Over her illustrious career, Debi Nova, the music sensation from Costa Rica, has consistently evolved as a creative powerhouse. With her upcoming album on the horizon, she is poised to maintain her position as one of the most captivating Latin artists making a global impact.
Once again, Debi has entranced audiences with her latest single, “Baño de Luna,” a heartfelt masterpiece showcasing her exceptional ability to blend profound, emotional lyrics with a voice that envelops listeners in a unique journey.
Having honed her skills by collaborating with music icons such as Britney Spears, Ricky Martin, Black Eyed Peas, and Mark Ronson, Debi’s solo breakthrough came with “Drummer Boy” in 2010, and she hasn’t slowed down since. Her career has gone from strength to strength as a sought-after global artist, earning an impressive five Latin Grammy nominations across her five album releases. In 2021, Debi Nova made history by becoming the first Costa Rican artist nominated for Best Latin Pop or Urban album at the Grammys for her sensational 3:33 album.
Debi Nova’s unwavering commitment to her artistic vision, spanning two decades, has established her as an influential figure for emerging artists – and in a rare interview, Debi delves into the inspirations behind her new single, “Baño de Luna,” offers insights into what fans can anticipate from her upcoming album, and discusses the impact of motherhood on her career. She also shares her perspective on how Costa Rican artists can rise as dominant forces in an increasingly globalized music industry.
Watch the visuals to the new single…
Read the interview…
Hi, Debi. How’s it going?
Hi. Good. How are you?
I’m good. It’s really nice to meet you. Congratulations on your new single, “Baño de Luna”. For those who aren’t familiar with the song already, can you share some inspiration behind the song?
This is the first single off my upcoming album, and it’s a song about returning home. I have to spend a lot of time away from home because of my work, and it’s a song about that longing of getting back to those that you love and the things that you love.
I also heard that it’s inspired by being apart from your daughter as well while working. So I wanted to ask, how do your personal experiences and emotions play a role in your songwriting and your music?
Oh, my God – completely! And it’s been a really intense and life changing last three years for me, obviously because of the pandemic that we all went through. But also, I had my daughter, my first daughter, and that completely transformed me in every single possible way. All of these songs come from that place of deep transformation and just understanding the balance of work and home. And this song is about that. It’s about now how my priorities have shifted. I go away to work, and I’m counting the days to get back home. And also, at the same time, being home, I start to think about music, because that’s what music is for me, is a way to express myself. So they’re both really present in my life. And I think that this album talks a lot about that.
As you’ve mentioned, this is from your upcoming album, which is going to drop April 2024. How are you feeling about putting out a new album?
I’m ready! It’s been in the making for a long time. I think it was particularly slow because of everything I went through. So I feel really excited to share these songs with the world. Of course, there’s always, like, nerves there of like, ‘oh, my God, can I still do this?’ And the world still wanting to hear this type of music. But it is my truth. It is what I have to offer to the world. So I feel really grateful and excited that I get to share it.
This is your first record since 2020, so what can you tell us about the record? When did you start working on it? And I feel like you’ve hinted towards this already, but what were some of the challenges that you faced while you were making the record?
I think the biggest challenge was that I became a completely new person after I became a mother. And so all the work that I had done is not that I completely lost it, because everything kind of builds, and art is that you start thinking you’re going to make a circle and you end up making a triangle [laughs] and I think that’s the most exciting thing about what I do. But it was kind of like a recalibration of, okay, what do I want to do? Who am I? And so between 2020 and 2022, I had an album basically ready. And in November of 2022, I decided to start from zero- not fully zero, but it was like revisiting everything I had done and writing new music. So I think that was the biggest challenge, like, being able to let go. It’s so hard to let go once you’ve created something, and being able to just say, okay, let me start fresh and see what feels good, because it wasn’t feeling completely genuine. So I think that was the biggest challenge.
As you just said, you found it difficult to let go. How do you do that? How do you let go of that work that you did and then just start afresh?
I don’t know [laughs] I’m thinking of things that help me out, like walking my dog. Just like mundane, daily things that let your brain not be so over analytical and keeping it fresh. And it’s not just for music, I think in life, it’s so hard to let go. It’s so hard to let go of our stories, like the things we tell ourselves. And they’re repetitive. They’re very repetitive. So it was a really hard and good exercise for me to say, okay, nothing’s lost. Everything is just part of the process. And yeah, just taking walks, meditating, trying to be really present with my daughter. Just little things that take my brain off of the overanalytical aspect of creating an album.
So as you worked on the album, what inspired the choice of “Baño de Luna” as the lead single, and how do you feel like it fits into the rest of this new album?
I think “Baño de Luna” has a lot of hope. It’s a very hopeful and happy song. And I think once you go through a challenge, because it was a challenging period for me, even though Motherhood has been beautiful and amazing, it was also challenging. So “Baño de Luna” has hope, and this album ended up being super hopeful and luminous and happy. It’s also like a song that makes you want to move, makes you want to dance. And I wanted to start this new cycle with upbeat music that makes people smile.
