Do you prefer to be the hero or the villain?

    Lúconde: I prefer to be the villain that becomes a hero.

    Juan Arroyo

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  • Innovating Latin Music Is What’s Made Juan Luis Guerra a Legend — His New EP “Radio Güira” Is Proof

    Innovating Latin Music Is What’s Made Juan Luis Guerra a Legend — His New EP “Radio Güira” Is Proof

    If you’re Dominican and were alive during the 1980s and ’90s, chances are Juan Luis Guerra‘s hits became the soundtrack of your life. They’d play at every family function, during long car rides, or at the beach, and he was likely your mami’s favorite artist to blast during her Saturday morning cleaning rituals. Throughout his prolific and four-decade career, Guerra has not only reinvented the tropical rhythms of his native Dominican Republic alongside his band 4.40, but he’s also reached audiences way beyond just the Dominican community. With 30 million-plus albums sold around the world and more than 20 Latin Grammy wins, Guerra has become a legend in the Latin music space and not just for his poetic lyrics — he’s often referred to as the Pablo Neruda of merengue and bachata — but also for never being afraid to innovate or color outside of the lines of what “Dominican music” is supposed to sound like. His new EP, “Radio Güira,” which was released earlier this month, proves just that.

    “Radio Güira” was inspired by both a radio show Guerra had years ago, as well as his love for the güira, a percussion instrument that’s often played in Dominican folklore music. The innovative EP also includes interludes, radio-style commercials, and even one of Guerra’s favorite habichuelas guisadas recipes by Nuna, the woman who cooks in his home. You hear her reciting the recipe in the intro to the “Cositas de Amor” track.

    “I had a radio [show] in the Dominican Republic called Radio Viva and it played music from the continents. Then when I started working on the album, [and] I realized it was a lot of new things — things I haven’t done before,” Guerra tells POPSUGAR. “[With] ‘MAMBO 23,’ we had never done merengue that fast. We began mixing it with classical, adding French horn to the violins, which normally is not done, and [we] varied the orchestration.”

    Guerra has been fusing different sounds and genres since the ’80s, when practically no other Latin music artist — let alone a Dominican artist — was bold enough to try. It’s what has contributed to his signature sound. If a Juan Luis Guerra song plays on the radio, even if it’s your first time hearing it, you’ll easily recognize it as one of his. And with “Radio Güira,” there’s a celebration of both old school and new school Guerra. It fuses genres like mambo, merengue, rock and even jazz.

    “I tried very hard to connect with a younger audience in this album. I have already connected with other audiences, the ones that will listen to my music because they like it — thank God. But I wanted to connect with a younger one,” Guerra says.

    Guerra’s inspiration to fuse sounds early in his career had a lot to do with the music he listened to during his youth ­— a lot of it being rock. He was a big fan of The Beatles growing up, for example.

    “The sound of our guitar, the way I play guitar, it is very rock-oriented within bachata,” he says. “That’s why our bachata has a different color compared to others. I have always been drawn to mixing different genres and I think the result was very good [and] a lot of the younger generation are doing the same.”

    Guerra, who has also been in the middle of his US tour, is up for three Latin Grammy nominations for his song with Colombian artist Fonseca, “Si Tú Me Quieres.” With decades of success under his belt, the Dominican artist still feels humbled by the accolades and support he receives from the community.

    “[It’s] a privilege I accept with a lot of gratitude and fills me with joy. I accept it as a gift from God that they are motivated by my music,” he says. “It is a great responsibility and a great privilege at the same time. Remember that at my age, I had the responsibility to set the path in Europe. . . . When we arrived to Europe, remember, everything was salsa. If we did merenge, to them it was salsa . . . I have had the privilege of opening doors, mostly with merengue and bachata because salsa was already known, and of course, it is a privilege for us Dominicans to share our music with them. “

    As for his poetic lyrics that can melt anyone’s heart, Guerra credits his faith for everything he’s been able to write and for carrying him through such a long and successful career.

    “My faith in Jesus is what holds me. When we gather here, mostly musicians, we pray: ‘Our God, from you comes our capacity. Holy spirit take control over everything we are going to do here,’” he shares. “Everything you hear is inspired by him. We are simply putting our projects in his hands and he directs us.”

    With all the devastation happening in the world, Guerra wants listeners to experience joy with “Radio Güira.” He refers to the EP as “good news” that is much needed in the times we’re currently living in.

    “The goal of every artist is that this music is understood. When I find or when I know that a song can transform the life of another person, I think that’s when I feel the most joy,” he concludes. “When I sing ‘Las Avispas’ [a track off of his 2004 album ‘Para Ti,’ which is entirely dedicated to his faith] and the message is received and a person changes from sad to happy, I believe that’s the most beautiful gift that God can give us musicians. Therefore, to transform the lives of others is my biggest hope with my music.”

    Indeed, transforming the lives of others through music is something many would agree Guerra has already done.

