RECENT ARTICLES

Sebastián Yatra is a heartthrob superstar. He’s also a darn fine songwriter. Yatra, who was born in Colombia and raised in Miami, Florida, now has legions of fans numbering in the tens of millions. He’s collaborated with the Jonas Brothers, covered Elvis Costello, with the singer’s blessing, and he’s currently on tour with Enrique Iglesias and Ricky Martin, idols who Yatra looked up to as a kid.

Now, though, he’s sharing their same air. This is what comes when you’re a Latin Grammy Award-nominated artist, what follows you when you garner millions of song streams in a matter of days. Yatra, who released his most recent hit, “Tarde,” two weeks ago, even more recently earned a Latin Grammy nomination for his earlier 2021 single, “Adios.” That song, which has its own unique backstory, came to the artist in a matter of moments.

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Portland, Oregon-born, Grammy-winning musician, Esperanza Spalding, remembers walking the dog with her mother. In fact, it’s her first memory. During the excursion, Spalding remembers asking her mother to harmonize with her, trying to turn multiple tones into something more. It made sense for the young child who begged her parents to play Harry Belafonte’s and Stevie Wonder’s Christmas albums year-round. She says another turning point in her early life was hearing a Bach cello suite on Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. It gave her the chills, even then. Some few decades later, Spalding is a towering figure in music, with both street cred and Harvard University props, multiple Grammy Awards, and now a new LP, Songwrights Apothecary Lab, out today (September 24).

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New Orleans-based, booming-voiced artist, Big Freedia, knows life in all its glory, terror and variety is, in the end, about balance. So, to keep her own mind balanced during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, Freedia took to two main outlets: cooking and recording music. For the former, Freedia took to social media and YouTube to produce modest-though-beloved cooking videos, showing viewers how she makes various favorites, like biscuits. For the former, Freedia wrote and recorded in the studio and has since recently made that work public, releasing her latest EP, Big Diva Energy, earlier in September. The album, which comes on the heels of her 2020 EP, Louder, is itself a triumphant exercise in balance. On the EP, Freedia discusses both personal boundaries and fun, food-based gluttony.

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Radiant Tennessee-born singer-songwriter, Valerie June, is resourceful, especially energetically. Speaking with the conscientious musician, it’s quick to see she’s as caring about ideas as she is talented, as aware of tone and feeling as she is technicality or intellect. It’s this mood that she brings to collaborations and cooking sessions with stars like Norah Jones—the two hung out and made music and meals together recently—and the mood June brings to playing stages like the Pilgrimage Music and Cultural Festival, which she will perform at on September 25, now her third time at the fest. But, for June, it’s often about making the most of these moments—whether they’re in person or at home in hibernation—and learning how they can better inform the present and future days that’s significant.

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For the dynamic sonic force LP, who is known for her hits like “Lost On You” and “When We’re High,” it’s all about serving the song. There are many people who can sing, she says. Many people with talent. But the special thing in music is most often the complete composition, the song that compels one to dance, think, or even change perspectives on an idea. The song is the torch, no matter if it’s about sex and drugs or the essential deep love one human being can have for another, romantically or platonically. This is how LP approached writing and producing her new, forthcoming album, Churches, which is set for release on December 3.

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