I love that and just branching off of that. What can your fans expect from the new project in terms of the sound and the style? And how do you feel it stands out from what you’ve done before?
I think it’s definitely building a little bit on what I did with 3:33, but I think this album, musically, is a bit more Latin. It has a little bit more of Latin influence. We did a lot of it in the Caribbean side of my country of Costa Rica. And there’s a lot of Calypso, so there’s a little bit of Calypso influence. There’s some boleros in the album. So I’d say I leaned into a Latin sort of inspiration, Latin music and where I come from for this album.
Is there a specific theme or message that you want to convey with your music this time to your audiences?
Yes but without giving too much away, because we haven’t announced the name of the album, but this album is about just not being so hard on ourselves and living our lives. I think that was like my biggest lesson throughout this whole period, is I was trying too hard to do too much. And at one point I just had to live and say, like, fuck it, I’m just going to take some time off to be with my daughter. And that’s when things started to make sense. So that’s the message. Don’t be so hard on ourselves. Just let’s enjoy life more.
I like that we’ve spoken a lot about this new music, but I also would like to go back to the start of your career – what do you remember of your thoughts and emotions when you were starting out in the industry?
It’s been a journey! It’s always been up and down in life and in this career, I had a lot of amazing experiences. Starting up, it was really wonderful because I moved to Los Angeles and all of a sudden I was like, touring with Ricky Martin as a background vocalist and with Sergio Mendes, and I was writing songs for Sean Paul. So, like, all these things came to me; I was searching, I was working, but I don’t know, they surprised me. I was never like, ‘oh, I want to be working with Ricky Martin,’ no, it just kind of happened. The start of my career was very charged and at one point I had to make the hard decision of saying, if I don’t do my solo stuff (this was 2007) I’m never going to do it. So I had to stop working with other artists, which was my bread and butter for many years, and make that hard decision. And of course, it’s been a challenge, but it’s also been so rewarding because… this is what I do. I write songs and I share them with the world. But fun fact is that I made my first album in London and not a lot of people know this. My very first album, I made it there. So I have a very deep connection with London. I haven’t been there in many years, but my very first experience was there in 2007. I worked with Marius De Vries in Shoreditch and I recorded my first album.
Wow. And when was the last time you came back to London?
2012. It’s been a long time. I can’t wait to go back.
Do you have plans to come back anytime soon?
I hope so. I really do. In my heart, I have plans.
Yeah, I mean, maybe do a show here or something.
Yeah, it would be amazing. It would be so amazing. I have a lot of friends there, so yeah.
Come back, we’d love to have you! As you’ve grown during your career, how do you kind of maintain being versatile with the sounds and music and messages that you put into your music?
I think it’s a matter of staying open. It’s a fine balance because you have to stay open to the world and what’s happening and also keep listening to your inner voice and not let the world tell you, ‘oh, you have to make music that sounds like this or that sounds like this.’ So it’s a fine balance of ‘how do I fit in the world and what does that sound to me?’ and be as honest and transparent as you can. I think that’s the key.
How do you feel like you evolve your sound and creative boundaries?
I think listening to a lot of music, all kinds of music. Reading for me is very important, especially on this album where lyrics had a lot of weight. So reading poetry, I love poetry and I have to be very disciplined with the phone nowadays because it sucks me in and I have to just shut it off so I can get to a place of creativity. So it’s been a habit – or I’ve been trying to make a habit – of turning off my phone for a few hours during the day so I can sit on the piano or pick up the guitar or build a beat and write a song.
As you’ve mentioned, phones, they’ve just changed the world and our industry so much. So how have you seen the music industry change and what have been significant shifts from your perspective?
Everything’s so instant. And I think we have to be careful to not judge something if it doesn’t work immediately because we forget there’s still a world out there that will discover it. But back in the day, it was like, you would do this radio promo tour and you hope your video would play on MTV and now everything’s so instant. And I think that’s the balance that I was talking about. I don’t think it’s healthy to be longing for something that’s not here anymore. I think we have to accept where we are, where we consume music through our phones and all art through our phones. And I think that’s important to embrace. There’s nothing wrong with it. And at the same time, like I said, it’s finding times of silence where you can create. So music has completely changed precisely because of how we consume it.
Yeah, and I feel like one positive thing of that is that music is so much more globalized now, and I feel like your music in particular, transcends language barriers and can resonate with audiences all over the world. So how do you approach creating music that can connect with people from different cultural backgrounds? And do you feel like you make any decisions intentionally with international audiences in mind?
I think it’s actually the opposite, because I remember when I started my career, I would have people around me telling me, ‘oh, you probably have to do an English version of this song.’ Actually, my first album has two versions, a Spanish version and an English version. And I think nowadays we actually don’t have to think about that because it’s so globalized and because we’re listening to music from all different genres and all different languages around the world. So I think the key now is to be really genuine to who you are and your background. I mean, look at Rosalia. When she came out, it was like the world loved it because she was presenting her truth, her background, her journey. And I think that’s where we’re at. I think because we’re so globalized, it’s so important to represent who you are. And we’re all unique, we’re all different, and that’s so beautiful and it’s so great that we get to experience it.