    Johanna Ferreira

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  • La Borinqueña Doll Gives Little Girls More Latina Superhero Representation

    La Borinqueña Doll Gives Little Girls More Latina Superhero Representation

    Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez still feels the pressure of being a one-man army when it comes to promoting the crown jewel of Somos Arte, his independent creative studio. Since 2016 he’s been at the forefront of every campaign surrounding his creation La Borinqueña. The Puerto Rican superheroine has been the star of a series of self-titled graphic novels that have directly tackled cultural topics and current events at the forefront of the island, all through the lens of a superhero yarn. It’s an effort that’s earned him a humanitarian award at the 2019 Eisner Awards (the comics industry’s Academy Awards), collaborations with Hollywood stars such as Rosario Dawson, and crossovers with DC Comics’s biggest characters like Wonder Woman. But even with all the accolades, he makes it clear, it’s always been an uphill battle.

    “There’s so many moving pieces when you’re something as big as the Marvel Cinematic Universe, when you’re something as big as Star Wars,” Miranda-Rodriguez tells POPSUGAR. “But [how about] when you’re something as tiny as a freaking sorullito called La Borinqueña? You have me, and I literally feel like your abuela in the kitchen doing a gazillion things at the same time. I’m making the bacalaitos while I’m tending to the rice, while I’m checking on the habichuelas, while I’m flipping over tostones, all while I’m carving up the pernil.”

    But even while acknowledging the workload, Miranda-Rodriguez sees it as a responsibility he happily carries. Last year, on the fifth anniversary of the devastating passage of Hurricane María over Puerto Rico, he released a special edition of “La Borinqueña” with a commemorative cover. The funds from those sales went to various philanthropic organizations that Somos Arte supports, most of them grassroots organizations involved in helping causes relevant to Puerto Rico and its diaspora population.

    Recently, he concocted and put into effect his newest expansion of the Borinqueña brand: action figures, with multiple points of articulation in order to make them posable. While still eminently popular with children, action figures — especially those of pop culture characters — have become a large market for collectors and enthusiasts. Having introduced a brand-new superhero team called the Nitaínos in the latest installment of “La Borinqueña,” he now had a roster of characters to pull from to fill out fans’ shelves.

    Ever cognizant of his community’s needs, Miranda-Rodriguez decided to go further. He teamed up with the same company that manufactured the action figures, Boss Fight Studios, to release a doll based on La Borinqueña, available for preorder on their website.

    “They’re doing something they’ve never done before. They’re actually making toys for children, and they created a line of dolls for girls called I Am Brilliance,” he says. “The first wave of these dolls actually have two luchadoras from the Masked Republic, which is a wrestling franchise that exists. But La Borinqueña is actually part of that wave as well, which is separate from las luchadoras.”

    Miranda-Rodriguez has studied the sociopolitical structure of race and ethnicity and its impact on Black and brown communities, and he has always had an eye for considering them with all his projects. In this case, the doll will reflect La Borinqueña’s identity as a Black Latina, from the color of her skin to her curly hair. This is done with intent.

    “This has a lot to do with how young girls, especially, are conditioned through play,” he explains. “Conditioning in terms of the roles they play, the gender roles they play, the class roles they play, and even the roles they play in identifying themselves racially.”

    A big inspiration for his impetus to make the Borinqueña doll is a now-infamous experiment carried out in 1939 known as the Clark doll test, named after the psychologists who carried it out.

    “The Clark experiment pretty much cemented the idea that many [African-American] children had an internalized self-hatred of their own complexion — of their own identity,” Miranda-Rodriguez says. “And when they were given the choice to choose between a white baby doll and a Black baby doll, they played with the white doll. And when they weren’t allowed to play with the white doll and were only given a chance to play with the Black doll, they were very upset.”

    This is the level of care and attention to detail Miranda-Rodriguez imbues his stories with as well, always looking for a way to intersect the escapism of comic books with a conscious finger on the pulse of what real-world topics need to be highlighted.

    “Introducing this character to a child, particularly little girls, to me is revolutionary because I’m giving [them] a choice between ‘Do you want to play with the baby doll or the fashion doll?’ [or] ‘Do you want to actually play with the superhero?’” he says. “The superhero that looks like you, the superhero that actually speaks to your heritage, the superhero that has your hair color, your mother’s hair texture, [and] your skin color. A superhero that actually comes from a real place. A superhero that affirms their identity, that affirms their place and affirms their visibility.”

    Representation and inclusiveness is a topic he’s fastidiously touched on before in the “La Borinqueña” series and arguably serves as the thematic throughline for it as a whole.

    The goal, he expresses, is to address not only the internalized racism that the Clark test demonstrated but also an “internalized colonialism” that he surmises exists within some Puerto Ricans as well. The country once banned its own flag and demonized its nationalist heroes, and that has led to what he says is the painful effect that some “don’t see the value in our heritage, we don’t see the value in our heroes.” Adorning La Borinqueña in the Puerto Rican colors is a way to counteract that.

