Camila Cabello has broken records and made history, and she’s only 22

Gisselle Bances

Camila Cabello’s life will “never ever be the same” (don’t fight it, you know the lyrics). The Cuban-born singer, who got her big break as part of the girl group Fifth Harmony, launched a solo career that’s been on fire since the release of her album Camila in 2018.

Ricky Martin, Camila Cabello and J Balvin perform at the Grammy Awards 2019. (Photo: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
Ricky Martin, Camila Cabello and J Balvin perform at the Grammy Awards 2019. (Photo: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

In just one year, Cabello broke records and made history at this year’s Grammy Awards. She took the stage with Ricky Martin and J Balvin, becoming the first Latina to open the Grammys. A shocking statistic, considering that Jennifer Lopez has been in the game since the ’90s. While Cabello didn’t take home a Grammy award, she was nominated for two: Best Pop Vocal Album and Best Pop Solo Performance for her hit song “Havana.”

Speaking of “Havana” (ooh na-na), the single was Spotify’s most-streamed song, with more than 800 million streams, making Cabello the first solo Latina artist to break this record. Her self-titled album also broke records soaring to No. 1 on iTunes in more than 100 countries in just under 24 hours.

Camila Cabello performs at the Grammy Awards 2019. (Photo: AFP/Getty Images)
Camila Cabello performs at the Grammy Awards 2019. (Photo: AFP/Getty Images)

Cabello also did the unthinkable, becoming the first singer in 15 years to hold the No. 1 spot both for her song “Havana” and for her album Camila. Beyoncé had achieved that win way back in 2003, with the release of her song “Crazy in Love” and album Dangerously in Love.

Wait, there’s more: “Havana” spent seven weeks on the Pop Songs chart — the longest reign for a female artist since Taylor Swift’s “I Knew You Were Trouble” claimed top honors in 2013.

The achievements keep on coming. Last year, Cabello won three Teen Choice Awards, four American Music Awards and was nominated for five MTV Video Music Awards. She walked away with Artist of the Year and Video of the Year. “Getting to do shows where people are singing words that I wrote back to me was a completely mind-boggling new experience,” she told Billboard magazine. “The last year was definitely the best year of my life.”

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2 minutes before it was our time to go on and we were onstage, I was trying not to cry 😭I pictured my family, my grandma who was backstage and cried when she first saw the performance because it reminded her so much of her childhood, living in a solar habanero, which is a poor community in which every family had one room in a house and they all shared a patio, she would sneak out and dance with the people and musicians in the patio, she told me those were the happiest days of her life, and this performance was inspired by her story, I knew I just had to go out there and party like I was my grandma when she listens to a song, she just loses herself in the music !!!!! I pictured my dad and sister who were onstage with me, my mom aka my best friend backstage looking out for me like always, I pictured my grandpa at home watching on TV- 😭 I just wanted to cry. I love them so much. Nothing is more important to me than family and this whole performance in every sense of it was a celebration of that. My family, my team that has become an extension of family, my Camilizers at home- we’ve become our own strong family in the last couple years and every time I get nervous, I picture your faces, how excited you are at home and how much you believe in me and root for me, and it fuels me with strength – last night was a celebration of everything that is important to me. I loved it so much and I loved honoring my grandma, my family, my culture- this performance didn’t feel about me, it felt much bigger than that – thank you @RecordingAcad for giving us such a beautiful opportunity to bring this idea to life 💔💔💔💔💔 #grammys2019

A post shared by camila (@camila_cabello) on Feb 11, 2019 at 2:10pm PST

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