Do You Pick Your Belly Button?
Actor WIlmer Valderrama Answers Curly's Most Pressing Questions
PeroLike / Via youtube.com
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Actor WIlmer Valderrama Answers Curly's Most Pressing Questions
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Disney, I'd Like To Introduce You To Your Newest Princess, Cardi B
This is what money moves looks like.
This is Cardi B. She's a talented rapper, Internet icon, and more fashionable than I'll ever be.
Rich Fury / Getty Images
Ethan Miller / Getty Images
And when it came to Rihanna's Diamond Ball on Sept. 14, our girl didn't hold back!
For those who don't know, The Diamond Ball is a charitable event that raises money for Rihanna's Clara Lionel Foundation.
Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images
Cardi showed up lookin' ready to take Cinderella's crown, and I'm 100% here for it!
Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images
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We Learned How To Dance Salsa In A Week
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Being A Latinx Drag Queen
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Janet Jackson Got Her Life To Cardi B's "Bodak Yellow" And Girl, SAME
A legendary stamp of approval.
It's safe to say that 2017 is the year of Cardi B.
Rob Kim / Getty Images
She's currently got the number two song in the country and is in the running for nine, count 'em, NINE, BET awards.
Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images
And if you thought the Cardi reign was slowing down anytime soon, the LEGENDARY Janet Jackson is here to prove you wrong.
Francois Nel / Getty Images
Janet is currently on her State of the World tour. And while she performed her '89 bop "What Have You Done For Me Lately," the beat to "Bodak Yellow" came in and Janet got dowwwwn:
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Um, Gina Rodriguez Dancing On "Ellen" Is The Kind Of Thing You Need To See Today
Queen of living her best life.
It's no surprise that Gina Rodriguez has always been one with the rhythm.
CW
She just proved to both Ellen and the world that, unlike me, she doesn't have two left feet:
Rodriguez, along with choreographer Lyrik Cruz, salsa danced their way onto the "Ellen" stage and I've currently got it on an endless loop.
Warner Bros.
She did the dance in partnership with Ulta Beauty to raise a whopping $10,000 for breast cancer research.
Warner Bros.
So not only is she a charitable queen, she also chose Lin-Manuel Miranda's song "Almost Like Praying" to get her life to.
She is featured on the song, and its proceeds go to benefit The Hispanic Federation's Unidos Disaster Relief Fund.
Warner Bros.
Keep up the incredible WERK bb.
Warner Bros.
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A Bunch Of Badass Latinas In Hollywood Got Together And It Warmed My Cold, Dead Heart
Icons supporting icons!
So over the weekend, I was scrolling through Insta until I saw something that made me involuntarily scream "YAS!"
RCA Records
It was this iconic photo posted by Jane The Virgin star Gina Rodriguez, and it's everything I wish my brunches were.
Pictured above are: Jaina Lee Ortiz, Gloria Calderon Kellett, Eva Longoria, Eiza Gonzalez, Ivonne Coll, Gina Rodriguez, Yara Martinez, America Ferrera, Justina Machado, Anjelah Johnson-Reyes, Andrea Navedo, Melissa Fumero, Isabella Gomez, Stephanie Beatriz, and Rosario Dawson.
This group of #FiercelyLatinas in Hollywood got together for what appears to be the greatest get-together in the history of get-togethers.
They even wore some fire Chingona pins!
For those who don't know, Chingona is Spanish slang for "badass woman."
Stephanie Beatriz, from Brooklyn Nine-Nine, told BuzzFeed that the lunch was orchestrated by Gina Rodriguez and America Ferrera.
hereisgina / Via instagram.com
I met some amazingly smart and funny women that day, and as we all talked, we collectively agreed that there’s so much power in supporting each other. Representation matters. All of us want to see all kinds of Latinas in more leading roles in television and film, as well as producing and directing. I think it might’ve been Rosario who suggested the hashtag “fiercely Latina”, and all of us loved it. I hope that other women who identify as Latina can rally around #fiercelyLatina as a way to describe themselves: a celebration of the rich span of cultures and colors that being a Latina can look like, and as a call to shine like the fierce, bright lights that they are.
