Camila Cabello Reveals the 'Obsession' That Made Her a 'Total Loser' as a Teen: 'I'm Still Like That'

Mar. 15, 2025

Camila Cabello during Miami Art Week on Dec. 6.Photo:Arturo Holmes/Getty

Arturo Holmes/Getty

The “I Luv It” singer, 27, opened up about the total “obsession” she and her friends had with music when she was younger, and how it affected their social lives in a talk with Dave Grutman at the Tribeca Festival at Art Basel Miami Beach on Dec. 7.

“We were total losers. We did not go to parties, we did not hang out with people,” she said. “I was in my room singing and putting on YouTube instrumentals and singing and watching YouTube videos of my favorite musicians and my favorite artists.”

She continued, “It was my life. I’ve always been like that. I’m still like that.”

To prove her point, Cabello joked she’s beensinging “Defying Gravity”fromWicked“every day,” and even sung a line for the crowd.

The Cuban-born star, who was raised in Miami,got her start onThe X Factorin 2012 at age 15. After finding success with Fifth Harmony, her group from the show, she released her debut solo album in 2018. In June, she put out her fourth studio album,C,XOXO.

“Pushing my own boundaries [is my motivator] and sometimes in music that can be a little hard,” she said. “I get that question a lot: were you worried what your fans would think of this album? And to be honest, I wasn’t at all, but I think I should’ve been, in the sense that when it came out, people were like, ‘This is so different.’”

She continued: “For me, change and changing feels so natural and I’m always kind of changing and I realize there’s pushing your own boundaries, but maybe not alienating people… I feel like this last album was like that for me. I think this album was also really special because I don’t feel like people knew I was a Miami girl, and I feel like people resonated with the little Miami things I put in that album.”

Cabello also circled back to the fact that she got her start in the industry when she was just a “tiny girl,” and is only just now coming into her own.

Camila Cabello performing at the 2024 iHeartRadio Music Festival in September.Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty

Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty

“I’m finding out what is really important to me and what my values are and that’s a process,” she said. “The second half of your 20s is when you really feel like an adult. At least for me, at 27, this is the first time I really feel like, ‘I’m a woman!’ Like, I’m an adult.”

Elsewhere in the chat, the star revealed that her favorite collaborator isLil Nas X, as he’s “a pure, sweet angel,” and that her favorite lyric she’s ever written is actually on an unreleased song called “Scar Tissue,” describing herself as a “f—–g idiot” for not putting out the track.

“It was from my first album and I didn’t release it because I felt like it wasn’t as good as the other songs,” she said. “And honestly people got in my ear about it, and they said it wasn’t as good as the other songs… and it ended up meaning the most to my fans. It was so honest. So I honestly find that you have to just not let people in your ear. That’s my advice.”

Cabello’s conversation with entrepreneur Grutman was part of the four-day Tribeca festival at Art Basel, which celebrates the intersection of music, art and film.

source: people.com