Camila Cabello
photo: mtv uk · cc by 3.0 ↗Karla Camila Cabello Estrabao was born in Havana and raised between Cuba and Mexico before her family settled in Miami, and she first reached audiences as a member of Fifth Harmony, the girl group assembled on the U.S. 'X Factor' in 2012. After leaving the group she launched a solo career built on her Cuban-American identity, breaking through in 2017 with the conga-driven crossover hit 'Havana' and the bilingual smash 'Senorita.' Her music threads Latin rhythm and Spanish-language phrasing through mainstream English-language pop, positioning her among the 2010s artists who pushed Latin sounds back toward the top of the charts.
Cabello, a fellow Cuban-American who left the island as a child for Miami, has called Estefan 'a hero to me' in interviews, praising her as a pioneer who opened doors for Latinos in the mainstream; that model of carrying Cuban rhythm into English-language pop runs straight through Cabello's own crossover breakthrough.
listen forThrow on Estefan's 'Conga' and then Cabello's 'Havana' back to back: both are built on a rolling Cuban conga-and-percussion groove and a chanted, brass-tinged hook that turns a dance-floor rhythm into a pop chorus everyone can shout along to.
Cabello has named Shakira among her influences, and Shakira's template of the bilingual Latin-pop crossover star who moves fluidly between Spanish and English and builds songs around a rhythmic, hip-driven pulse is one Cabello openly works in.
listen forPlay Shakira's 'Hips Don't Lie' and then Cabello's 'Senorita': listen for the same trick of dropping into Spanish-language phrasing and Latin percussion inside a glossy English-language pop hook, the rhythm swaying rather than marching.
Accounts of Cabello's debut album cite the songwriting of Taylor Swift as an inspiration, and the two toured together in 2018; Swift's diaristic, first-person approach to turning a specific heartbreak into a confessional narrative surfaces in Cabello's quieter ballads.
listen forSet Swift's story-song 'Love Story' against Cabello's 'Consequences': both lean on plainspoken, first-person storytelling that names small personal details, Cabello stripping hers back to voice and piano so the confession sits right up front.