Melissa Fumero, also from Brooklyn Nine-Nine, told BuzzFeed that being #fiercelyLatina means "being surrounded by all these incredibly badass women and artists" and "promising to support one another and all Latinas no matter what."
Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images
Gloria Calderon Kellett, Writer/Executive Producer/Co-Showrunner for Netflix's One Day At A Time, also attended the lunch and told BuzzFeed, "It was an honor to break bread with these women and meet a few new faces. I’m inspired by being in their company."
She went on to say “Gina and America are generous and supportive women who always show up to represent Latinas on TV and film in such a powerful way" and looks forward to supporting the work of all these women.
hereisgina / Via instagram.com
Never underestimate the power and determination of Latinas.
Huffington Post
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OMG, Google Just Put Out A Selena Doodle And It's So Beautiful I'm Crying
“I can honestly say that I wouldn’t be who I am if it wasn’t for two important women: My mom and Selena.”
On Tuesday, Google released their latest doodle featuring the iconic Selena Quintanilla and it's GORGEOUS.
If you click on the doodle, you'll be presented with a glorious animated short set to "Bidi Bidi Bom Bom."
And it shows the trajectory of Selena's career, from singing in restaurants to becoming the Latina icon we've come to love.
Pay close attention. You'll notice a whole bunch of details like the bustier with the little sprinkly things on it, Big Bertha, lipstick on the microphone, a quinceañera, and of course, PIZZA!
Perla grew up in the primarily white town of Gransbury, Texas, and is the daughter of a Mexican immigrant single mom. "I was constantly surrounded by this idea that I was different," Perla told BuzzFeed.
"I can honestly say that I wouldn't be who I am if it wasn't for two important women: My mom and Selena."
In a blog post on the Google Doodle page, she wrote more in depth about her appreciation for Selena: "Watching Selena taught me that being Latina was a powerful thing...Watching her showed me that this hybrid cultural identity of mine was a valuable gift I should embrace. Watching her made me proud of being Mexicana."
Perla and her team travelled to Corpus Christi to meet with Suzette Quintanilla, Selena's sister, and the rest of the Quintanilla family, who ultimately gave the doodle their stamp of approval.
"I've always been excited about this project, but the cherry on top was listening to Suzette's bursts of laughter...Suzette and the family were such positive partners to work with."
"The best thing I can say is thank you, Selena," Campos concluded in the blog. "Thank you for being a role model and a hero to a little Latina girl in Granbury, Texas. Thank you for teaching her that she could dream big and make it."
You can check out the doodle on Google's homepage or check out the video here:
Also, be sure to visit the Selena exhibit on Google Arts & Culture page.
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31 Gifts You Need To Buy If You Want To Support Latino-Owned Businesses This Holiday Season
I’ll take five of everything please.
A chula necklace for that person in your life who's beautiful both inside and out.
Mi Vida is a Chicano brand that works closely with the community. Everything is designed, printed, and made in LA and they provide a place for local artists of all ages to come together.
Get this necklace from Mi Vida for $28.
shopmivida / Via shopmivida.com
This badass tee that poses an extremely valid question.
Greenboxshop was founded by queer Afro-Latina Kayla Robinson. She created social justice shirts when she couldn't find any she liked online. This shirt has even been worn by Frank Ocean!
Get it from Greenboxshop for $18.99.
kaylaa.robinson / Via instagram.com
A pin for the person in your life who isn't sleeping on important social issues. Stay woke my friends!
GRL TRBL was founded by Afro-Latinx writer and illustrator Emerald Pellot and aims to always be inclusive, intersectional, and feminist.
Get this sweet, sweet pin from GRL TRBL for $12.
GRL TRBL / Via grltrbl.com
Peralta Project / Via peraltaproject.com
Peralta Project / Via peraltaproject.com
A simple necklace that's all about Afro-Latina pride.
This necklace is made by Dominican indie artist and designer Zahira Kelly. Her site says that "much of the proceeds go directly to marginalized women and femme identifying people of color."
Get this polished gold steel necklace from Zahira Kelly for $36.
