With a new look and unleashing her most unapologetic body of music to date, Camila Cabello is channeling a “big baddie energy” that’s fearless, bold and rebellious. But despite her new era, one thing stays consistent: her heart of gold.
Cabello — who’s logged 21 career entries on the Billboard Hot 100 including No. 1 hits “Havana” (with Young Thug) and “Señorita” (with Shawn Mendes) — has used her star power and platform to advocate for topics that wholeheartedly matter to her: immigration, mental health, climate change and LGBTQ+ rights, to name a few.
Celebrating her contributions that positively influence popular culture, the 27-year-old singer-songwriter will be honored with the Global Impact award at the 2024 Billboard Latin Women in Music airing exclusively at 9 p.m. ET on June 9 via Telemundo, and simultaneously on the Telemundo app and Peacock.
“Hopefully when I’m no longer here, I want the legacy I leave behind to make the world, somehow, more loving,” she tells Billboard. “There’s different ways of doing that, through art and music, and I always try to keep myself accountable.”
Cabello (real name Karla Camila Cabello Estrabao), who formed part of famed girl group Fifth Harmony from 2012 to 2016, owes her kind, selfless and giving qualities to her parents: a Cuban mother (Sinuhe Estrabao) and Mexican father (Alejandro Cabello), who migrated to Miami when Cabello was six years old in search of better opportunities. Estrabao was an architect in Cuba, who worked at the shoe department in Marshalls; Mr. Cabello worked washing cars at Dolphin Mall. Today, they have a successful contracting company called Soka Construction (named after Camila and her little sister, Sofia).
“I’m so proud of my family history, and proud of my work ethics, and any sort of strength or drive that I have is from hearing their stories,” she explains. “I really feel that I come from a family of f–king hustlers. My mom and dad never lost that, and even my grandparents. I feel that so much of that is carried in my bloodline. There’s something carried in our story that I feel makes me handle life and look at life in a different way.”
Among her notable philanthropical efforts, Cabello has partnered with This Is About Humanity and Miami Freedom Project to host community events for new immigrant families in Miami and has raised half a million dollars with Equality Florida and Lambda Legal to combat harmful legislation in Florida targeting the LGBTQ+ community. She also launched the Healing Justice Project to provide mental health resources to BIPOC organizers across the country advancing racial, immigrant, and environmental justice.
“What strikes me the most is how sincere, hard-working, and caring she is as a human being,” Roger Gold, Cabello’s longtime manager, adds. “Camila really absorbed that from her family, from her upbringing, from her journey to The United States. She grew up very, very humbling.”
In addition to receiving the Global Impact award at the Billboard Latin Women in Music event, Cabello is preparing to release her fourth studio album C,XOXO on June 28, a set produced by El Guincho and Jasper Harris that was inspired by the eclectic rhythms and sounds of her hometown, and which she describes as the ultimate “Miami art piece.”
