"The most exciting art happens when people do new things,” says Camila Cabello. It’s a belief she’s lived by since going solo. Many expected her to follow up the polished, R&B-infused pop of Fifth Harmony with something equally radio-friendly, especially with chart-bothering collabs with Shawn Mendes (‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’) and Machine Gun Kelly (‘Bad Things’) already in her back pocket. But Camila wasn’t interested in playing it safe. Instead, breakout hit ‘Havana’ was a bouncing love letter to her Cuban heritage that fearlessly brought together Latin and pop at a time when they were distinctly separate worlds.

“So many people didn’t believe in that song,” she says from her home in Los Angeles. “I was told it was too slow, it needed more drums, it sounded too Broadway.” She stuck to her guns, and, as a compromise, the label released the track as a b-side to ‘OMG’ - but we all know which one went on to soundtrack the summer of 2017 and rack up more than two billion streams. It was the same for ‘Never Be The Same’, with the label worried the lush, soaring vocals were too high for people to sing along with. “I just really enjoy taking risks,” says Camila. “My music could easily become a business of, ‘This is what people want from you, so let’s do it over and over again’. I’d probably strike gold every time, but the thought of that makes me feel anxious. I have tried to make radio-friendly pop records, but that’s just not me. The point of being creative is to stretch and grow.”

After debut album ‘Camila’ came 2019’s ‘Romance’ and 2022’s ‘Familia’. All three records saw Camila continue to twist Latin-infused music into new shapes. “You always try to find the thing that you have a unique vantage point on, so it came pretty naturally to me,” she says. But once she’d written ‘Familia’, an experimental, vulnerable album that reckoned with her Cuban-Mexican roots and her “American dream” journey to pop stardom, Camila felt like she’d taken that as far as she could. “Whenever I go into the studio, I’m thinking, what can I make that’s new?” she considers. “It’s human nature. After a break-up, you always go for the opposite of what you just had, and it’s the same with my albums. I already did that and know what it’s like – now I want to do something different.”

Fourth album ‘C, XOXO’ certainly was different. A giddy mash-up of different styles, the record opens with the pounding, hyperpop-inspired ‘I Luv It’ and ends with the brooding, Lana Del Rey-esque ‘June Gloom’. In between, there are collaborations with Drake, Lil Nas X and Pinkpantheress, while the deluxe ‘Magic City’ edition adds more colour and more confidence to the already-swaggering world of ‘C, XOXO’. The pink balaclava energy of cult film Spring Breakers was a big influence, as was 00s hip-hop and her time growing up in the party city of Miami. “There were songs on ‘Familia’ like ‘Don’t Go Yet’ or ‘Bam Bam’ that I knew weren’t the sequel to ‘Havana’ and felt different, but everything about ‘C, XOXO’ ­– the music, the vibe, my look ­– felt like a risk.”

“Sometimes you take that risk, and it doesn’t work out though,” she admits. Camila thought ‘C, XOXO’ would be “the biggest thing in the world” after being celebrated for making similarly bold moves on her debut album. And while she’s co-written every solo song she’s ever released, she took on even more creative control with ‘C, XOXO’, collaborating closely with producers El Guicho (Rosalia, FKA Twigs) and Jasper Harris (Tate McRae, Doja Cat) to make weirdo pop.

But a few people accused Camila of ripping off Charli xcx for lead single ‘I Luv It’ (they’ve both denied any drama between them), and the many stylistic leaps on the album inspired questions about her authenticity.

“It crushed me,” admits Camila, who ended up spending far too much time on social media as a result. “I don’t know how other artists do it because the negative stuff really depresses me.” She couldn’t look away. “It was a very weird, intense time, and I started dissociating, which has only happened a very few times in my life.” After pouring so much of herself into ‘C, XOXO’, she wasn’t sure if she’d ever make another record. “I was being myself, and it turns out some people really didn’t like it. I just didn’t feel like I could ever go through that again.”

Deleting social media from her phone helped, as did playing a string of joyously chaotic, over-the-top live shows and seeing fans who desperately needed the messy euphoria of ‘C, XOXO’. “That was everything to me,” says Camila, who told her team she needed to spend 2025 touring. “I’ve never felt like that before. It’s not a career move either; it’s a soul move,” she explains. “I know there are a lot of people excited about the tour, but really, it’s for me.”

For the upcoming ‘Yours, C’ world tour, “I just want people to feel close to me, and I want to feel close to them,” says Camila. “I don’t want it to feel like I’m a million miles away from people; I really want it to feel like we’re all in it together.”

While the initial reaction to ‘C, XOXO’ was shock and suspicion, this new, visceral world that Camila has created with it has also resonated with people on a deep level. Lyrically, the record explores pain and sitting with discomfort but also chases joy with a feral hunger. “In the beginning. I was hurt and felt shitty about the reaction but I feel like I’m open to hearing positive things like that now,” she admits, with the one-year anniversary of ‘I Luv It’ fast approaching.

“I am still processing everything. Even if nobody liked it, I’d still love this record because I only did what felt great to me. But knowing that other people have connected to this music does make me feel understood. I don’t know if I’ve had that before,” she admits. “The things I was writing about for this record are more complex, and there is more tension, which doesn’t always lend itself to easily palatable pop. Unless it’s a song like ‘I Luv It’, I guess. I do want to always push myself as a writer, though.”