    The hope for Miranda-Rodriguez and Boss Fight Studios is to have the dolls ready for sale by Día de los Reyes — January. It’s an important holiday in Latin America, particularly in Puerto Rico, which is known for its extended Christmas holiday season. The doll will be distributed online and available in certain stores across the East Coast.

    “Our hope is that we’re entering into a space that’s dominated by multibillion-dollar corporations so that big stores like Walmart or Target see the value of La Borinqueña action figures [and] La Borinqueña dolls and put them on the shelves,” Miranda-Rodriguez says.

    The endeavor was preceded by a successful campaign with Puerto Rican cocoa processor Chocolate Cortés, which sold limited-edition chocolate bars with La Borinqueña comic strips printed on the wrappers. The run exhausted the Puerto Rico inventory and forced Chocolate Cortés to tap into its Florida-based distribution point. It validated Miranda-Rodriguez’s long-held aspiration to work with and support local businesses,

    As always, he and his team at Somos Arte (which includes his wife, Kyung Jeon-Miranda, as projects director) will continue to push forward with bigger plans for their works and strive to get them in front of new audiences.

    “There is a necessity for us as Latin people to see the value in our own intellectual properties, and our own art, and our own stories,” he says. “So that we can show the rest of the world that our stories, our characters, and our toys need to be on the same shelves as other heroes as well.”

    Juan Arroyo

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  • “De la Calle” Explores Latin Music’s Roots, Evolution, and Connection to Hip-Hop 1 City at a Time

    “De la Calle” Explores Latin Music’s Roots, Evolution, and Connection to Hip-Hop 1 City at a Time

    Rapper Mare Advertencia Lirika from the MTV series De La Calle, episode 8, season 1, streaming on Paramount+, 2023. CREDIT: Paramount+
    De La Calle and Paramount +
    De La Calle and Paramount +

    Last year, Bad Bunny’s “Un Verano Sin Ti” became the first non-English language album to top the Billboard 200. The Puerto Rican Latin trap and reggaetonero also became the most streamed artist on Spotify for the third consecutive year. Latin music revenue exceeded $1 billion for the first time last year, allowing reggaetón, música Mexicana, and other Latin music genres to reach global success. By any and all metrics, Latin music has officially taken over. But the origins of these genres remain up for debate, particularly when it comes to urbano music and its connections to American hip-hop.

    “De La Calle,” a new docuseries on Paramount+, explores that and more. For over a decade, award-winning journalist Nick Barili (the show’s creator, executive producer, and host) — who was born in Argentina but grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area — has wanted to create a documentary that tells a broader story of Latin music, its rich diversity, its connection to American rap music, and how it’s evolved over the years.

    Released on Nov. 7, the eight-episode series takes viewers from various cities across the US, Panama, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Spain, Colombia, Argentina, and Mexico to explore the varied evolution behind some of Latin music’s most popular and successful genres.

    De La Calle and Paramount +

    “I’ve been pitching different versions of this for years. This really started off as a documentary idea that I wanted to do back in 2013,” Barili tells POPSUGAR, adding that he was listening to LA radio shows and realizing that no Latine hip-hop artists were being played on the stations. “At that point, a lot of the Latine rappers I grew up listening to were out of the scene, and there wasn’t a new generation being played on the West Coast, and I was like, ‘How is this possible?’ We’re obviously a big part of the audience — that’s why a lot of our hosts are Latine-based in LA. But I was, like, there’s no rappers that are of Latine descent.”

    Throughout the docuseries, Barili shares a little bit about his own love story with hip-hop and how it all began after immigrating from Argentina to the Bay Area when he was just 8 with his mother; they were escaping political warfare. Despite not initially knowing English, a young Barili found comfort listening to the lyrics of Latine hip-hop artists like Big Pun, Fat Joe, N.O.R.E, and Jim Jones, among others. It was the music de la calle that allowed Barili to feel seen, and it legitimized his existence being undocumented in a country that often associates the streets with everything bad rather than acknowledging the beauty and the art that’s often created from struggle.

    “Some things have the power to change you. In a moment, a beat, a verse, a song can start you down a path in becoming who you are,” Barili says in the opening of the season’s first episode. “Hip-hop has done all of that for me. Helping me feel at home when home was a place far away.”

    Listening to hip-hop allowed Barili to navigate life, and over the years, he’s noted its influence on Latin music genres like reggaetón, Latin trap, and beyond. It’s for this reason he chose to have “De La Calle” begin in New York before traveling to cities throughout Latin America.

    “I think with a series like this, the starting point is always going to be up for debate . . . A lot of people can argue about where things started but for me, I started in New York because that’s where I first heard hip-hop from and that’s where it originated — in The Bronx,” he says. “I think it was important to start in New York. The hook is you have to understand things in New York because then you can connect everything back to something that’s tangible to people. Also, through the years, the contributions of Latinos to hip-hop have not been at the forefront of the conversations, because they weren’t the biggest stars in the beginning but they were contributors. As someone who grew up on hip-hop, where I would hear people just erase Latinos contributions to hip-hop, I always felt like somebody’s gotta tell that story.”

