Camila Cabello Dealt With ‘Crippling Anxiety’ While Recording Her Album ‘Familia’
Camila Cabello first rose to fame as a member of the girl group Fifth Harmony, and launched her own solo career in the late 2010s. In 2022, she returned with Familia, her third album and her most personal project to date. But despite how happy Cabello is with the finished product, it took a lot of therapy and inner work to get there.
Camila Cabello released her third album ‘Familia’
Camila Cabello released her third studio album, Familia, in April 2022. The album comes after two years of introspection as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and is largely reflective of her emotions at the time.
On the LP, Cabello linked up with hit musicians including Ed Sheeran, Willow Smith, and Cuban artist Yotuel.
Camila Cabello dealt with anxiety while recording ‘Familia’
Cabello spoke about the process of making the record in an interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music. It wasn’t easy for her to get back to work in the middle of the pandemic.
“For a while, it was a couple months where I didn’t go back in the studio,” she confessed. “I was just doing therapy. I was literally not functioning.”
She went on to express gratitude for the help that she got, and shared her biggest takeaways from her therapy sessions. “I found a therapist that everything they said really resonated with me. And part of that healing was going in the studio and being like, ‘I’m not going to do it if it’s not fun. It’s not going to be a performance. I can’t take it. Literally, I won’t do it. It has to be something that helps me in feeling better and getting better because I can’t take this as a source of anxiety or stress. I just won’t do it.'”
Cabello has spoken about her anxiety in the past, and when asked about why she wanted to share her experiences publicly, she explained that she felt a duty to, especially after feeling like her voice didn’t matter before.
“That was something that I used to do to myself, was invalidate my own experiences. Because I would be like, ‘Oh, nobody wants to hear that from me. Why am I so anxious? Why do I have crippling anxiety?'” she recounted. “It is so much more, actually, responsible and better for people if artists are just like the voice of the vulnerabilities and the anxieties and all of that.”
‘Familia’ is Camila’s most personal album
The Familia album, then, means a lot to Cabello. Not only is the subject matter personal, but it was a difficult path to get to release day.
“It was a two-year journey for me, and this album and the journey of it was really life-changing for me,” she said in an interview on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. “I feel like I learned the most I’ve ever learned. I really changed as a person.”