Zahira Kelly / Via shopzahirakelly.com
A handmade "trá trá trá" bag that can hold all the makeup you'll likely sweat off on the dance floor.
Anda Pa'l was founded by Rita, a Puerto Rico native who now lives in Seattle. She seeks to celebrate the music, language, colors, and joy "de nuestra cultura."
Get this cute bag from Anda Pa'l for $15.
andapal / Via andapal.com
A "No Me Jodas" iron-on patch because people shouldn't be fucking with you to begin with.
Shop Destruya carries feminist-inspired apparel and was founded by a very talented Puerto Rican woman named Natalia.
Get this patch from Shop Destruya for $6.
Shop Destruya / Via shop-destruya.com
malabypattyrodriguez / Via instagram.com
A paletero air freshener that smells like strawberries and your childhood.
Fuchila Air Fresheners is a Chicano and Latino pop culture-inspired line of air fresheners with one goal: Make people happy.
Get this cute lil' freshener from Fuchila Air Fresheners for $5.
Fuchila / Via fuchilafresheners.com
A "corazon de melon" onesie that'll make your baby more fashionable than I'll ever be.
Somar ATX is a Texas-based Xicanx shop that's all about embracing the Latino culture.
Get this bodysuit from Somar ATX for $23.99.
Somar ATX / Via somaratx.com
A "Peligrosa" tote bag because what's a little fun without some danger?
The Future Is Latina was founded by Natalie Montelongo and has had her products worn by the likes of comedian Cristela Alonzo.
Get the tote bag for $18 and "The Future Is Female Shirt" for $25 from TheFutureisLatina on Etsy.
TheFutureisLatina / Via etsy.com
A "Nena" shirt for all the beloved nenas in your life. Can't risk leaving one out!
If you don't already know, Nena is Spanish slang for "babygirl." Hola Dear Deer was inspired by family roots and founded by two Texas-based sisters, Erika Del Valle and Jessica Garcia.
Get this shirt from Hola Dear Deer for $25.
Hola Dear Deer / Via holadeardeer.bigcartel.com
A Virgen de Guadalupe sweatshirt to protect your loved one from life's demons. And actual demons.
Bella Doña is the creation of Natalia Durazo and Lala Romero. Their pieces have a beautiful SoCal chola aesthetic.
Get this sweater from Bella Doña for $48-$50.
Bella Doña / Via shop.shop.bella-dona.com
A lovely t-shirt that says what you've probably been saying for an entire lifetime.
The shirt says "Support the dreams of young girls of color." Nalgona Positivity Pride, the shop that makes these, is a Xicana-brown body-positive shop that focuses on creating eating disorders awareness in communities of color and decolonizing the body.
Get this dreamy shirt from NalgonaPositiveShop for $26.50.
NalgonaPositiveShop / Via etsy.com
This deep conditioner oil, scalp treatment oil, and hair and skin cream bundle because "todo pelo es pelo bueno."
MicMas ReMiX was founded by Adessa, an Afro-Latina who hopes to inspire pride in all hair, because there is no such thing as pelo malo." Her products are best used on relaxed, kinky curly, dreadlocks, coarse, and coily hair.
Get this bundle from MicMas ReMiX for $30.75.
MicMas ReMiX / Via micmasremix.com
These color-shifting highlighters will have your highlight poppin' and make your overall look showstoppin' (I'm sorry).
Chaos Makeup is based in Texas and was founded by Megan Martinez. The brand also carries an extremely popular rainbow highlighter.
Get Ice, Moon, Cosmic, or Nerfertiti for $15 each or the whole set for $45 from Chaos Makeup.
Chaos Makeup / Via chaosmakeup.com
A handmade brass moons mobile with energy healing properties that'll make your 2018 a little less stressful.
BreadxButta, a NYC company founded by a Puerto Rican woman, say that Howlite, the stone used in this piece, is "a great stone to use when needing to reduce anxiety, tensions, and stress."
Get it from BreadxButta for $75.
breadxbutta / Via breadxbutta.com
A "Latin Nerd" shirt because being smart is always in fashion.