    The first episode introduces viewers to some of hip-hop’s early pioneers, from rappers like Mr. Schick and Fat Joe to hip-hop photographer Joe Conzo, DJ Charlie Chase (the first Latino to play breakdance beats in hip-hop), and graffiti artist Lady Pink. The episode highlights that while Latines may not have been the headliners in the early wave of hip-hop, they were in fact, there from the beginning.

    Rapper N.O.R.E. from the MTV series De La Calle, episode 1, season 1, streaming on Paramount+, 2023. CREDIT: Paramount+Rapper N.O.R.E. from the MTV series De La Calle, episode 1, season 1, streaming on Paramount+, 2023. CREDIT: Paramount+
    De La Calle and Paramount +
    Rapper Fat Joe from the MTV series De La Calle, episode 1, season 1, streaming on Paramount+, 2023. CREDIT: Paramount+Rapper Fat Joe from the MTV series De La Calle, episode 1, season 1, streaming on Paramount+, 2023. CREDIT: Paramount+
    De La Calle and Paramount +

    One thing Barili wants audiences to understand is that the series is by no means presented in chronological form. Instead, he invites viewers to explore how hip-hop y la musica de la calle has influenced and shaped the genres that were birthed in these various cities.

    “From a storytelling perspective, I shifted a little bit from a straight-up documentary to a docuseries travel show, and I think the benefit of doing that is that it’s not necessarily chronological. We’re learning about different places and the history of connecting dots,” he says.

    When it comes to Latin music, Panama is often either left out of the conversation or not given the credit it deserves. For those reasons, in the second episode, Barili takes viewers to the country to explore how reggae en Español originated and how it eventually influenced the creation of reggaetón in Puerto Rico. In Panama, Barili talks to everyone from legends like Renato to multi-platinum-selling artist Sech, who has made it his mission to bring the spotlight to Río Abajo, a neighborhood in his hometown of Panama City where a lot of Panama’s urbano sounds were born.

    Host and music journalist Nick Barili, center with the members of Las Rakas: Raka Rich and Raka Dun from the the MTV series De La Calle, episode 2, season 1, streaming on Paramount+, 2023. CREDIT: Paramount+Host and music journalist Nick Barili, center with the members of Las Rakas: Raka Rich and Raka Dun from the the MTV series De La Calle, episode 2, season 1, streaming on Paramount+, 2023. CREDIT: Paramount+
    De La Calle and Paramount +
    Host Nick Barili talks to Puerto Rican rapper Villano Antillano in the the MTV series De La Calle, episode 3, season 1, streaming on Paramount+, 2023. CREDIT: Paramount+Host Nick Barili talks to Puerto Rican rapper Villano Antillano in the the MTV series De La Calle, episode 3, season 1, streaming on Paramount+, 2023. CREDIT: Paramount+
    De La Calle and Paramount +

    Episode three takes place in Puerto Rico, and for viewers looking for an episode on the island’s reggaetón — expect a lot more than just that. Barili doesn’t only explore the history behind the genre but also explores some of the Afro-diasporic music, like bomba y plena, which has influenced so much of the sound coming out of the island today. He talks to artists including Residente from Calle 13, Nicky Jam, RaiNao, Villano Antillano, and more about the state of reggaetón music today while addressing its origins and the island’s political relationship with the US.

    In episode four, we follow Barili as he heads to Cuba, where we learn how American hip-hop influenced some of the underground rap that was formed on the island, and how it became a source of strength and resistance for Cubans there. Episode five travels through Spain, a country that Barili acknowledges holds a dark history for many Latines.

    Barili talks to artists like Mala Rodriguez and Nathy Peluso about how American hip-hop made its way to Spain and influenced a rap scene that exploded after the end of the fascist dictatorship several decades ago.

    “If you’re looking at the impact of Spanish-speaking rap outside of the US, Spain was one of the earliest,” Barili says. “Rap came over to Spain through some of the US military bases in Spain. After the dictatorship ended, it first transitioned into punk rock and then hip-hop kind of became the next thing of rebellion in going against the government and going against a very oppressive regime that they had.”

