Karol G releases her new album, 'Tropicoqueta,' from merengue to bachata.

Exactly one year after filling the Bernabeu stadium for four consecutive nights , among other stadiums around the world, on her successful Mañana será bonito tour, reggaeton singer Karol G releases this Friday what was beautiful that mañana promised: Tropicoqueta , her new fifth album with 20 songs that combine the reggaeton of the Paisa singer with mambo, merengue, bachata, cumbia villera and mariachi. An album that pays special homage to the popular romantic music of Latin America, including a special collaboration with a representative of the genre, Mexican Marco Antonio Solís. “It could be that love has stayed in other times, that's what the experts say, nobody wants it these days,” you she sings in 'Collecting Wounds'. "I still feel," he replies.

Although it doesn't abandon perreo , the album kicks off with an ode to Mexican popular music, with words from Mexican singer, actress, and producer Thalía, who gives the new album her blessing by saying that Karol G managed to go from "little baby, to Bichota, to Tropicoqueta." In addition to the song with Marco Antonio Solís, the mariachi on the track "Eso hombre es Malo" gives the album a soap opera-like feel. "Damn the day I became your wife," Bichota sings.

But Mexican heartbreak isn't the only one on the album. The album's first single, released last summer and titled "Si antes te había conocí ," is a tribute to the merengue of the Dominican Republic. A collaboration with Cali native Greeicy, titled "Amiga mía ," translates heartbreak into bachata: "Friend, I know it hurts to leave him, to let go, but it's going to hurt more to keep holding on." Another, titled "No Puedo Vivir Sin Él ," translates the same pain into vallenato from the Colombian Caribbean: "I can live without air, but I can't live without him." "Cuando Me Muera Te Olvido " (When I Die, I Forget You) is the only song that travels south to the Argentine cumbia villera: "I'm not going to say that I wasted my time with you."

Tropicoqueta 's heartbreak eases a little toward the end of the album when a collaboration with French musician Manu Chao appears, and Karol G sings Viajando Por El Mundo to the rhythm of his guitar. "I'm not leaving here without having lived, I'm going to enjoy life while I breathe, tell stories and not waste time," the song says.

This new album, the Medellín singer explained on social media, is about "returning to the roots, to the songs I grew up listening to, to the sounds that made me fall in love with music." She added that she began working on it in August 2023, just as her previous tour kicked off with a concert in Las Vegas, United States. "I made it with my heart full of the love I received in every country I visited," she says. She toured Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Peru, and several other countries before ending up in Spain. "This album is a journey ✨. Each song is a world of its own. A different rhythm," she adds on her Instagram account.

Carolina Giraldo (Medellín, 34 years old) had been generating a lot of expectation for this album, with a campaign led by herself. The first Caribbean rhythm she alluded to was the mambo, which appears in the last song on the album, also titled Tropicoqueta . In a short promotional video , she referenced the aesthetics of the famous Cuban cabaret Tropicana, located in Havana. Like the artists from there, she appears in the video sporting yellow feathers on her head, a short skirt with gold fringes, and a pair of drums on her hips. In the background, Mambo Number 5 by Dámaso Pérez Prado, an icon of the genre , plays.

Her roots, as evidenced in a second video, also include soap operas. In this one, she's seen wearing leopard- print tights, gazing enamoredly at a photo of another Caribbean heartthrob, Puerto Rican pop singer Ricky Martin, who more than two decades ago broke the hearts of the teenage girls who adored him when he came out as gay. An impossible love, seems to be the saying in Karol G's best humor. "You damn cripple," a woman yells at Bichota, echoing a memorable line from the 1995 Mexican soap opera María la del Barrio , starring Thalía. The video features legends from the Mexican soap opera world, such as Itatí Cantoral, Gabriela Spanic, and Ninel Conde.

Tropicoqueta has had little soap opera drama in terms of numbers. The single "Si antes te había conocí" (If I Had Met You Before) was already on the Billboard charts and won the 2024 Premio Lo Nuestro, awarded by Televisa and Univisión, for song of the year. Another single that was released early is "Latina Foreva ," which already reached number 74 on the same chart , after just two weeks on the air.

That last song alluded to the curves of Latinas, which "not even NASCAR has," and shortly after, Karol G sent a more political message to Latinos in the United States, victims of Trump's anti-immigrant raids. "What is happening to my community is deeply painful. Being Latino shouldn't generate rejection or fear; it should inspire pride and respect," she wrote on social media.

Tropicoqueta faces the challenge of not being overshadowed by its predecessor, Mañana Será Bonito , which not only inspired a Netflix documentary, a successful world tour, and launched a song to the top of the Billboard charts ( TQG , a collaboration with Shakira ), but also won the Latin Grammy Award for Best Urban Music Album this year. The new album also faces the challenge of facing an increasingly large audience that is more willing to analyze the content of its lyrics, as was evident when fans criticized +57 , a single that Karol G released in November with other reggaeton artists from Antioquia, for alluding to child sexual exploitation . “I take responsibility (…) I still have a lot to learn,” the singer said at the time. Tropicoqueta now moves on to an evaluation, by fans and critics, of what they have learned.