“Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links.”
Karol G opens up in a refreshing way in her new Netflix documentary Karol G: Tomorrow Was Beautiful, which just premiered today. The film follows the record-breaking Colombian singer (she was the first female artist to have a Spanish-language record top the Billboard 200 chart) through the launch of her ambitious 2023 Mañana Será Bonito tour. It was the first global stadium tour for a Latina artist and a huge undertaking for Karol G that many didn’t believe she would be able to pull off.
Mañana Será Bonito ended up being a massive hit. It ranked 11th on Billboard’s 2023 list of concert tours and, over 20 shows, sold 925,000 tickets and grossed $155.3 million and sold 925,000 tickets. Tomorrow Was Beautiful, which was directed by Cristina Costantini, gives a behind-the-scenes view of the tour and shares reflections on her career in music.
Below, some of the biggest takeaways.
She fell in love while on tour.
Colombian artist Feid, one of Karol’s favorite artists, was an opener on her tour. They quickly became friends and, soon, a couple. “Without realizing it, I was already writing love songs again about happiness,” she says in the doc.
Living with a health issue has led to increased scrutiny of her body.
Karol receives daily treatment for a hormonal issue that impacts her insulin levels. It causes her weight to fluctuate, something that’s been the target of cruel criticism. “I can wake up today with a six-pack, super skinny, and tomorrow I can wake up super bloated with an inflated stomach, and I can’t control it,” she says.
She had difficulty as a woman in the Latin urban genre.
The film shows Karol talking with an interviewer about the difficulties that she’s experienced as one of the few women in reggaeton/Latin urban music. “I started with all the guys I knew, but of course it took me a little bit because I was a woman in a male-led genre,” she explains. “There weren’t a lot of women. The fact of just being a woman was an extremely huge disadvantage for my career.”
She fought with her team about calling her song “Bichota.”
Karol was set on titling a 2021 song (and later a tour) “Bichota.” She loved that it was a term for a strong, empowered woman. Her team was concerned about possible negative connotations associated with the term. Karol fought passionately to keep it. “My team kept insisting all the time, ‘No, the song can’t be called that. You’ll look bad. People will reject you. The words are too explicit.’ And I was like, ‘I’m taking the risk,’” she said. Her song ended up popularizing the term, which is now heavily associated with her.
She was sexually harassed by her former manager.
When Karol was 16, she moved to Bogotá without her family to focus on her music. She began working with a manager who seemed very impressive and was eager to guide her career. Shortly before she turned 16, he invited her to come to his house for a party he’d planned for her birthday. During the party he stood close to her and told her that he was interested in having a romantic relationship with her. “I was 16 years old. And I’m sure he was probably 45 or 50 years old at that time,” she says, before admitting how uncomfortable she feels speaking about it on camera.
The manager told Karol that if she didn’t return his feelings, it would have ramifications for her career. Karol was heartbroken and told her parents that she no longer wanted to pursue music, without explaining what had occurred. They were very upset, and for a period, Karol didn’t speak with her dad. Karol went to live for a time with her aunt to study in New York. She was severely depressed and began seeing a psychiatrist for the first time. When she told her family that she wanted to get back into music, they went into debt to get her out of the contract with her manager.
She’s not afraid of death.
“I have a feeling I’m going to die young, so dying doesn’t really scare me,” Karol says in the documentary. Every time she makes music she updates her producer and tells him that if she dies unexpectedly, like her idol Selena Quintanilla, she wants him to make sure her music gets heard.
She experienced a scary life-threatening situation in 2024, when the private plane that she was flying in became filled with smoke and had to make an emergency landing in Van Nuys, California. What made it particularly terrifying was that Karol was flying with her mother, father, sister, and 1-year-old niece.
You Might Also Like
-
The 15 Best Organic And Clean Shampoos For Any And All Hair Types
-
100 Gifts That Are $50 Or Under (And Look Way More Expensive Than They Actually Are)