    L-R: Nick Barili and hip hop Artist Mala Rodríguez from the MTV series De La Calle, episode 5, season 1, streaming on Paramount+, 2023. Photo Credit: Paramount+L-R: Nick Barili and hip hop Artist Mala Rodríguez from the MTV series De La Calle, episode 5, season 1, streaming on Paramount+, 2023. Photo Credit: Paramount+
    De La Calle and Paramount +
    L-R: Antonio Carmona, host Nick Barili, Irene Molina Gómez, and Juan Habichuela Nieto from the MTV series De La Calle, episode 5, season 1, streaming on Paramount+, 2023. Photo Credit: Paramount+L-R: Antonio Carmona, host Nick Barili, Irene Molina Gómez, and Juan Habichuela Nieto from the MTV series De La Calle, episode 5, season 1, streaming on Paramount+, 2023. Photo Credit: Paramount+
    De La Calle and Paramount +

    After Spain, Barili travels to Colombia where he speaks with artists like Goyo from ChocQuibTown about how how Afro-Latines influenced the sounds of currulao, chirimia and salsa, as well as the music that was being created way before reggaetón made its way there. In Argentina, Barili returns to his roots to explore the rap scene, eventually making his way to Mexico where the youth is fusing traditional musica Mexicana with rap and reggaetón, creating a sound that’s entirely their own.

    Barili was also very intentional about all the episodes — with the exception of New York — being in Spanish.

    “It was important for me to do these interviews in Spanish because a lot of times that’s what’s best for the artist. I’ve seen artists for too long who speak Spanish trying to speak English and they are expressing themselves in such a limited manner because they’re spending so much time trying to think of that one word and so they’re not able to fully express themselves,” he says. “For me, it was really important for two reasons. One, for artists to be able to be comfortable in whatever language they want to speak in. And then two, I think as a culture for a long time Latin American culture had to accommodate to US culture, whether it’s artists coming here and having to do songs in English to cross over or whether it’s having to do interviews in English. I think it’s important that we’re at a stage now where if you want to listen to our music you gotta learn our language too.”

    Barili’s mission is for viewers to understand the rich history of the Latin diaspora and understand how, in the end, we’re a lot more connected than we realize.

    “Really, the most important part is to be able to tell the stories of our communities. Some people now are interested in our superstars . . . People forget that it’s been 20 to 40 years of people laying the foundation brick by brick so that the next generation can now take off,” he says. “I think it’s important to use that spotlight and go back and recognize the people who didn’t have commercial success and who didn’t have fame but actually had important contributions to help build these movements that are now selling out stadiums. My purpose for this series was: let’s take this spotlight and make sure we shine it on the communities and the people who come from the streets, who were able to set paths for today’s Latin music being this global movement.”

    click to play video

    Johanna Ferreira

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  • Morir Soñando Makes History as the United Palace’s First All-Dominican Comedy Show

    Morir Soñando Makes History as the United Palace’s First All-Dominican Comedy Show

    Karina Munoz
    Karina Munoz

    If you’re Dominican, chances are you’re familiar with morir soñando, a simple but refreshingly crisp batida (milkshake) made with milk, orange juice, and vanilla extract. As simple as the three-ingredient drink seems, there’s a reason it’s given such a poetic name. “Morir soñando” translates as “to die dreaming,” and after just one sip, one instantly feels like they’ve been transported into a dream — even if just for a matter of seconds. That was exactly the feeling Dominican American comedians and real-life besties Sasha Merci and Glorelys Mora, who both grew up in uptown (Merci specfically in the Bronx), wanted audiences to feel when they created their first all-Dominican comedy show back in 2019. On Monday, Nov. 6, the Morir Soñando show took over the historic United Palace, formerly Loew’s 175th Street Theatre, in Washington Heights. It was the first show in the New York Comedy Festival to include an all-Dominican lineup, and just like the beverage, it felt like a dream for the Dominican community.

    The show opened up with a special musical performance by Dominican bachata artist Jae Camilo and included an impressive lineup of Dominican comedians, from up-and-coming stars like Julio Diaz, Mr. Nuevayol, and Dee Nasty to established comics with HBO Max specials, including Aida Rodriguez and Ian Lara. Mora was the evening’s host and Merci also had her own stage time, making it a jam-packed lineup filled with eight talented Dominican comics that sold out the show within weeks.

    Karina Munoz
    Karina Munoz

    Aside from the United Palace, sponsors included Led Black’s The Uptown Collective, Dominican Writers, Word Up Books, Little Dominican Republic, mitútv, and Jalao NYC, which hosted the event’s afterparty.

    Located in el Alto Manhattan’s Washington Heights, home to the nation’s most prominent Dominican community, the United Palace is one of the island’s largest and most spectacular theaters. Occupying a full city block, the theater’s lavish design replicates that of a royal palace. It opened its doors in 1930 and was originally built with the intention of showcasing films, and it’s since become a cultural hub for the performing arts — where everyone from Bob Dylan and Lenny Kravitz to Aventura, Bad Bunny, and Becky G have performed. It has also served as a filming location for “John Wick: Chapter 3” and TV series like NBC’s “Smash,” Netflix’s “Luke Cage,” HBO’s “Crashing,” and Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building.” But before Morir Soñando, it had yet to house a comedy show, let alone one with only Dominican comics. This is something Merci and Mora had dreamed of being able to pull off for years.

