Despite being only 28, Mexican singer-songwriter Danna Paola has already lived a complete life of an entertainer with a 20-plus-year career.
On “Childstar,” the Mexican singer and actor’s new LP, Danna — who recently announced she’s dropping her last name — is reclaiming the narrative of her youth when she first earned her stripes as a child star in telenovelas that constantly played on television both stateside and across Latin America. “Childstar” is Danna’s most layered project to date. House and electronic music replace the bubblegum pop Danna served fans in her early discography, and the change is drastic. Danna knows this.
“I think some of my fans are waiting for me to release reggaeton or Latin pop,” Danna tells Variety. “I do wonder how they’ll react to some of the songs on this record but I’m really only here for me at this point… I don’t want to disappoint anyone but I would not be living my life if I just kept following the suggestions that other people are making for me.”
In 2020, Danna finished her last acting stint on Netflix’s “Élite,” which helped her gain a stake in the United States and other parts of Latin America. She subsequently announced her intentions to step away from acting, and that same year, she released “Sie7e+,” which birthed her biggest single yet, 2020’s “Mala Fama.” The latter has been streamed over 340 million times on Spotify, helping define her as a pop star to watch. She followed up with the Latin Grammy-nominated “K.O” in 2021, and in the last year launched the first U.S. leg of her tour, hosted the Latin Grammys and released a remix of her and Sofia Reyes’ “TQUM” with Kim Petras. After all this, Danna is finally ready to call the shots on “Childstar.”
Thematically, the record is all about escapism — the partying, the sex and the thrills of chasing romance. It represents the beginning of a new artistic era that puts Danna’s past as a “Childstar” to rest.
The record begins with “The Fall,” which is mostly spoken word and is as dark as the album truly gets. Its stripped-down piano keys mimic a descending fall to rock bottom, or where Danna felt she was before “finding the courage and strength” to launch into the last three or so years when she first spawned the idea for this record.
“Somehow, hitting my darkest, lowest point — when I was so depressed — made me want to share that with the world,” she stops herself, almost acknowledging how contradictory that sounds. “This record isn’t my life story, necessarily. It’s a sign that for me, I’m moving on. It represents where I’ve been able to get to by putting myself first.”
“Childstar” has Danna singing in English and Spanish, since she “speaks and thinks in Spanglish,” but that overarching duality of pop culture is also represented in the music influences; For example, track two, “Blackout,” is a tribute to Britney Spears’ 2007 album of the same name. That record was released in a tumultuous era of Spears’ life as she battled public scrutiny to a debilitating degree. In that same lane, she cites Spears’ “Lucky” (“She’s so lucky, she’s a star / But she cry, cry, cries in her lonely heart”) and the ending of Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis” as overall thematic touchstones for the concept of “Childstar.”
These, “remind me of my childhood in the sense that people stop viewing you as a person,” she says. “I was very alone throughout my early years in the industry. I had my family, and they supported me… but I was alone. I felt like I was at the height of my career and I just wanted it all to end.” And as the tracklist of “Childstar” unfolds, it’s clear this isn’t a sob story. “These songs are what made me,” Danna says. “You hear me discovering my sexier side, you also hear me grappling with love, my encounters.”
For the people who knew Danna in the earlier points of her career, it may be shocking to hear her be so forward in “Atari,” where she whines and growls about sex. She also sings over breezy R&B about the first time she fell for a woman in “Platonik.”
And although she’s admittedly “nervous as fuck” about how her fans will react to the experimentation and honesty — and sonic range — on this album, they have already more than shown up for her. Danna has one of the most fervent followings of Latin American superstars. When she announced that she wanted to update her social media handles to just “@Danna” — a move solidifying she’s put the past behind her — her fans bombarded the current owner of the account with requests to give up the account. Danna had to issue a public apology.
“I know they’re ready to receive — I’ve had them waiting for so long — whatever I may throw their way but this album is totally new territory for me,” she says, followed by a long pause. “If you’d like to join me, please do. And if you don’t, there’s a lot of music out in the world, I hope you find something you enjoy.”
