Juanes on His and Alessia Cara's 'Magic' Collaboration on 'Querer Mejor' (Exclusive)

Juanes' newest single was a year and a half in the making. 

The Colombian singer dropped his new song, "Querer Mejor," featuring Alessia Cara, on Thursday. In an interview with ET's Denny Directo on Tuesday, he revealed that he's been thinking of collaborating with the "Scars to Your Beautiful" singer since November 2017. 

"I'm so excited about it, I can't wait," he said of the song's release. "I just fell in love with Alessia Cara's voice. I met her two years ago when we were performing at the [Latin] GRAMMYs."

"It was Logic, Alessia and me, and then last year when I was working on this song with some friends, we just decided to invite Alessia Cara. It happened because we have a friend in common so he helped us to connect, and now we have a song," Juanes explained. 

Alessia sings in Spanish in "Querer Mejor," which translates to "Love Better." "It's magic," Juanes said of the track. 

"There's something about her voice and my voice -- together it just works," he continued. "It doesn't always happen like that."

The pair recorded the song together in Los Angeles. Juanes couldn't have been more impressed by Alessia, who wrote her part in the studio and then recorded it.  

"I was very emotional because she's Canadian but she has Italian roots, so she can pronounce Spanish almost like perfect, no accent. We were like, 'What? This is incredible, man!'" he recalled. "The final result is so beautiful." 

"I really liked the song because the message of the song is very important. It's like, a reflection of life; it's like, after all these years when you get to the end of your life, you'll be able to learn how to love. It's the question that we all make all the time, so it's very deep and beautiful," he expressed. 

Though he's spent decades making music, Juanes said he loves working with younger artists. His kids, 15-year-old Luna, 13-year-old Paloma and 9-year-old Dante, are big fans of Alessia and often introduce him to new singers. 

"I really like that because I feel so inspired to work with new artists and people that are doing something special and new and different, but I also work with the masters -- people that have been in for a long time," he said. "But the last few singles, I have been working with a lot of young artists. I feel very happy about it."

ET was with Juanes on the set of his music video for "La Plata." Watch below. 

Get more Latinx news on ET MÁS, ETonline's new section featuring the latest celeb, film, TV, music and style news.

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