    “It means so much to have Morir Soñando as part of the New York City Comedy Festival, because the festival doesn’t have a lot of Latino representation and it definitely doesn’t have Dominican representation. It’s the first time it has ever been done where there’s a whole Dominican lineup at the festival,” Mora tells POPSUGAR. “I keep telling everybody this was a dream come true. Obviously, I still want to record a special at some point in my career. But this right here, what happened on Monday, was my dream come true in comedy. Anything that happens after this is a cherry on top. I feel like I really made my community proud.”

    The show took place at the Palace’s foyer, with audiences seated around the stage and gathering upstairs in the mezzanine area, which included a VIP lounge, a step and repeat, a bar serving drinks and light snacks — including empanadas from a local Dominican spot — and a table with copies of Rodriguez’s new memoir “Legitimate Kid.” There was even a large Dominican flag hanging from the foyer’s balcony in honor of uptown’s Dominican community.

    Karina Munoz
    Karina Munoz
    Karina Munoz
    Karina Munoz

    “The Uptown Collective was significant in making the introductions and the connection and really building that trust with United Palace. They have the relationship, and we’ve been talking about wanting to be there since we started the show,” Mora explains. “Led [Black] is a person who works really hard with the Uptown community. We told him we needed help. We were like we just need someone that’s going to make this dream bigger, and that’s what this project is — it’s really bigger than Sasha and I. It is a community project. We wanted everyone that is uptown working to really be a part of it.”

    While each comic’s style and set was different, all of them highlighted their experiences being Dominican Americans, whether it was Lara touching on what it’s like for Black Dominicans to finally have their moment or Merci joking about being a Dominican living in Los Angeles, where we’re hardly recognized as Latines, to Rodriguez, who is half-Dominican and half-Boricua, sharing how the Dominican community has warmly embraced her since she really started embracing her Dominican roots after finally reuniting with her father in the Dominican Republic. Whether they grew up uptown, in the outer boroughs, or even outside of New York, every comic and their unique story was embraced and celebrated by the posse of Dominicans who came out to show their support that evening. There was no competition between talent or shade thrown by any of the guests. It was all love and a joyful celebration of la cultura.

    “I remember when I had first started doing social media and when I did the movie ‘De Lo Mio’ and seeing the impact that had on the Dominican community and how they came out for the film. I was like, man, Dee [Nasty] and I should do a standup show,” Merci tells POPSUGAR. “Then I met Glorelys and we came up with Sancocho (a smaller-scale comedy show the duo produced for the Dominican community), and after that, we wanted to do something that was very intentional. We wanted to do something that was going to bring the Dominican community together and showcase our community’s talent. Morir Soñando stemmed from the idea of making a comedy show for and by Dominican Americans.”

    Merci and Mora insist that they’re just getting started and hope to host a Morir Soñando show at the United Palace every year — with the dream of one day being able to fill every seat in the venue’s main theater. It’s not a far stretch, considering how quickly tickets sold out this time around.

    “This was a very special moment, and I addressed that during my set. I started doing comedy in 2011, and at that time the landscape of standup comedy was very different. There weren’t that many Dominican comedians doing comedy at the top level,” says Lara, who was the show’s closer. “So to see a lineup strictly based off just Dominican comedians who are all in their own right killing it and coming together on a standup stage was surreal. Doing it at United Palace was just the cherry on top, because anybody who’s from New York, especially Uptown, you know how legendary of a place it is.”

    Everything about the event felt like a community effort — from the Dominicans in the audience who showed their support and excitement for everyone who hit the stage to the numerous ways the show’s producers and sponsors worked to show their devotion to everyone involved. It was clear that this was more than just your regular comedy show. This was a community effort to celebrate and support Dominican creatives and entrepreneurs at every level, because when we show up for our people, we go big or go home. Morir Soñando isn’t just a dream anymore. It’s a reality made possible by every Dominican who was involved in the event’s production, y créeme we are just getting started.

    Johanna Ferreira

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  • Sofía Vergara Wore a Boob-Window Dress For Date Night, and I’m Inspired

    Sofía Vergara Wore a Boob-Window Dress For Date Night, and I’m Inspired

    After announcing that she would be divorcing Joe Manganiello after seven years of marriage, Sofia Vergara has jumped headfirst back into the dating game with some sultry looks that have all eyes on her. And seeing her latest party-ready outfit, I’m getting some major inspiration for the holidays that lies ahead. Vergara’s latest look was a head-turning bright red dress with a revealing slit down her chest that showed off a sliver of cleavage in an otherwise covered-up silhouette. It’s a balance of modesty and boldness that I personally find hard to maintain but Vergara does it seamlessly so I’ll be adding her to my holiday-style mood board.

    Vergara’s statement-making Victoria Beckham dress is ankle length with an asymmetric hem. With slightly belled sleeves, it boasts a crew-cut neckline, giving way to a leaf-shaped slit that travels from shoulder to bust. She styled the look with metallic platform heels and kept her makeup natural with her hair parted in the middle and flowing down her back.

