Sebastian Yatra

Can you tell us about your sound

My sound – there is no particular way of describing my sound, it’s just who I am as a person, what I think, what I feel and how I want to express myself, and that always changes. Every time I make a song I don’t want to make the same song twice, not only the writing style or the story I’m telling, but also I don’t want the song to sound the same so I’m always going through different rhythms, harmonies, melodies and I want to be taken somewhere new with each song. I want it to hit a different part of the soul. Sometimes songs make you happy, sometimes songs make you sad, sometimes they make you dance and I like choosing what rhythm and harmony accompany me in each song during that moment but not thinking about a specific genre.

What can we expect from your album Dharma?

Dharma is my best work yet, at least for me it’s the one I’m most a fan of. It’s very different from song to song. It’s a high-energy, high emotion rollercoaster type of album. Each song, even if I’m doing a love song, slow love song or up tempo reggaeton song, each of them are always changing and taking you to places you don’t expect, lyric-wise and rhythm-wise.

What does the word dharma mean to you?

Dharma means so many things. To me it means accepting my reality, it’s your destiny; that path that we all have and it’s beautiful. We all talk a lot about karma but we don’t talk about something way more positive than karma which is dharma, which is all the good things you get in life through acting through your nature and acting on your path.

How does it feel to release a song like ”’Tacones Rojos”’ that has accumulated 70million streams in just few months?

I’m super happy about ”Tacones Rojos” the numbers are crazy. But what’s even more crazy is seeing the amount of people singing it and dancing around the world in all age groups, because I run into people all day and they talk to me about ”Tacones Rojos” and it’s just really exciting. I’ve had songs that have had the same amount of numbers and all these things but they’re not part of the people as much as “Tacones Rojos” and I think it’s because it’s so fresh, the rhythm and the lyrics are so positive that it just gets the best out of you. You hear “Tacones Rojos” and it’s not just one more song, it’s like one of those songs that I know can stay for a long time and it’s probably my favorite song yet that I’ve released, at least as a dance song, and there’s a lot more of that in Dharma.’

How do you feel about your nominations with Encanto?

I’m still processing the Golden Globe nomination and the Critics Choice nomination. I never stop working and this year is the first time that I have stopped for five or six days and I got the news when I was disconnected from my phone and I don’t know it’s pretty crazy, I’m just grateful. I’m grateful for the opportunity to sing “Dos Oruguitas.” I’m grateful to Disney and Lin Manuel Miranda for making a movie about my beautiful Colombia and I’m grateful to everybody that gave the song that place and that spot in their heart when there’s so many beautiful songs that accompany great scenes in different movies.

What would you be doing right now if it wasn’t for your music career?

I would have gone into entertainment through acting, maybe. I just love expressing myself through words so I chose music but you also express a lot through acting or writing books. My brother writes books and I just love talking and getting my point across. I’m going to have my acting debut in 2022 on Netflix in a series called “Éras una vez pero ya no” from Mexican director Manolo Caro. I’m the main character so I’m really excited for that door to open and we’ll see where it takes me.

How has success changed your life?

I’m just so grateful because I feel like success… it’s not like one day I felt like I wasn’t successful and then the other day I was. I mean there was a moment in my life where I wasn’t recognized for my music or I wasn’t a good singer yet but I still felt successful in my day-to-day life. My parents are great people, I got to grow up with my family, with my brothers and my cousins, we would play soccer. We weren’t the best but we would do ok. In school, I wasn’t number one but I did the best I could so I felt successful. I wasn’t comparing myself to anybody else, just to myself, and I felt successful because I had a goal, I had drive, I would go to sleep with something on my mind, I would wake up with something on my mind. I was happy, I’ve been happy most of my life. Obviously, I’ve had moments but if I had to go through it all there’s definitely a bigger percentage where I’ve felt happy. And for me that’s a success. Material things come and go but I have to base my life on the question: if I didn’t have any of these things would I still feel good?… that’s what I work on.

Growing up, which artists inspired you?

I got inspired by Josh Groban, Bruno Mars, Michael Bublé, Alejandro Fernandez. I heard a lot of One Direction when I started doing my music and they inspired me. Enrique Iglesias, who I just went on tour within the U.S. I’ve been inspired of course by Shakira and so many other great singers.

