Camila Cabello on Getting Through Heartbreak and Inspiration Behind New Album (Exclusive)

The songstress latest single, 'Bam Bam,' featuring Ed Sheeran, is out now.

Camila Cabello is dancing away the pain and celebrating new music! The "Havana" singer is getting ready to release her upcoming album, Familia, which will be the first since her split from Shawn Mendes.  

As her latest single, “Bam Bam,” featuring Ed Sheeran, says, “Así es la vida, sí,” -- which translates to “That’s life, yeah” -- that's exactly what inspired the new tune.

“I started writing this song with my collaborators a few months back and we had this chorus idea about what it's been like in my late teens and early 20s falling in and out of love and ups and downs of that,” Cabello tells ET’s Denny Directo.  

“Also reminding myself, as my mom has told me many times, 'That's life.’ You're on the ground crying on the bathroom floor and then you'll have feelings for another person again, and you'll be crying on the bathroom floor again. And that is the cycle of change. Things just change, you never know what's around the corner,” she says.  

Helping Cabello on the track is Sheeran, whom she has worked with before. “When I sent the song and he said, ‘I love, let’s definitely do this,’ I just felt like, 'This is too good to be true, he’s going to change his mind.' He didn’t and he has been so exciting about it throughout,” she shares. 

"Bam Bam" is just the start. Cabello’s third studio album is due out on April 8, and according to the Cinderella star, the recording process was "cathartic," because she was able to go into the studio and sing what was on her heart.  

“For me, my process is really cathartic,” she says. “It’s me kind of singing anything that I think about and feel into a microphone. I do like seven takes of that. I do that for like 25 minutes, and then me and my collaborators talk about it. Then we are like, ‘Oh, you said this, that was really cool.’ We brainstorm, we fill it in and then that becomes a song.” 

And Cabello’s process is clearly working. According to the songstress, the people who have heard the new record can already sense a change in the music.  

Rodrigo Varela/Getty Images

“I feel like a lot of people have told me, ‘This feels different than your other albums,’” she says. “That it feels more grounded. It feels more honest ... there was no barrier of pressure, of anxiety. It was very unfiltered.” 

She adds, “Like it was literally what I was feeling that day. And I think that comes through in the music.” 

Outside of the music, Cabello says that her latest chapter in life has brought her more resources when it comes to navigating the ups and downs. “As I get older, I find more and more resources, so for example, meditation and talking to a therapist," she says.

"Also talking to my friends, like literally just being like, ‘Guys, I'm feeling like this. And this is fear, and I’m feeling sad about this.’ Really being open with people. Going for walks. I feel like that's kind of the key to getting older," she adds. "Those feelings are gonna come and I think you just gather more and more tools to kind of cope with them in a healthy way.” 

Cabello’s life is imitating art, because she is also pulling the big lesson from her latest single.  

“I am really living the lesson in 'Bam Bam,'" she shares. “Which is keep dancing, 'cause I dance a lot.” 

Familia is out April 8.  

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