    For this latest outing with her rumored beau, orthopedic surgeon Dr. Justin Saliman, Vergara wore a boob-window trend that has actually been seen on countless celebrities as of late. Back in January, Lori Harvey wore a black sleeveless dress boasting the cutout design flourish, followed by Florence Pugh, Kendall Jenner, and more. When it comes to celebrity style, we’re always on the hunt for a look that perfectly balances revealing details with more modest shapes and this new look is a trend that does just that.

    Ahead, get a closer look at Vergara’s latest date-night outfit.

    Avery Matera

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  • Anitta Dances Around in a Pink String Thongkini and a Neon Dad Hat

    Anitta Dances Around in a Pink String Thongkini and a Neon Dad Hat

    Anitta is taking the music industry by storm, making history at the 2022 VMAs as the first Brazilian artist to win Best Latin Award with hits like “Envolver.” While the world is finally paying attention to the reggaeton singer, she’s been in the game for over a decade — and Anitta’s style is just as inspiring as her music.

    Since gaining recognition in the US, the 30 year-old has constantly brought the heat in alluring pieces and body-baring silhouettes, whether she’s on the biggest red carpets or dancing in one of her captivating music visuals. Working with stylist André Philipe, Anitta wore a black cutout bodysuit and a GCDS bralette and denim shorts for the official music video for “Mil Veces,” subtly nodding to the Y2K trend. She evokes the energy of the early aughts often, including a halter top and thong-baring miniskirt worn during a trip to Mexico City and a lace-up Monse sweater set she sported for an appearance on “Hot Ones” in August.

    Anitta also is a noted fan of the celebrity-favorite thongkini trend, wearing a pink tropical bikini-and-sarong set from the Sydney Sweeney x Frankie Bikinis collaboration as well as multiple white thong bikinis during a summer vacation in Mykonos.

    Anitta’s red carpet outfits are just as sultry and even more trend-driven. For Casadonna’s Opening Celebration on Oct. 20, she took her love for cutouts to new heights in a red orange David Koma minidress with thigh cutouts, and a custom black Mugler dress that featured shimmering butt cutouts for the 2022 American Music Awards. She also mastered the naked-dress trend for her Cosmopolitan España cover in a lurex mesh dress as well as at the 2022 Latin Grammys in a satin corseted Mônot gown with an extreme sheer skirt. And last but certainly not least, she donned a voluminous Marc Jacobs dress and the brand’s viral 7-inch Kiki boots at the 2023 Met Gala, showing her sartorial versatility.

    As the “Bellaquita” singer continues to make her mark, keep scrolling for her best fashion moments thus far.

    Naomi Parris

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  • Anitta Shows Off Major Underboob in a Cutout Bodysuit For “Mil Veces”

    Anitta Shows Off Major Underboob in a Cutout Bodysuit For “Mil Veces”

    As POPSUGAR editors, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you’ll like too. If you buy a product we have recommended, we may receive affiliate commission, which in turn supports our work.

    Anitta is no stranger to revealing lingerie and skin-baring cutouts, so it’s no surprise she brought the heat to her official music video for “Mil Veces,” released on Thursday, Oct. 19. The 30-year-old musician had been teasing stills from the Jackson Tisi-directed production, which features Måneskin’s Damiano David as her love interest. While there’s a whole lot of making out as cause for distraction (on the bed, in the shower, and on a chair), Anitta’s looks shine through and make for a memorable aesthetic consisting of chainmail tops, strappy bikinis, cutout bodysuits, lacy lingerie, and distressed denim. She wears large, silver hoop earrings throughout, with her red hair parted at the center and left down in messy waves. The outfits that seem to get the most camera time include a GCDS logo bralette teamed with belted and studded jean shorts and a chunky blue heart pendant choker, plus the gold halter and butt-skimming pants she’s seen in from the window of a red car.

    Often working with stylist André Philipe, Anitta’s worn everything from a lace-up sweater set for an appearance on “Hot Ones” to a controversial leather bra that doubled as a choker and was completed with a matching thong, proving she’s already mastered the hip cleavage trend. Also infamous to her wardrobe? Her butt cutouts in this Mugler dress at the 2022 American Music Awards. Anitta also pulled off the towering, 7-inch Marc Jacobs Kiki boots on the 2023 Met Gala red carpet with ease.

    Ahead, see her standout outfits in the “Mil Veces” video, then shop a few pieces that will help you recreate her style.

    Sarah Wasilak

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  • Karol G Stuns in a White Plunging Corset Dress at the BLMAs

    Karol G Stuns in a White Plunging Corset Dress at the BLMAs

    While Fashion Month may be over, bringing your sartorial A-game is always in order, especially at the 2023 Billboard Latin Music Awards. On Oct. 5, the Latine community’s most talented singers and rappers gathered at the Watsco Center in Coral Gables, FL, to celebrate music and culture, and fashion was not forsaken. This year’s event marked 30 years since its inception. It’s birthed some bold style moments through the years, from Shakira’s medieval corset-and-skirt combo in 1999 to Becky G’s green Dundas cutout gown held together by metal rings in 2022.

