KAROL G

The reggaeton star returned to her roots and raised the bar

- Julyssa Lopez

Despite the many peaks in Karol G’s career since she broke out of the music scene in Medellín (where she began performing as a teenager), the 34-year-old singer still exudes a near-breathless incredulity when describing a few of the milestones she hit this year. “I've done legendary stages that never in my life I imagined I'd perform in, like the Vatican or Crazy Horse,” she says, every word vibrating with glee.

Those moments were all in some way or another the result of Tropicoqueta, the gamble of an album she released in June. It wasn’t typical of Karol’s albums, which have toggled between happy-go-lucky party queen and tough-talking bad bitch while launching reggaeton hit after reggaeton hit. Tropicoqueta was a deeper excavation of her roots in Colombia. She tried out traditional rhythms like folksy vallenato and ballads about profound heartbreak with 80s legends like Mexican singer Marco Antonio Solís. “Songs like ‘Coleccionando Heridas’ and ‘Ese Hombre Es Malo’ remind me of the music that I used to listen to when I was in school,” she says. “I wanted this album to get to those feelings and that nostalgia.”

Some people didn't get it - and still don’t.