Believing that there's an entire world of under-recognized and under-represented brown people in tech, coding, space, science, and gaming, Latin Nerd wants to put those people in the forefront.
Get this shirt from Latin Nerd for $19.95. 5% of the proceeds goes to Code2040, which helps support and create successful pathways for minorities in the tech industry.
Latin Nerd / Via latinnerd.com
A flying tiger shirt that is LITERALLY a work of art.
Founded in 2009 by artists Ivan Lopez and Alexa Treviño, Artillery A.G. steps away from fast fashion, creates wearable art, and establishes a platform for emerging artists.
Get this shirt from Artillery A.G. in black, white, grey, or gold for $25.
Artillery A.G. / Via artillery-ag.com
Do your holiday shopping with BuzzFeed. Check out all of our gift guides here!
BuzzFeed
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This Afro-Latina Is Embracing Her Natural Hair To Be An Example To Her Daughter
“I want Indi to understand her heritage and relate to me. I want her to feel beautiful in her own skin.”
This is Massy Arias, a badass Afro-Latina, fitness expert, Covergirl, and mother.
This is Indi, Massy's adorable daughter.
Earlier this month, Massy shared a picture of her natural hair and explained she chopped it all off because she wants her daughter to understand her heritage and feel beautiful in her own skin.
"When I was 9 years old I asked my mom why my hair was curly and hers straight. I’m sure being a busy mom and having a different hair type than mine, my mom did what she thought was best for her lifestyle [and straightened her hair]. Yesterday I chopped it all off so I can be all natural. Because I am more than my hair," Massy wrote on Instagram.
Massy, who suffers from mild scalp psoriasis, also explained she grew tired of all the maintenance straightening her hair took, and the stress it put on her scalp.
She's still getting used to her natural hair, but says she feels liberated. She's also still trying to find the best products to use.
Mom-daughter goals! <3
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This Afro-Latina Singer Had The Best Response After She Was Compared To Food And Shamed For Her Hair
“Not all Latinas look like J.Lo or Sofia Vergara or Shakira, so where are the women that look like myself?”
This insanely stunning person is Amara La Negra, a child star turned singer/rapper and reality star on Love & Hip Hop Miami.
@amaralanegraaln / Via instagram.com
The Miami native is Domincan, identifies as Afro-Latina, and is damn proud of her black heritage. Her stage name Amara La Negra literally translates to Amara the Black Woman.
So in the LHH: MIA premiere, which aired on Monday, Amara had a business meeting with her castmate Young Hollywood, a music producer. During the meetup, he advised Amara on her "image," telling her to be "a little more Beyoncé, a little less Macy Gray…a little more sensual."
@amaralanegraaln / Via instagram.com
And when Amara asked him if it was impossible for her to be elegant with an Afro, he replied, "Yeah, I guess so." He later called her a "Nutella queen" and "psychotic" and put up a black power fist before saying, "You're a little intense about this whole Africa thing."
FYI, Young Hollywood is also Latino.
VH1 / Via instagram.com
Well, Amara wasn't here for ANY of Young Hollywood's critiques on her looks, hair texture included. "I'm extremely proud of my brown skin. I'm proud of my color, of the way that my hair curls," she said. "I’m proud of who I am and nobody’s gonna take that away from me."
She also pointed out that Afro-Latinas like herself who have dark skin and curly hair are seriously underrepresented in the music industry: "Not all Latinas look like J.Lo or Sofia Vergara or Shakira, so where are the women that look like myself?" she asked. "A lot of people like to box me in because of my look or because I’m dark-skinned, but that doesn’t make me less Latina! I’m 100% Latina and proud of it."
@amaralanegraaln / Via instagram.com
The scene sparked some major conversations on Twitter. People brought up colorism within the Latinx community...
@iamtieranee / Via Twitter: @iamtieranee
...and reminded others that this wasn't anything new.
@sun_goddess87 / Via Twitter: @sun_goddess87
... and set the record straight on Amara's ICONIC status in the Latinx community...
@LittleBPMix / Via Twitter: @LittleBPMix
Amara tweeted her many thanks the next day, saying that she was "about to cry."