    Among this year’s recognized attendees were Bad Bunny, who won artist of the year; Peso Pluma, recognized for hot Latin song; and Karol G, who took home five awards, including top Latin album for “Mañana Será Bonito.” Styled by Zerina Akers, the Colombian singer celebrated her wins in a custom white satin corset and floor-length skirt, adorned with crystal fringe tassels, that showed off her collection of more than 20 tattoos. She accessorized with Sophia Webster platforms and wore her pink and blond hair in a messy bun with rosy makeup.

    Meanwhile, Bad Bunny took an edgier approach in a white tee, Gucci pants, navy blue loafers, and accessories, including his signature backward cap and a scarf tied around his neck layered over diamond necklaces. Paris Hilton graced the award show stage in a mint green Area gown that featured a halter-style neckline, rectangular cutouts that bared her chest and sides, and rhinestone detailing. She teamed the sparkly number with metallic pumps, a coordinating Jimmy Choo clutch, and chunky crystal cuffs. Sofía Reyes also got the cutout memo, as she posed in a black and gold sparkly dress from Rahul Mishra and alluring Fabergé jewelry.

    Ahead, check out the 2023 arrivals to see how artists conquered the Billboard Latin Music Awards red carpet. Then, look back at all the head-turning outfits from the 2022 BLMAs red carpet.

    Naomi Parris

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  • Sofía Vergara Dances in a Sheer Corset and Unbuttoned Jeans at a Karol G Concert

    Sofía Vergara Dances in a Sheer Corset and Unbuttoned Jeans at a Karol G Concert

    Sofía Vergara’s stylish summer continues. On Aug. 19, the actor dressed to the nines in a sultry outfit for Karol G’s concert at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA. Again showcasing her love for corset silhouettes, Vergara wore a black Mônot bustier bodysuit featuring a boned bodice, sheer panels, and a plunging sweetheart neckline. She tucked the top into a pair of black ripped jeans worn unbuttoned and folded over, and finished the look with heels, a silver necklace, and a crossbody bag. In several photos and videos shared on Instagram, Vergara danced the night away alongside friends and several actors from her upcoming Netflix series “Griselda.”

    Vergara has actually worn this outfit combination in the past, pairing the same Mônot bodysuit with matching ripped jeans for a holiday party in December with then-husband Joe Manganiello. Back then, she layered on a black blazer and accessorized with a crystal-embellished Valentino purse and silver chain choker. We love a celebrity who’s not afraid to rewear outfits.

    The 51-year-old star has always been fashionable, but it seems she’s been sharing more glimpses into her wardrobe following her split from Manganiello last month. The same day news of their divorce broke, the “America’s Got Talent” judge posed in a blue leopard-print one-piece while vacationing in Italy. She also attended Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in rhinestone-lined separates and recently enjoyed a girls’ night out in West Hollywood wearing a blue bodycon midi dress and platform heels.

    Read ahead to admire Vergara’s latest style moment at the Karol G show.

    Victoria Messina

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  • Sofía Vergara Stuns in a Blue Plunging Corset Dress For a Girls’ Night Out

    Sofía Vergara Stuns in a Blue Plunging Corset Dress For a Girls’ Night Out

    Forget a classic LBD, Sofía Vergara’s idea of the perfect ensemble for a night out is a bright dress. On Aug. 13, the “Modern Family” actress was spotted outside celebrity-favorite restaurant Delilah in West Hollywood while celebrating sister Veronica’s birthday alongside other loved ones, including niece Claudia, friend Margarita, and her son Manolo. For the blissful occasion, Vergara stayed true to her sultry style with a strapless blue, figure-flattering midi dress that featured a cleavage-baring corset. Accessorized with black platform sandals and an unstructured clutch, sparkly silver jewelry cascaded down her right wrist, serving as a chic touch to the sleek outfit. She then finished things off with light, dewy makeup and her light brown hair was styled with her signature middle part. Meanwhile, her sister wore a green midi dress with small side cutouts at the waist and similar black accessories.

    Although Vergara’s currently in the midst of a divorce from Joe Manganiello after seven years, the Colombian star has been showcasing a slew of vibrant outfits. She embraced pieces like low-rise denim and plunging tops in her early days, but her penchant for bold, glamorous clothing has heightened even more as of late. The former model kicked off the summer with a topless moment by the pool in a black thong bikini bottom, effortlessly nailing the viral thongkini trend. More recently, she enjoyed a vacation in Italy, where she celebrated her 51st birthday in body-baring silhouettes, including a one-shoulder white lace swimsuit with cutouts from OYE Swimwear, a blue leopard print swimsuit, and a high-cut neon suit that made the case for one-pieces. She subtly embraced the quiet luxury trend during the getaway with a white-and-blue floral dress featuring an even lower plunge and a white Chanel bag.

    Keep scrolling for a closer look at Vergara’s outfit in full detail.

    Naomi Parris

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