Tapping into your Costa Rican heritage in particular, what’s the music scene in Costa Rica at the moment, and how do you feel it’s evolved over the years?
My country is really small and it’s growing. I can’t say we have a strong music industry and it’s been a challenge for us, all musicians here, and we’re doing it. We’re doing things about. What I’ve seen in the last few years, I’ve noticed a lot more women becoming artists and songwriters and arrangers. And that is a shift from when I started because it was unheard of as a Central American woman that I was going to have a future doing this. It’s kind of like this crazy dream. And now there’s a lot more women, a lot more girls that are doing music, making music, and I think that’s going to enrich our country’s scene a lot, which is a small scene. It’s a small scene, but it’s growing. It’s growing.
Just leading on from that, how do you feel like the industry can be more supportive towards women in music and more encouraging towards them to take those career paths and show them that actually yes, of course they can do that?
I think it’s a combination; us as women, we have to know that we can do this and stick together. I feel like that’s been so powerful in my career, is when I get together with other women and we hold hands and we support each other. I just opened five dates for Kany García, who’s an amazing singer songwriter that I adore. We’re good friends, and so those kinds of things – like, she held my hand and was like, ‘Come open for me.’ And same here in Costa Rica. I have one song in the album where I asked nine singers that I know here in my country to join me, and I think those are the things that create a lot of strength between us. And then there’s also, like, the side of the industry. I think more and more platforms need to just be aware of it. I don’t think we need to be treated specially, but I do think we need to be treated equally. So if there’s a playlist where there’s 80% male artists, why not make it 50? And those are things that platforms can do. So I think it goes hand in hand, like us as women sticking together, believing it, but also the industry doing what it can do.
Yeah, agreed. And I feel like with live festivals as well, there’s a big debate about why are headliners so typically male and it’s just like, why is this happening?
In Chile, a law just passed where 30% has to be female artists in festivals. So, I mean, it’s still not 50, but it’s something. But it goes to show that those types of laws and that kind of thinking has to happen all through our region.
I want to go back more into the globalization of music, because I feel like nowadays, with K Pop being so global and Afrobeats as well, there’s just so many markets that have now become this big global movement. So I’m wondering, from you, as a leading Costa Rican artist, how do you think Costa Rica can become part of the global music scene even moreso?
You know, it’s interesting because my country is really well known all over the world. It’s gotten a lot of publicity in the last 10-15 years as an amazing tourist destination, you know, with its nature. And we’re very forward thinking when it comes to the environment, but we still have to build and construct our identity as a country that offers art. And I think that’s the challenge that we have as a country. But we are part of the Latin region. I mean, we are smack in the middle. And so I think it’s a matter of just keep making music and finding our identity. That’s been my challenge as an artist, as a Costa Rican artist. Like, what does Costa Rican music sound like? It’s not that I’m going to do folkloric music from my country, but where do I fit in to that global scale and what do I have to offer? And I think those are the questions that, as artists here, we need to make ourselves, because Latin music is having such a tremendous moment, as you say, like K-Pop and Afrobeats. I mean, there’s also reggaeton. Latin music is, like, right there. And we’re there. We’re Latinos. We are Latin. So I think it’s a matter of asking ourselves those questions so we can build an identity and present that to the world.
You mentioned about your identity as an artist. What would you say is your artistic identity?
That is the question [laugh] I think, at least for me, that’s what keeps me making art. It’s like, who am I, right? That’s the quest. And it’s changing. It’s always changing. I mean, right now this album sounds like I’m a singer songwriter from Costa Rica who just became a mom, but I think that is the quest. It’s like, how do I learn about myself and learn to love myself through my music so that other people can do the same? Which is beautiful. It’s beautiful, but it is a question I don’t know if I can answer.
I have to ask you about the Grammy nomination. This is such a remarkable achievement. What advice do you have for artists from Costa Rica who perhaps have that same kind of dream to be recognized on that scale?
I think there’s an internal part of learning to tune out the noise and believe in yourself and believe in who you are. I always tell people from my country that if they have the opportunity to go to Mexico or to the United States or even London actually, I have a good Costa Rican artist who lives in London and good friend. And if they can start making those trips and meeting other people and expanding because it’s a little bit limited here, I think that’s the key. But it starts from within. You first have to believe it, and then you can start making those moves.
We have the album coming, of course, but what else can fans expect in the run up to the album?
There’s a lot of music coming out. We’re getting ready to put out a new single, top of the year. There’s going to be another single, and then there’s going to be the album, and that’s pretty much it. I hope I start touring a lot this next summer, 2024. That’s the goal. And I hope I make it to the UK.
Debi Nova’s new single, “Baño de Luna” is out now.