@AmaraLaNegraALN / Via Twitter: @AmaraLaNegraALN
And to top it all off, Billboard Magazine just announced that Amara's signed a multi-album record deal with Fast Life Entertainment Worldwide and BMG!!!
"I'm still in shock! At times, I am caught pinching myself because there is a part of me that still is in awe of being signed to a franchise that will heighten my success," she said in a statement. "It is a feeling of a different level of hunger because I have prayed for this so much that it feels unreal!"
TO AMARA AND ALL THE OTHER UNAPOLOGETIC AFRO-LATINAS OUT THERE, WE SEE YOU, AND YOUR BLACK IS HELLA BEAUTIFUL!!!
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Camila Cabello Is Writing Her Own Pop Rules
Camila Cabello performs "Never Be the Same" on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Jan. 10.
Andrew Lipovsky / NBC / NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
You’ve probably heard Camila Cabello’s ubiquitous hit, “Havana,” even if you can’t match her voice to her name or face. The song, which combines a hypnotizing piano line and Cuban-inflected horns with a feature verse by rapper Young Thug, is now finally at the top of the Hot 100 after weeks as runner up. It is also the longest-running female-led No. 1 pop song since Taylor Swift’s 2012 “I Knew You Were Trouble,” and the most sustained chart topper in the UK since Adele. Now Cabello’s self-titled first album, Camila, has debuted at No. 1 on the US album chart, after breaking records for opening at the top of iTunes in over 90 countries. This makes her the first debut artist since Beyoncé and Britney Spears to simultaneously dominate the singles and albums charts.
Even discounting the usual record company hype, Cabello is having a great year. Barack Obama famously included “Havana” on his best of 2017 playlist. Elton John recently declared Cabello the artist to watch in 2018. Cabello’s sudden ubiquity, which has sparked widespread interest outside the passionate (and mostly young) fan base that has followed her from her years in the girl group Fifth Harmony, is especially interesting given the currently ambiguous state of pop stardom.
The Camila album cover.
Epic Records
As 2017 wrapped up, there was an ongoing conversation about the bleak landscape of mainstream pop and female pop stars specifically, as everyone from Lady Gaga to Katy Perry flopped on the radio, and the suddenly divisive Taylor Swift had to play to her base. Even Beyoncé got her only recent pop hits by collaborating with J Balvin and Ed Sheeran, the latter duet producing her first No. 1 single since 2009’s “Single Ladies.”
The Cuban-born, 20-year-old Cabello seems to be bucking that trend. She’s the child of Cuban and Mexican parents who emigrated to Miami, and it's worth paying attention to the role her Latina identity — and the growing presence of Latinx pop in the musical mainstream — has played in her rapidly rising profile. In past decades, pop artists who make their Latinx identity visible and audible to US listeners have often been pigeonholed into narrow personas reliant on stereotypical tropical tropes about passion and rhythm, dressed up in vibrant colors. As Cabello shape-shifted from the unremarkable EDM pop sound of her early solo career to “Havana,” it looked like she might simply be the latest singer to follow that reductive trajectory.
But in the hit single’s mixture of Cuban nostalgia and hip-hop, in its tongue-in-cheek music video, and in the wider range of pop styles represented in Camila, there’s something more complicated — and less familiar — happening. Cabello has created her big pop moment by both playing to and departing from expectations, as she performs her musical identity on her own contemporary terms.
Dinah Jane Hansen, Lauren Jauregui, Camila Cabello, Ally Hernandez, and Normani Kordei of Fifth Harmony perform in Dubai on Feb. 12, 2016.
Cedric Ribeiro / Getty Images
Cabello’s entire career has seemed profoundly of the moment. She was first launched as a 15-year-old in Fifth Harmony, a multicultural neo–Destiny’s Child girl group created on the The X Factor in 2012. (Cabello’s mother drove her from Miami to North Carolina to audition for the show as her quinceañera present). Literally assembled on air by Simon Cowell, the group came in third on the program, and became well known for feisty girl-power hits like “Worth It” (2015) and “Work From Home” (2016).