‘Twentysomethings’ is the stripped-back surrender that Camila doesn’t know what the fuck she’s doing before the album glides into the pulsating party-starter ‘Dade Country Dreaming’ that couldn’t be more self-assured. ‘DREAM-GIRLS’ is dedicated to “all the girls that are learning to be women now, know we keep it sexy while we figure it out”, ‘Pretty When I Cry’ is a slinking post-breakup anthem, while the sparse ‘Chanel No. 5’ offers playful, sexually charged empowerment. “I hope fans are inspired to be bold, try things and just tune into that frequency of a more fearless, more confident, chaotic you,” Camila explains. “I hope people can hear that it’s fun to take risks.”

Camila Cabello has learnt a lot from living in the world of ‘C, XOXO’ over the past 12 months. “The biggest thing has been staying true to yourself. It can be challenging, it can be difficult, but not betraying who you are is priceless, especially in a world that often places value on whoever has the most attention, money or social media followers,” she says. “I’ve definitely gotten lost in the sauce before, but I’ve always come back to the idea that there’s nothing better than living your own life.”

Camila believes a liberated album about finding euphoria from discomfort is a vital energy to put into the world right now. “I hope people get that sense of freedom from it. Life is just so uncomfortable, and we all have to do what we can to find happiness.” For Camila, that’s not spending hours every day tumbling down rabbit holes of bad news or doom scrolling. “It’s too much, and our brains aren’t programmed to handle so much volatility. We need to care for ourselves as individuals, so we have the energy to care for other people,” she explains, focusing on more tangible things like music, writing letters to fans and hosting her annual holiday event in Miami for immigrant families. “I can’t just shout into the void.”

Originally ‘C, XOXO’ ended with ‘June Gloom’, a smirking celebration of fuck around and find out energy, but the ‘Magic City’ edition flips the script with ‘Godspeed’. The haunting electro track is far more reflective, with Camila wanting to capture as much elusive joy as possible. “Fifteen since I do this / twenty-six, I choose this,” she sings of her music career. And there have been plenty of chances for Camila to walk away (she played Cinderella in Amazon’s 2021 jukebox musical remix of the classic fairytale, for example), so why has she stuck with it?

“There definitely have been times where an experience taints it, but if there’s a rift, you just need to rediscover what you love about it,” she offers. “That’s happened several times in my career, which is probably why I experiment a lot. That’s my way of healing my relationship with music and making it feel new again.”

“Music also just never stops feeling like a journey I have to go,” she continues. “It’s never been easy so if I did quit, it would feel like walking away from a challenge.” She admits that every album, even the larger-than-life riot of ‘C, XOXO’, comes with self-doubt or daunting questions about where she takes her art next. “The only way to overcome that is to do it. Honestly, I think the only thing that would make me stop is if making music ever felt boring. “

‘C, XOXO’ comes at a time when pop stars like Charli xcx, Chappell Roan and Billie Eilish are celebrated for being messy, chaotic, vulnerable and full of bravado, all at the same time. “It’s been one of the most exciting times for girls in pop music,” says Camila, who’s been part of that world since she was 15. “We’re allowed to be more than the sexy vixen. We can be what women really are, which is complicated, layered and a lot of different things at once. Pop music is so much more interesting because of that.”

Right now, she’s loving Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘All American Bitch’. “It’s a great example of what we’re talking about. You’re supposed to be perfect and grateful, but there’s a lot of rage that comes with being a woman,” she says of the biting, rock-infused ‘Guts’ cut. “I saw her live last year, and it was one of my favourite concerts. There’s this part where she encourages you to think about something you’re really pissed off about and just scream. It was incredibly cathartic.”

‘C, XOXO’ is the sound of Camila Cabello opening several different musical doors and running through all of them. “I’m right at the beginning of my new process right now,” reveals Camila, still figuring out where she wants to go next. “I’m playing around with mood boards and different sounds,” but she doesn’t want to give too much away. “My last album started off as something totally different at the beginning, so we’ll have to see where this one goes,” she grins.

Even in these early stages, Camila has started flexing new muscles. “I’m writing more about what it feels like behind the curtains of pop music, which is something I’ve never really spoken about before,” she says, after previously focusing on friends or relationships. “I guess before, I’d told myself it was smooth sailing, but it feels like the right time to let people in on how some things felt.”

Despite some of the rejection that came with ‘C, XOXO’, Camila isn’t shutting herself off from the world. Her music has always had empathy and a longing to connect, driving it forward, but with whatever comes next, she really wants to peel back more of those layers. “You go through life, you acquire more hurts and pains, so you need that understanding,” she explains. “As an artist, you are afraid to be seen, but at the same time, your most desperate wish is to be seen for who you truly are.”

In a recent letter to fans, Camila wrote that she wants the next year to be “more gentle and filled with joy” after an “absurd” 2024. The accompanying wishlist for her birthday included honouring childlike delight, not wasting anxiety, practising self-love and working out what the fuck is happening with Apple TV’s utterly bizarre thriller Severance. “As I get older, the artists that I find interesting are the ones you want to walk alongside,” Camila explains, name-checking Lana Del Rey and Doechii. “It’s more than their music; it’s their energy and how they face the world. For me, I want to continue bringing empathy, humanity and creativity with my music.”

Camila Cabello has never played it safe, and she’s not starting now. “I always come back to trusting my gut and doing what feels fun because that’s honestly the only way I know how to move forward. I just can’t fake it,” she grins. “It’s definitely hard, and not everybody’s going to like it, but nothing else would feel right. I guess that idea of being understood is what I’m forever chasing.” ■

Taken from the April 2025 issue of Dork. Camila Cabello tours Europe from 21st June.