Joaquina, the youngest-ever winner of the Latin Grammy Award for Best New Artist, may be known for her emotional songwriting and signature red cat-eye, but the Venezuelan singer-songwriter says both came from a very personal place.
© JESSICA ALBANOWith the help of CROING Creative and Digital Agency, the 22-year-old artist is entering a new chapter with “Ya no estoy,” her collaboration with e.l.f. Cosmetics for the brand’s Mirror Mix album, while also taking on a new role as one of the brand’s ambassadors.
For Joaquina, the partnership makes sense because music and makeup have been intertwined in her life for years. “I've always dreamt of working with a makeup brand,” she said during an interview with HOLA! at the Genius and e.l.f. event in Los Angeles.
She explained that she started making music around 13 or 14, which was also when she began discovering how much she loved makeup. “When it comes to expression, those two things go hand in hand for me.”
And while Mirror Mix is a brand project, Joaquina said she never felt like she was simply recording a song for a campaign, and the brand gave her creative freedom to write about whatever she was experiencing, and “Ya no estoy” was actually a song she had already started for the album she is currently making.
© Jessica Albano“I finished it, and I recorded it, and they loved it,” she said. “It just feels crazy, and I feel like the luckiest girl on the planet to be able to have an opportunity.”
The song ultimately became something much more personal than a typical brand collaboration. On "Ya no estoy," Joaquina sings about choosing herself after losing herself in a relationship, with the song exploring independence, self-love, and learning to be comfortable alone.
Joaquina had to learn that love isn't supposed to be everything
“Ya no estoy” feels personal because Joaquina wasn't writing about some abstract idea of independence; she was writing from experience.
© JESSICA ALBANOThe singer said one of the biggest lessons she's taken from a past relationship is that building your entire life around another person can ultimately hurt both people involved.
“I feel like something that I've learned through that process is that sometimes when you build your life around the idea of love or the idea of someone, it just ends up hurting you and the other person more than anything,” she said.
While she thought the phrase "you have to love yourself before you can fully love someone else" sounded cliché, she realized it had some weight.
“I never thought that it was true until I felt so unhappy and felt like everything around me was crumbling just because this relationship was over,” she said. “I think that love should be an addition to your life and not the sole purpose of it,” she said.
Now, Joaquina is learning how to be her own company and work through her insecurities before she gives that part of herself to someone else again. Which is something most women probably can't say they figured out by 22 years old.
She doesn't leave her Venezuelan roots behind
© GettyIf there's one thing Joaquina won't separate from her music and identity- it's Venezuela. She was born into a Venezuelan family and has lived in Miami since she was 6.
Growing up, she said her home remained deeply Venezuelan even as she built a life in the United States. Her parents played Venezuelan music, cooked Venezuelan food, and insisted that Joaquina and her sister speak Spanish so they wouldn't lose their accents.
“Now that I look back, I'm really grateful that they did that,” she said. “I just feel so lucky that I'm bilingual,” she said, calling it “such a privilege” that has opened doors for her.
© JESSICA ALBANOThat upbringing left her with a complicated relationship with belonging. Joaquina said that as she's gotten older, she's sometimes felt “not American enough” and other times “not Venezuelan enough.”
Instead of choosing one side, however, she's learned to let both exist. “These two loves, they don't - they coexist in my heart,” she said. “They don't have to compete.”
That bicultural identity is also intentionally present in “Ya no estoy.” The song incorporates the Venezuelan cuatro, while the lyrics and story reflect her experience of figuring out who she is and what she wants on her own terms.
The red cat-eye started in her mom's bathroom
© Rodrigo VarelaBefore Joaquina had a signature beauty look, she had a teenage girl's free time, her mother's makeup, and YouTube.
Her relationship with makeup started at home. Joaquina said her mother is “a makeup freak just like me,” and she grew up watching her get ready and seeing how much she enjoyed the process.
Then the pandemic happened, and Joaquina was 15, stuck at home, attending school online and, as she described it, going through an insecure period where she felt like she didn't quite fit in.
So she started experimenting. “I was literally like scavenging my mom's makeup, like old makeup, you know, stealing stuff,” she joked.
© JESSICA ALBANOShe spent hours watching YouTube makeup tutorials and practicing on herself. That is essentially how she taught herself to do makeup, and eventually how she landed on the look that would become almost synonymous with her.
Joaquina remembered finding a colorful palette in her mom's bathroom with red, orange, and blue shadows. Because she has large eyelids and wanted to emphasize her eyes, she started playing around with cat-eye shapes. After trying black and purple, she landed on red. “I just really liked it,” she said. “So I've just kept doing it since then.”
The look has since become part of her identity, with fans recreating the red cat-eye and even wearing it to her shows.
She still considers herself an “up-and-coming” artist
© GettyJoaquina is a Latin GRAMMY winner and eight-time nominee, has performed with Gustavo Dudamel and the New York Philharmonic at Radio City Music Hall, and has built a growing international fan base. However, she still describes herself as someone just getting started.
When asked when the world might stop calling her an “up-and-coming” artist, she basically shrugged. “Girl, I don't know,” she said.
She knows she's accomplished a lot, and she's proud of her accomplishments, but none of those things, she explained, guarantee that you've reached the moment you've been waiting for. “You can have all the accolades in the world, but it really just takes like a shift, and sometimes it's longer, sometimes it might be a song,” she said.
© John ParraThat's why she's focused less on collecting achievements and more on making music that actually sticks. "I think that my focus is to just like make really good albums,” she said.
She wants to build a community around her music so that when the bigger spotlight eventually arrives, she'll have something meaningful to show for it. “I know my potential, and I know the music that I'm making,” she said. “I feel like people literally have not seen not even like 1/5 of what I know I can offer.”
© Getty