But girl groups are no longer what they once were. And despite Fifth Harmony’s massive social media fan base — the self-anointed Harmonizers — the group never really achieved the degree of radio play, sales, or cultural resonance of the other famous Cowell-created band, One Direction. They were bigger than Danity Kane or Little Mix, but never as big as Destiny’s Child. So though Cabello’s departure from the group — in December 2016 — generated endless fan commentary, it didn’t quite captivate casual pop listeners the way Zayn Malik’s departure from One Direction had, or inspire the mainstream cultural speculation of Beyoncé’s seemingly preordained solo launch.
Cabello’s group mates slyly noted her decision to announce her departure to them via her “representatives,” and shaded her at the VMAs. Cabello — who was front and center on Fifth Harmony’s album covers — responded by providing the usual narrative about leaving the group; she felt creatively stifled and needed to find her own voice. “I was just curious and I wanted to learn and I saw all these people around me making music, writing songs and being so free,” she recently told the New York Times. “I just wanted to do that and it did not work.”
Cabello, when she was in Fifth Harmony, on Feb. 26, 2016, in New York City.
Ben Gabbe / Getty Images
But Cabello’s solo voice — both metaphorical and literal — initially sounded and looked quite different from the artist on display in her debut album. Prior to her departure from the group, Cabello demonstrated a knack for top 40 versatility, collaborating on duets with artists ranging from the wholesomely dimpled pop rocker Shawn Mendes (“I Know What You Did Last Summer,” a top 20 hit in 2015), to rapper Machine Gun Kelly on the ubiquitous hit “Bad Things,” which peaked at #4 on the Hot 100 in February 2017. That single was catchy largely because of the way Cabello carried the chorus with her breathy, ethereally pretty vocals. But she could also have been any of the relatively anonymous “featured” voices — like Halsey or Alessia Cara — that now dot the hip-hop and EDM landscape.
This was, notably, before the past year saw a larger Latinx pop boom led by artists like Luis Fonsi and J Balvin. And perhaps the early, unremarkable incarnation of Cabello as a solo artist was a result of her training in Fifth Harmony. During her stint in the group, they performed on duets with Latinx pop stars like Maluma and Pitbull, and even put out Spanish-language versions of their albums. But Cabello’s ethnic identity — like the other group members’ — was intended to be incidental to her musical one. As L.A. Reid said in a Billboard interview: “I think that's a beautiful thing that they are five young women from different ethnic backgrounds, but I don't know if that matters to me. What I care about is their voices and their songs are incredible. I don't see music that way. Pop culture's ethnicity is popularity, you know.”
Thus, the single selected for her first stab at solo stardom and released in May 2017, “Crying in the Club,” featured slurring, darker vocals with a moody EDM backdrop, in the vein of “Bad Things.” “Crying” racked up over 100 million views on YouTube, but flopped on the radio. And as is now customary when an initial lead single flops, the record company followed it up by putting out two more test singles, “Havana” and “OMG,” described as new “summer singles.” It was the immediate success of “Havana” that suddenly gave Cabello a narrative — “From Cuba With Pop: Camila Cabello’s Rise,” as Rolling Stone put it — and a unique angle around which to build a new pop persona.
“Havana” is a brilliantly zeitgeisty artifact of our post-Latinx boom moment. Frank Dukes, a producer famous for creating his own library of samples, presented the base of “Havana” to Cabello, who had jotted her birthplace’s name as part of her notes for the album. Cabello has credited Dukes — who has worked with Drake, Eminem, and Rihanna — as “a big part of taking a classic part of Latin culture and combining it with something new and modern." Spin magazine notes that “Dukes’s sample simulacra are filled with nostalgia for a nonspecific place and era in pop history,” and “Havana” is indeed evocative in a way that harkens back to a different moment that is neither Despacito-style reggaeton or the hip-shaking dance pop of Ricky Martin or Shakira.
