INTERVIEW
Amber Rawlings | 25/07/2025
Alessia Cara is back – older, more self-assured and clearer than ever on what matters most.
February saw the release of her fourth album, Love & Hyperbole — her first in four years and marked a full decade since the breakout success of her debut single, “Here”, a kind of anti-party anthem for people who never really wanted to be there in the first place. Now 28 (“I’m nearly 30,” she jokes as only a 28-year-old can), the Canadian singer is back on tour, celebrating both her past and a deeper sense of presence.
This interview could easily be framed around the challenges of growing up in the spotlight but what feels more immediate is this young pop-girly's refreshing candour and growing commitment to self-prioritisation.
It only feels right to begin with ‘Here’, which Cara released at just 17. “Man, it's so strange because when we made that song, I was still in school,” she tells me. You've heard it, “Excuse me if I seem a little unimpressed with this / An antisocial pessimist / But usually I don't mess with this,” she sings over woozy R&B production built around an Isaac Hayes sample. A sleeper hit, the track charted in the top three globally after a historic 26-week climb.
“Initially, it was just me making fun of myself and the high school party scene,” Cara explains. “But people have interpreted the song in a way that has meant so much more.”
Before the fame, she was a teen uploading acoustic covers to YouTube. But it was ‘Here’ that made her a star and a kind pf patron saint for introverts and people with social anxiety. “They connected to that song and used it as a comfort blanket,” she says. “I didn't realize how many people felt the same way, because when you're young, you feel like your feelings might be singular.”
Still, the success of ‘Here’ cast a long shadow. “It's interesting when you have this level of success super young — when you're still underdeveloped,” she reveals. “People will put you in that box forever. They want you to embalm yourself in that identity."
She pauses. "There was this level of having to prove myself in the beginning. Every room I walked into, especially songwriting-wise, I always felt like I had to come up with something good.”
And she did. Cara has since earned four Grammy nominations and became the first Canadian artist to win Best New Artist in 2018. But now, four albums in including 2018's The Pains of Growing, which won Juno Awards for both Album of the Year and Pop Album of the Year — she's at her most natural. “I think now, especially with Love & Hyperbole, I was like, let me just write the best thing that I can make for myself. Totally intuitively."
“I've been caring less and staring at my ceiling / I've been numb, just give me something with some feeling,” sings Cara on ‘Go Outside!’, the second track on Love & Hyperbole. It’s pop with a jazzy flair. Her vocals more layered and processed, though still unmistakably front and centre. But here's the thing about Alessia Cara: her sound is so consistent, and vocals are so self-assured that the music becomes an emotional undercurrent. That’s not to say it isn’t powerful. The album has quickly earned a “no-skip” reputation among fans online. Still, in conversation, it’s clear the arc Cara wants to highlight isn’t sonic, it’s internal.
“I think for a long time, especially in the first few years, I lost myself completely,” she admits. “Taking care of myself was just not something that I did.” The ‘Scars to Your Beautiful’ singer call herself as a “people pleaser” and admits she’s “lacking a bit in boundaries.” And while industry veterans often speak in polished therapy-speak, Cara's candour lands differently. “My body showed me in so many ways,” she tells me. “It showed up with a lot of anxiety, panic attacks, and feeling super disconnected from myself. It was like a wake-up call.”
It was towards the end of her twenties that she finally let go of trying to control everything. "As you get older – and I'm not sure if you've found this – but a lot changes in terms of your identity and just being okay with you," says Cara. "Maybe that's just me, but I've found the past three years to be transformative — I just don't give a shit."
What Cara might not realize is that, once again, she’s tapped into something universal. Just like she did with ‘Here’ a decade ago, she's become a sonic stand-in for fans who've grown up alongside her. "Holy crap Alessia. Every project she's had there's been at least one song that's walloped me, and this is the one for this album," reads a comment on a Reddit thread about Love & Hyperbole. They're talking about ‘Get To You,’ the album's seventh track, which channels a distinctly 2000s alt-rock sound. “An apparition on the other side of the table / Did I imagine you there?” Cara sings, proving that a more mature sound doesn’t mean sacrificing introspection.
This intuitive approach – the one Cara credits for her creative freedom, has clearly paid off. Ten years into her career, she's no longer interested in chasing trends or forcing inspiration. "When I walk into rooms to write, I just try to make it about enjoying it and having fun rather than thinking about it too hard," she says. “But I think it's fun and so much more rewarding when you go in with no plan and just follow your gut and it works.”
That’s not to say there aren’t challenges, though. Now armed with the kind of awareness that only comes with being (nearly) thirty, Cara has realised that touring isn’t always conducive to her need for solitude. “I have not been alone for one day, in months. There's not one time that I'm alone, even in my dressing room. There's always someone around me,” she says.
Her solution? “I do all my own hair and makeup on the road. I do that, honestly, so that I can enjoy it. Having a little hour to myself. It's become a meditative thing for me." It's a routine born of necessity. Performing, she's learned, is an intense energy exchange. "Even just for that hour and a half that I'm on stage — your battery drains because you're giving so much to these people.”
Despite that four-year album hiatus, it doesn't look like Cara is slowing down any time soon. And her fans are here for it, regardless of what the singer behind the anthems is feeling, and how that manifests sonically. “Alessia f*cks!?” reads a comment on that same Reddit thread, this time in response to ‘Nighttime Thing.’ “I'm just sayin' there's no rush to go home / Way you're makin' my cheeks blush,” sings Cara on Love & Hyperbole’s most sensual number.
It might just be a throwaway line from a fan online, but the sentiment reflects the loyalty Cara has cultivated over the past decade.
It's that unwavering connection (and a whole lot of inner work) that has finally given Cara the freedom to prioritize herself without fear of losing her audience. "You've just got to trust yourself no matter what, and the right people will find you and love it and connect with it," she tells me. "That's the beauty of it. It's all just a feeling and it's all taste and there's no right or wrong. It's just using different colours.”
Photography Claire Herbert @claireh.photo
Words Amber Rawlings
