Alessia Cara Says a Plastic Surgery Show Inspired Her Hit Song ‘Scars to Your Beautiful’

Alessia Cara is only 25 years old, but her music résumé is stacked: A best new artist Grammy win, four top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, not to mention a holiday E.P. you can listen to year-round. (There’s never a bad time for Christmas music, okay?) And more tunes are coming. Today (July 15), Cara releases the first two singles, "Sweet Dream" and “Shapeshifter,” from her upcoming third album.

But before you check out the new stuff, let’s venture back to some of AC’s most memorable songs, from “Scars to Your Beautiful” to “Here” and deep cuts like “October.” Alessia Cara is the latest singer to participate in Glamour’s new series 5 Songs, 5 Stories, where your favorite artists reveal the origins behind meaningful tracks from their catalogs. Stans, this one’s for you. Read (and listen!) on, below. 

“Here” 

This mid-tempo track was the debut single from Cara’s first album, Know-It-All. Produced by pop heavy hitters, including Pop & Oak and Sebastian Kole, the track centers on a party Cara attended that she quickly realized she hated. 

I was still in high school when I made “Here” with Sebastian Kole, who I wrote a lot of my first album with. He was my writing partner for my whole first project. I was at this weird period of time where I was starting my music career but I was still in high school. I would go to school, and then after school I would go to the studio and write songs about my day or whatever I was dealing with.

With this song in particular, it was the weekend, and I went to this party that I just felt so out of place at. A lot of my friends were there, but I just felt so uncomfortable. I didn’t drink at the time and I didn’t smoke. I didn’t really dance. I was just at that period where I was shy and not really down to party. I went to the studio the next day, and Sebastian was like, “What did you do over the weekend? Is there anything we could write about?” And I was like, “Not really. I’m not really going through anything. I’m just bored.” And he was like, “Well, what did you do this weekend?” I was like, “Oh, I went to this party, but it was, like, whatever. I just felt super uncomfortable, and it was just not my scene.” And then he’s like, “Oh, well, that’s what we're going to write about.” I was like, “Really? Okay. Boring, but whatever.”

He was asking me questions about what I did at this party, and I was just listing things that I was seeing, things I was doing, and that song just happened. It was a stream of consciousness–type song, and it happened super fast and ended up being my favorite thing I’d ever made. It still is one of my favorite songs I’ve ever made. It was just one of those magic moments.

“Scars to Your Beautiful”

Cara tackles body image on “Scars to Your Beautiful,” arguably her biggest hit to date. The track reached number eight on the Billboard Hot 100, her second entry into the top 10 after “Here.” Culturally, “Scars” was everywhere, making appearances on The Bold Type, Law & Order, and, most notably, A Wrinkle in Time. 

When I started writing with Sebastian, I knew I wanted us to talk a little bit about self-confidence and body image, because it was something  I did struggle with and something I’ve seen a lot of my friends and peers struggle with. I did want to speak to that. One particular day we had a bit of writer’s block, and we were watching TV in the studio and there was this marathon of a plastic surgery show on. We were just talking about it, being like, “Why did people feel the need to do this? Why are people doing this to their faces?” It led to this super-deep conversation about standards and where insecurity actually comes from and how deep-rooted it is. And I was like, “I think today’s the day we’re going to write the song,” and we wrote it. It was one of those things that felt really special immediately and yeah, I think everybody knew it would be something awesome to put out.

I feel like if there’s any song I could stand by and promote and talk about all the time, it’d be that one. Even now, even if I’m sick of singing it, it’s still one of those things I’ll always be proud of. Because that message is always going to resonate. Even after I’m long gone, I think we’re always going to need to hear that. I just really wanted to put something out that I believed in.

