For Becky G, her latest album Baraja Bendita is a culmination of the lessons she has learned, the obstacles she has overcome and the unapologetically Spanglish, genreless artist she has always been.
During her Superstar Q&A with Billboard co-chief content officer Jason Lipshutz on Wednesday (Oct. 21), the Mexican-American artist reflected on the personal and professional significance of her new LP, released in August.
“I definitely feel very blessed,” she said. “It was a life-changing year in a lot of ways. I released my album Baraja Bendita, which is my fifth studio album, which is crazy to say out loud because there was a moment in my career where I didn’t think I would ever be able to release even one.”
It was very satisfying for me as an artist to create this album,” she explained. “Releasing it was kind of the release — like, literal release — to the world.”
The project’s title translates to “the blessed deck of cards,” inspired by the idea that while people cannot control the cards they are dealt, they can control how they play them. That philosophy reflects the duality at the center of the album and of her own identity.
“It’s the fact that I’m a Spanglish speaker. It’s the fact that I’m a genreless artist, and it is a genreless album, and it is a Spanglish album unapologetically,” she said. “I got signed in a time where that wasn’t necessarily as celebrated as it is today.”
That freedom also informed the album’s sound. Rather than entering the studio with a strict genre or sonic blueprint, Becky said she wanted to “f–k shit up” and make room for fun and play. “I wanted to do fun stuff. I wanted to make fun music,” she said. “It allowed me to make a lot more room for fun, for play.”
The album arrives during what Becky described as “a season of completion,” as parts of her career begin to come full circle. She recalled one of her first Billboard panels, where she appeared alongside Karol G, Anitta and Natti Natasha — artists who, like Becky, have helped reshape the visibility of women in Latin music. “We had another amazing panel with so many amazing female artists coming together,” she said. “Siempre he dicho que juntas somos más. We’re so much more when we come together.”
She emphasized that the sisterhood she has built with other women in the industry was earned, not guaranteed. “Especially between women in an industry where very often we’re pitted against one another,” she said. “You have to be vulnerable and you have to expose yourself and you have to reach out and sometimes ask for help or ask questions.”
Looking back at the industry she entered more than a decade ago, Becky recalled being told that “women don’t sell tickets” or that there was room for only one woman at a time. Today, she sees a different model taking shape. “There was one seat at the table,” she said. “And I think now the season we’re in is we’re building our own table. And at our table everyone eats.”
That progress, she added, has required patience. “God is never late,” Becky said. “Everything happens the way it’s supposed to, and you just have to trust that.”
Becky also discussed her return to acting. She recently wrapped a boxing film that she said resonated with her on a “soul level,” touching on coming of age, community and mental health. Though music was always present in her childhood, acting was her first creative love. “I started when I was 9 years old,” she said. “And it’s something that I love very much, and I would love to do more.”
“I love the idea of producing and directing and all of that,” she added. “I’m a storyteller. Music is a vessel for that, but so is acting and all kinds of other things. In every project that I do, there has to be something more that is bigger than me, but about the we of it,” she said. “Art and advocacy can coexist. I think that’s actually where a lot of change happens. Keep creating, because Latino joy is so important. We need to see our joy. That to me is part of the resistance. That’s why I created the song ‘Epa.'”
Though she is taking time to enjoy life after the release of Baraja Bendita, Becky revealed that her next project is already taking shape. “I already have my next project very, very clear,” she said.
When Lipshutz asked how she stays grounded amid such a busy career, Becky’s answer returned to the source of everything.“It’s always been family,” she said.
Becky G was on the cover of Billboard Español in April.