“Havana” summons a laid-back, Buena Vista Social Club vibe, but combines it with contemporary hip-hop flavor. This is most evident in Young Thug’s rap interlude, but also in Cabello’s vocals as she sings about a boy who took her from Havana back to East Atlanta. Her style shifts from sultry club performer in the opening to post-Beyoncé swagger through the verses to a more ‘90-style melismatic scale-climbing at the end. The song’s theme follows the nostalgic Latinx pop tradition of something like Cuban-born Gloria Estefan’s “Mi Tierra,” but the allusion to East Atlanta, a hip-hop culture hub, places the song in a very different contemporary diasporic dialogue.
The song’s distinctly contemporary flair is also brought out in the music video, which features a post–Ugly Betty and Jane the Virgin comedic sensibility about Latinidad. The video opens with a campy telenovela spoof, and then Cabello plays a fully made-up performer and dancer singing “Havana” at a nightclub — in a movie, watched by the nerdy teen version of herself. Unlike other Latina pop divas like Jennifer Lopez or Shakira, whose booty-shaking has always been presented as straightforwardly sexual, Cabello — who grew up and launched her career in the context of the meme-centric culture of the aughts — prefers to wink at all of it. The “Havana” video ends with the movie-watching teen Cabello trying out the club singer’s sexy dance moves on the street, and it reads like a comic send-up of the US obsession with Latinx women’s curves.
Though Cabello was asked to unironically perform that butt-centrism in Fifth Harmony’s videos, she later spoke about her discomfort with the group’s sexualization. Her comedic approach in the “Havana” video is more in line with her social media persona, or what Billboard described as her “hilariously self-deprecating Snapchat antics.” In fact, during her time in the group, Cabello’s style stood out because of a demure — and slightly gender-bending — predilection for collared shirts and bows. But since her Latinx pop makeover, she’s opted more often for a colorfully glamorous, hyperfeminine style that more clearly fits into the tropical conventions that usually get Latinx artists noticed in the US.
The floral print of the dress and hoop earrings on the Camila album cover — itself shot in Miami’s Little Havana — are a very different look than her buttoned-up Fifth Harmony persona or her straightforwardly glam “Crying in the Club” look. On Ellen, she turned the stage into a Cuban nightclub and performed “Havana” in a ruffled cha cha skirt. On The Tonight Show, her performance emphasized the song’s opening trumpets, and she wore a bright red jumpsuit against a yellow background, aligning her style with the primary-color vibrancy associated with Latinx music.
This is following an established script, to some extent — and it’s worked. In his effusive praise of Cabello, Elton John highlighted her voice, looks, and attitude, and described her music in these tropicalizing terms: “There’s a vibrancy in there, it makes me feel good, it makes me want to get up and dance.” Clearly, Cabello has benefitted from the power of playing into an audience’s expectations. Fifth Harmony was so fan-oriented that they even changed their name and their debut album cover based on audience feedback. Cabello’s own album was initially (and dramatically) titled The Hurting, the Healing, the Loving, before taking the simpler self-titled route. That simplicity works now, on a marketing level, because the new sonic and visual emphasis on Cabello’s Latina identity and personal narrative has helped listeners and the media fill in a previously blank slate.
Cabello performs on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Jan. 10.
Theo Wargo / Getty Images
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21 Times Aubrey Plaza Proved We Didn't Deserve Her
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Women Of Color Try Nude Lipsticks
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How One Woman Is Fighting To Get More Latinos Onscreen
“There are doctors, there are lawyers, there are teachers. They're all sorts of people. Not just the drug dealers, you know?” How casting director Carla Hool is opening doors for Latino actors.
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People Are Loving This Woman's Crazily Creative Halloween Costumes
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People Love This Video Of A Young Latina Sticking Up For A Woman In A Headscarf Being Harassed
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Camila Cabello Is Writing Her Own Pop Rules
The former Fifth Harmony member suddenly has the No. 1 album and single in the country, and she’s created her big pop moment by both playing to and departing from expectations.
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How One Woman Is Fighting To Get More Latinos Onscreen
“There are doctors, there are lawyers, there are teachers. They're all sorts of people. Not just the drug dealers, you know?” How casting director Carla Hool is opening doors for Latino actors.
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12 Modas que los mexicanos usamos desde hace aaaaños
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