Cheap Date is i-D’s new series where we take our crushes out for under $40, get to know them, and have a good old fashioned hang.
The sun is directly overhead, it’s the middle of summer, and pop star Isabella Lovestory appears like a mirage in a hot pink dress and wrap-around shades. Born in Honduras and now making waves in the global pop underground, Lovestory is a true down-to-earth diva with a big heart. Her music is an auditory sugar rush: a collision of trash, camp, aesthetic serenity, and the ravages of beauty, putty in her capable hands. Watch the music video for “Telenovela” and try not to dance.
We got slushes from A&N Fruitstore—I ordered watermelon (no added sugar!) and she got honeydew—and found a nice wooden palet to sit on and chat about her new sophomore album Vanity and recently announced tour. Maybe it was the heat. Maybe it was the insulin spike from the slush. Maybe it was the bodega cat running over our feet. Or maybe it was just basking in the star’s warmth. Whatever it was, our slush date was a giddy, giggly affair—all about the dark side of beauty.
Nicolaia Rips: Talk to me about making dance music.
Isabella Lovestory: I wanted to make music I’d never made before and reconnect with genres I haven’t necessarily done but that I love: J-Pop, goth music, dreamy electronic pop like the Cocteau Twins, ’80s new wave—mixing all that into my sexy, dancey vibe. I was also going through… a crazy bad perm. I went face-to-face with the darkness of beauty, what obsessing with beauty can do. I got all these hair treatments. I basically burnt off my hair. Then I started wearing wigs all last year. I was obsessed with Botox and beauty and being pretty, pretty, pretty. The album ended up being a very raw but fantastical look into a mirror, turning the darkness of beauty into a fairy tale.
What do you hope people listening to the album feel?
I hope they feel different things listening to different songs. I’m showing more of my range, not just the reggaeton persona that people know.
Your world-building, both in your personal aesthetic and in your music videos, is so clear. What’s your process like?
I’m very visual, very inspired by movies, so I start by making up a movie in my head—creating scenes and then writing around them. I feel like every song is a different film. It’s all very opulent, very extreme.
What’s the opposite of vanity?
Being neutral, I guess. Or being like, comfortable. I think vanity is my favorite sin. It’s kind of like a shield. It’s what we have to use in the world to express ourselves.