Karol G Breaks Down 5 Essential Songs From New Album ‘Tropicoqueta’

The spark for Karol G’s genre-spanning tribute to Latin culture, Tropicoqueta, released Friday (June 20), came from an epiphany far from home — in a packed arena in Europe, surrounded by the warmth of fans who reflected her roots.

Standing on a stage during the European leg of her record-breaking world tour, Mañana Será Bonito, watching thousands of Latin fans who had traveled far and wide to see her, the Colombian superstar realized that her next album wouldn’t be about chasing broader fame or crossing over into English-language music — as she had briefly considered — but about celebrating the soul of everything that makes them feel at home.

“It was really beautiful because people brought their signs, and in a way, it was super important to them that someone was bringing a little piece of home all the way over there,” she tells Billboard Español at New York’s Republic Studios. The artist is radiating warmth as she shows off a deep tan and a fresh, summery look that’s totally in sync with the tropical vibes of her new project.

For Karol G, those fans gave her clarity, inspiring the album’s main mission: to bring that “little piece of home” to every corner of the world through the music that defines who she is and where she comes from.

This revelation came at a pivotal moment in the hitmaker’s career. Her previous album, 2023’s Mañana Será Bonito, made history as the first all-Spanish-language album by a woman to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Its record-breaking streak, paired with a massive stadium tour, marked an undeniable high point in her journey. Yet amid her search for the next step, she chose not to aim outward but inward — to honor the music and culture she has always carried within her.

The 20-track opus is inspired by the sounds and stories of Latin music icons who shaped her passion for artistry. “This album is an homage to all those Latin music genres I grew up listening to,” she says, listing music heroines like Rocío Dúrcal, La India, Amanda Miguel, Myriam Hernández, Elenita Vargas, Thalia and Selena Quintanilla among her childhood inspirations.

Tropicoqueta, produced by Edgar Barrera, takes listeners across a musical map of Latin America, weaving together Colombian vallenato, Argentinian cumbia villera, Cuban mambo, Dominican dembow and regional Mexican music, with live instrumentation at its core. “I’m super Colombian, I love Colombia, but more than feeling Colombian, I feel super Latina, like I’m from everywhere. When I go to Chile, I don’t know why, but I feel like I’m from there. And if I go to Peru, people make me feel like I’m from there, too.”

She adds, “The album is a journey to every place; a little nod of gratitude for when I travel around the world.”

Below Karol G breaks down five essential tracks from her fifth studio album, Tropicoqueta.

“Ivonny Bonita”

When I was in the making of Mañana Será Bonito, I was going through a difficult situation in my life. I was very disappointed in myself for many reasons. I felt like I just wasn’t capable. I was sinking into this huge sadness, allowing myself to spiral down, and I couldn’t pull myself out of it. Then I remembered being with my friends in the Bahamas, and a Wizkid song was playing, where it says something about an “Ivonny, my baby.” That name sounded amazing to me, powerful and mystical. If I was told that my boyfriend was with a Daniela, fine. But if they told me he was with an Ivonny, I’d jump in head first to find out who Ivonny was!

That day I told my friends: “Call me Ivonny.” If Carolina can’t, Ivonny will. I even called myself Ivonny in Zoom calls. And unintentionally, I adopted an alter ego. That gave me a little bit of freedom. Then I realized that [the song “Essence” with Tems] didn’t say Ivonny. It said, “You don’t need no other body” [laughs]. I think it was meant to be. Time passed and Ivonny ceased to exist, but I had to thank her for everything she had been at that time for me. This song is the message I’ve always wanted women to get from everything I do.

“Latina Foreva”

Part of the message of the song was to talk about a little bit of everything Latinas are: that we are the soul of the party, our curves, that a party with Latinas is not the same as a party without. Well, I consider myself a Latina who is a little outrageous, but I think it’s part of our energy: we are happy, joyful, and we always have a fun attitude. That song celebrates that. The video is incredible. We shot it in a snowy mountain. It was minus 11 degrees [Celcius], as if we were at a beach. Latinas bring the heat, the warmth, everywhere we go. There are Latinas that go to the beach in heels, and I thought that was amazing. Latinas like to be on point in style. We like to be always super cute, super organized. If we have a party, we think about the outfit. We love that.

“Coleccionando Heridas” With Marco Antonio Solís

I love the old-fashioned way. I love the little details; I write handwritten letters and take any opportunity to leave a small gesture. I’m a romantic. I feel like people nowadays love differently — I think everything is a bit more fleeting. I feel like people have less emotional responsibility. I don’t know. When we were working on this song, I said, “I think I was born to collect wounds.” I’m always ready to love, and I feel like my heart will always be willing to love no matter what happens. I’ll turn the page, and I’ll try to find love again. Some experts say that love belonged to another era, and that’s why I said, “We need to bring an artist from that time to bring [that essence].” What a feeling. I’ve had favorites over time, and right now it’s this song. I listen to it, and I love it. It’s very special.

“Ese Hombre es Malo”

I was in Medellín with Edgar Barrera, working on other things. He went out to answer a phone call and when he came in, he was laughing as if he had been told the joke of his life. Edgar’s personality is super serious, and I’m pretty outrageous. I was really curious because I had never seen him laughing so hard. I said, “What happened?” And he says, “I got a call from a friend of mine who is a cabrón. I said, “So what?” He was still laughing and said, “The wife just left him”. So I asked, “But what’s the joke?” He said that he’d been told that the wife had left him because he had woman in every port. His wife had been OK with it to a certain extent — she’d say, “You can have your girlfriends, as long as you don’t bring them home and I never find out about it,” like that was her boundary. But then one of the women started leaving little things in his clothes and belongings for his wife to find. She started piecing it all together, and one day she said, “This is crossing the line. This is as far as we go.”

“That’s the lyrical theme of this song,” I said. The song has 57 musicians, a mix between mariachi and a symphony. We recorded it in Guadalajara. It’s one of the strongest songs on this album — because of how it was created, how it’s written and the musicians on it. Rocío Dúrcal, even though she was Spanish, embraced Mexican culture so well, and Mexico welcomed her with open arms. I’m such a huge fan of Juan Gabriel’s En el Palacio de Bellas Artes. I love all of his music. But the piece he created specifically for Bellas Artes has always inspired me. One of the things on my list for this album was to create a song with an arrangement at that level and with that level of grandeur.

“Tropicoqueta”

At parties, the DJ always calls out, “OK, it’s time for ‘la hora loca’ [crazy hour],” and everybody has to get up. That’s like the call to action. They hand out party hats, sunglasses, little props, and everyone comes together in the middle to start dancing to songs with choreography. We dance to “La Mayonesa,” “La Macarena,” “El Tiburón”… We all dance like we’re pretending to be sharks.

So I said, “If I’m going to have a super Latin album that pays homage to everything we are as Latinos — it needs to go deep into our Colombian culture too.” And I thought, “I need to create a song that people will play during ‘la hora loca.’” The idea is to have the song include instructions that people can follow — so they can do the choreography, step by step, just like that.