María Isabel, the young singer-songwriter with Dominican roots who turned her passion for poetry into music

(CNN Spanish) – A month ago, the singer María Isabel presented her second single in Spanish “No soy para ti”, a song that was born as a natural continuation of her first EP (extended play in English), “Stuck in the sky“.

Although for the Latin market it may be very new, magazines such as Rolling Stone Mexico, Billboard Argentina Y Vogue, United States edition, They have already highlighted it within their coverage.

Who is María Isabel?

The 25-year-old singer-songwriter was born in New York to Dominican parents. As a child, she began to write poetry as a hobby and it was not until her years at New York University that she connected that passion with musical composition.

“With poetry I started since I could write, honestly. It was my hobby. But, I don’t think I realized that I wanted the poems to end in songs. I don’t know, they were like two separate things. I love to sing and I love it. I never did both together. When I was in my second or third year at New York University (NYU) I took a composition class and that’s where I started, “María Isabel told Zona Pop CNN.

This happened around 2016, he says, two years before he started getting into the music business seriously.

The singer released her first song in 2020, in full quarantine, and in 2021 she released “Stuck in the Sky”.

“In the first EP many of the songs are on spanglish. I grew up going to school (speaking) in English, but when I came home and with my family I always (spoke) Spanish. It was important to me to use both, but I use English more because I grew up in New York and because of living in Los Angeles. There are some things that cannot be translated, they cannot be said in the same way in English. I will always use both (languages), “said the singer-songwriter.

Selena, her great influence

That spanglish With which he expresses himself both in his music and in interviews, it may be something natural for any Latino who grew up in the United States. Moving fluently between two cultures, two languages, two lifestyles, is something that becomes part of their daily lives.

The iconic phrase “I feel very excited”By Selena Quintanilla –which she said during an interview in 1994 before a concert in Houston, Texas–, is one with which María Isabel feels reflected.

“When I see that interview where she says’ I feel very excited‘I always see myself, that’s me, that’s how I speak. I feel very identified, “he told Zona Pop CNN.

He discovered the well-known “queen of tex-mex” through his mother, a loyal follower. “My mom loved Selena so I grew up with her songs in the house,” she remembers.

According to María Isabel, one of the most inspiring aspects of Selena is how she climbed positions in the Anglo-Saxon market.

“That kind of music was not mainstream in United States. She could sing Texan and Mexican music and be as great as she was. I feel like the same person, (like) when I’m doing interviews in Spanish and I get spanglish all the time, because that’s what I use all the time talking to my parents and my friends, “says the singer.

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