What’s heavily played on your music playlist right now?

I think that “Tacones Rojos” for sure. “Biblical” from Calum Scott, and “You are the reason,” which came out two years ago and I just discovered it but that’s the beauty of music and ballads and love songs, it doesn’t matter when you hear them. They don’t have to be the song of the moment, just the song of your moment.

Who are your favorite fashion designers?

There are so many great people in the fashion world. I think we’re all inspired by what Virgil did; mixing high fashion with a very modern take on it, but I also love just picking out random clothes that I like. It doesn’t have to be a famous designer for me. I also think that what Esteban Cortazar is doing represents Colombian fashion. For example with “Desigual”, all his work is really cool.

What’s inspiring you in life right now?

So many things inspire me but I think consciousness is inspiring me a lot. Being present, learning to be happy with me and not looking for something else or someone else to be happy. There’s a line I heard the other day which was so beautiful “if you can’t be happy without her you’ll never be happy with her”. When you’re full is when you can start giving something to someone else.

What’s a cause that is important to you?

I want to have a charity someday. It hasn’t happened yet but it’s definitely going to be something with kids. Education for me is what’s most important. Obviously, it’s important to help with many different things but the most important is education, giving people tools to make whatever they want to happen, actually happen. Since I’m getting into this consciousness thing in my life and learning self-love I think it’s very important to teach kids about self-love and how to manage your emotions. Education nowadays is all about values or economics, mathematics or reading but if you don’t know how to manage your emotions and you don’t practice that from when you’re young you’re going to have to face it at some point. So it’s better if you face it when you’re young.

What’s the most adventurous thing you’ve done in your life?

I don’t know what the most adventurous thing I’ve done in my life is but right now, at this moment, I just finished 24 hours of complete silence and fasting in Nicaragua, no communication with anybody, no reading, no entertainment, just me and my thoughts for 24 hours straight and that was a magnificent experience and a growing experience.

How would you describe yourself in three words?

Curious, creative, loving.

What are the three things you can’t live without?

It’s hard to work without my phone, I wish I could. I’m big on food. I think socializing is big for me, sharing with family and friends. Having other people around is something that I love. If they took that away from me it would be awful.

What are your hobbies?

Exercising, yoga, reading, writing, and playing soccer.

What are your goals for 2022?

I want “Tacones Rojos” to be as big as it can be and everybody to prepare for ‘Dharma,’ my new album. We’re going to be releasing a new song in the first week of January, it’s called “Amor pasajero.” It comes out on January 7, it’s an amazing song, the video is insane, we did it in Argentina. It’s a cumbia and you guys are going to have a lot of fun with it.

For 2022 my goal is to have a fantastic tour with ‘Dharma’ and for this album to be listened to across the world, I think it deserves that and we’re going to work for it. The tour starts in Mexico on February 23 in the Auditorio Nacional and will be in Spain, in the U.S., all of South America, Central America and different parts of Europe, hopefully, and it is going to be a lot of fun.

Message to your fans.

I just want to say hi to all my fans that are reading this, wishing you a merry Christmas and a happy new year. I hope that when you think back to your year there’s a lot more positive than negative, and you’ve learned a lot and grown as a person, and are just enjoying your present and whatever it is I hope it’s going well and that this interview is to your liking, and that this album touches your heart. There’s a lot of lyrics and sounds and melodies in this album that I not only made for myself but that I made for you.

We heard that you don’t believe in genres?

I really don’t know if I have a sound. It’s just I have a heart, I have a mind, a way of thinking, a way of expressing myself, a way of feeling like anyone else. I just happen to like making music so every time I get in the studio I’m inspired by different things and since I’m always looking for something new or I want to feel new things, just because I’m a curious person, I don’t want to put myself into only one rhythm. It’s like making medicine only for your pancreas, but you’ve got to make music for every part of your body. It’s strange that I’m saying this but you have to make music for every part of your soul. Sometimes you feel happy, sometimes you’re sad, sometimes you want to go crazy, dancing, sometimes you want to live a more sexual experience. There are different types of things going on in your life and each genre knows it and takes you to different places