MEXICO CITY (AP) 鈥 For Colombian singer-songwriter Sebasti谩n Yatra, life is full of small miracles that come from dance, family and freedom.
鈥淚 saw happiness as a child as my long-term goal, one day to be happy, but I saw it as something very far away, and now I feel it in everything I do,鈥 he said in a recent interview from Mexico City.
鈥淲hat motivates me the most is to share that philosophy of life and that way of seeing things, and 鈥楳ilagro鈥 is my way of expressing that perspective, that change of perspective that helps me to live everything from gratitude and love,鈥 he said.
鈥淢ilagro鈥 is his fourth album and comes three years after his previous production, 鈥淒harma.鈥
鈥淎ll these albums and these songs have accompanied me in a moment of very big growth that is from 18 or 19 to 30, where you live a lot of things, and you really end up defining much more, I don鈥檛 know if who you are, but at least who you want to be,鈥 said the artist.
The name of the album came about, in part, from a phrase in a recent book by his brother Andr茅s who is a novelist: Life denies miracles until one realizes that everything is a miracle. Yatra stressed that changing his perspective on the world made it easier for him to find more and more miracles, from giving a hug and receiving a call from his parents to having a coffee in the morning.
鈥淪o, when you see everything as a miracle, you start to be grateful for every little thing in the universe and you find its magic.鈥
The album includes songs that Yatra has previously released such as 鈥淰agabundo鈥 with Manuel Turizo and Be茅le, 鈥淟os domingos鈥 and 鈥淟a pelirroja,鈥 but it also has surprises such as a cover of Silvio Rodr铆guez鈥檚 鈥溍搇eo de mujer con sombrero鈥 that Yatra performs with his father, An铆bal Obando Agudelo.
鈥淚 grew up listening Pablo Milan茅s, (Joan Manuel) Serrat, but I didn鈥檛 grow up listening to them in their voices, I grew up listening to them in my father鈥檚 voice, because I had, and still have, a great artist at home,鈥 he said. 鈥淲ith the guitar he did a lot of magic, and he still does, and in all the gatherings he was the one who animated any party and you were hooked listening to him.鈥
Yatra confessed that he even thought of composing something in the style of Rodr铆guez and Milan茅s to perhaps perform it with his father, 鈥渂ut it is impossible to replicate that, there is no way.鈥
The version of Rodr铆guez鈥檚 song on the album was recorded at Yatra's family鈥檚 farm in Medell铆n, Colombia. It is the last song on the album.
In 鈥淭emplo de Piceas,鈥 he is joined by Mexican artist Humbe, and in 鈥2AM,鈥 he performs with the Catalan artist Bad Gyal.
The Grammy-and Latin Grammy winner hopes his songs will give others the courage to 鈥渓ive love the way they want to live it.鈥
If he could define the sound of his album, Yatra said it would be a heavenly experience, especially because of his track 鈥淎men鈥 (as in love each other in Spanish) in which he seeks union and universal love.
鈥淚t is the lyric that I have done in my entire life, in my career, that most proposes something different and that most unites and resignifies the word amen (as in a prayer written in Spanish 鈥榓m茅n鈥),鈥 he said.
Yatra said he grew up in a Catholic family and usually goes to the Basilica when he visits Mexico. He said he was excited by the recent election of Pope Leo XIV, previously known as Robert Prevost, the who spent many years serving in Peru.
鈥淚t鈥檚 very exciting,鈥 he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 something that comes from so many generations, that you feel like the emotion of years and years of people for whom that has meant a lot.鈥
At the same time, he acknowledged the legacy of Pope Francis.
鈥淚 think he was a person who united a lot and was also not afraid to take away a little of the most closed rules of the Catholic religion, but he was open to the rest of the world to also accept all people for who they are, both people who have other spiritual visions, and people who live love from another place,鈥 he said.