“Growing Pains”

This was the lead single off Cara’s second album, The Pains of Growing, and it reached number 15 on Billboard’s U.S. Mainstream Top 40 chart. (Remixes of the song helped it reach number seven on Billboard's dance charts—I personally recommend the Justin Caruso remix.) The topic of the song is pretty self-explanatory: growing pains, which Cara certainly experienced transitioning from her first era, in which she earned a Grammy for best new artist, to this one. 

This was an extremely challenging time because I was coming off a Grammy and a peak in my career. I think, for whatever reason, I went the opposite way and, I don’t know, I just went super inward and a little bit left artistically. I changed it up. I didn’t want to follow a typical trajectory. I wanted to do things my way, and I saw a way to be more artistic rather than give in to the lane I was set up to be in.

I remember I recorded a really rough version of “Growing Pains” on my laptop in the middle of traveling somewhere. That was, I think, the first song I wrote for the record. It went through a couple different versions, a few demos of mine, and I changed the lyrics a bunch of times. It was one of those songs that evolved as I was going through that year of my life. I had all these eyes on me all of a sudden, and I was really heartbroken and feeling all these things and not being able to process what was happening to my life. I was also coming out of my teen years into adulthood at the same time, which is an extremely difficult thing to navigate. The song was a reflection of that challenging period in my life, which was really intense.

“Out of Love”

Cara says she went “inward” on The Pains of Growing, and that’s arguably most exemplified on “Out of Love,” a simple, poignant ballad about falling out of love with someone. The track, which stemmed from Cara’s friend’s heartbreak, was coproduced by Rick Nowels, who’s worked with Lana Del Rey, Adele, and Madonna. 

This song came about before my breakup at the time even happened. It was actually about a friend’s experience. I know that sounds fake. It’s not like, “Oh, I wrote it about a friend.” That really did happen. It’s almost like I manifested the breakup in a sense because a good friend of mine was going through a situation like this, where someone had fallen out of love with them. They were like, “Listen, I’m not a songwriter, but can you please just try to write this down for me in a song form or something?” Because they were really in pain. I was having problems in my own life, as well, so I think I channeled a little bit of that subconsciously. 

It was one of those songs that came together so fast. It just spilled out, and I didn’t try to put any fluff around it. I just said what needed to be said, and I’m so glad I did because, obviously, once my own breakup happened, and having to sing that song on stage, it was super powerful—not only for the friend I wrote it for, but for me at that point. And then it became a breakup song for everyone who heard it.

“October”

“October” has a deceiving name, because the track is actually quite summery—uptempo, happy, think John Mayer–meets–Kacey Musgraves. It was released off Cara’s second E.P., aptly titled This Summer, released September 2019.  “Caught the writing bug out of the blue and made an E.P.,” Cara shared on social media in July of that year. 

This is one of my favorite songs I think I’ve ever made, and I don’t know why. When I wrote it, I was coming off that whole breakup period I referenced in the last project. I had gone through so many ups and downs. It’d just been a rough couple of years, and I remember I had this moment where I was in the middle of touring, and I made some friends on the road and I was also traveling with my best friend for the first time and just being with my whole team again. I had this moment of pure joy and bliss and healing. It felt physically as if this weight had been lifted. I just felt lighter for the first time, and I was like, “I need to talk about this,” because I knew it was going to go away because reality happens to all of us, and we don't always feel great.

I was like, “In case this feeling goes away, I need to encapsulate this moment and I need to write down some events or some stories from this period of my life.” It was such a special time, and my best friend and I talk about it and my friends that I made on the road, we talk about it all the time—just how wonderful that month of time was for all of us. We all felt it was such a healing experience to be together. We were in Europe and traveling the world. Being together and having fun—it really felt like I’d finally healed from the nonsense in my past. I wanted to write it down because I knew those feelings are fleeting, unfortunately. It’s sad to think about, but it’s the truth. It’s my reality, and it’s a lot of our realities. We’re not meant to stay happy forever, so I wanted to save it.

Christopher Rosa is the entertainment editor at Glamour. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.

Originally Appeared on Glamour