Grammy-Winning Hit Artist Alessia Cara Talks About Her Excellent New Album, Love & Hyperbole, And Writing Her New Songs

Pop/R&B singer/songwriter Alessia Cara is known for being a Grammy-winning artist who’s had several big hits in her young career. In 2016 when she was just 19, Cara had a breakthrough hit with her uniquely personal song, “Here.” Soon after, she had another hit with her heartfelt, empowering song, “Scars to Your Beautiful.” Both songs were featured on her acclaimed debut album, Know-It-All.

Cara, who is from Canada and is now 28, went on to have additional hits including “Stay” (a collaboration with Zedd), “1-800-273-8255 (a collaboration with Logic), and she sang the theme song, “How Far I’ll Go,” for Disney’s animated movie, Moana. These multiple hits led to Cara winning the Best New Artist at the 2018 Grammy Awards.

In the following years, Cara has continued to create music at a high level, releasing her second album The Pains of Growing (which won the Juno Award for Best Album) in 2018 and her third album In The Meantime in 2021. All of her albums showcase Cara’s powerful, soulful singing, and her distinctive songwriting and lyrical vision.

Now in 2025, Cara has released her first album in four years, Love & Hyperbole, on Def Jam Recordings. This album marks a strong return for Cara, who co-wrote all 14 songs. This is an excellent, self-assured album which demonstrates that she is continuing to grow as an artist and is exploring new sounds and ideas. Notably, she collaborated with two top writer/producers: Mike Elizondo (who has worked with Twenty One Pilots, Carrie Underwood and Nelly Furtado) and Greg Kurstin (Adele, Kelly Clarkson and Paul McCartney).

Love & Hyperbole contains many highlights. The most original and different song is “Dead Man,” which presents a big-band, jazzy sound and a boisterous horn section. Another highlight is “(Isn’t It) Obvious,” a sensual groove song that features a bluesy guitar solo by John Mayer. Other key songs are “Fire” (a passionate, sultry ballad), “Nighttime Thing” (a fun uptempo track) and “Clearly” (an upbeat, romantic song that ends the album).

In coordination with her new album release, Cara is launching a major, worldwide concert tour. She begins her new tour in April playing key cities  in the U.S., and then she’ll play shows in China, Taiwan, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and other countries.

We are pleased to do this new Q&A interview with Alessia Cara. She discusses the making of her new album, Love & Hyperbole. She also tells how she wrote her big hits including “Here” and “Scars to Your Beautiful.”

DK: I read that you’re from Brampton in Ontario, Canada. How did you get started with singing and writing songs?

Alessia Cara: I started singing at a super young age. I was always singing around the house. Since I was two years old, I was singing Sesame Street and Celine Dion and whatever songs I would hear. I was like a sponge with music. Then in terms of writing songs, I started a bit later in life. I did start writing short stories and poems, but I didn’t seriously consider writing songs until I was in high school.

DK: I like your first hit, “Here,” which is such an original and different song (about being alone at a party). Did you write the song after you were at a party that you didn’t like being at?

Cara: Yeah that’s exactly what happened. Basically every lyric in the song is inspired by something real that happened that day, and that was the first time I learned that you could actually write music about anything. I went in the studio that day after this high school party I went to, and my co-writer Sebastian Kole asked me what I’d been doing the last couple days. And I was like, “Yesterday I went to this party that I did not enjoy at all.” He said, “Tell me more about that,” and then we talked about it. And he’s like, “That’s what we’re gonna write about today. Let’s just pull from that experience.” That was the first time that I realized you could actually make a song about anything, and people can resonate with it because you know, we’ve all been there. I think we’ve all been to a party like that, and we’ve been through that feeling of isolation and feeling on the outside of something.

DK: After “Here,” you had another big hit with “Scars to Your Beautiful,” which is such an honest, heartfelt song. What inspired you to write that song?

Cara: We made that on a day where honestly, we were all feeling a bit of writer’s block. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to say and talk about, and there was a show playing on the TV that was about plastic surgery. All the people on this show did not even look like people, for how plastic they looked, frankly. And I remember saying to Sebastian (Kole), “Why do people do this to themselves?” And I’d always wanted to make a song about being a woman in this modern world, and what that means and all the pressures of being a young woman.

I was at that age where there was so much stuff being thrown at me, about who I should be and what I should look like. And it was like the prime age for being molded, about 17 or 18. So I’d always wanted to make a song like that, and seeing that on TV inspired it. It was like, “That’s what we got to write about.” Just the pressures that we feel, that people feel so much that they change everything about who they are to feel good about themselves in the world. You know, it’s a very sad reality. So that’s what inspired it. And at the time, I had no idea that it would be what it has become, and it means so much to know that that song has transcended time and space. It’s gone so far out into the world, and I’ve received many beautiful stories from people from all over about what it means to them.

DK: After that, you had several more hits—”Stay” with Zedd, “1-800-273-8255 with Logic, and “How Far I’ll Go” for the Moana movie soundtrack. Then you won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist. So what was that period like for you?

Cara: It was very overwhelming, mostly in a good way. I think overall, you have these dreams your whole life, but you have no idea if you’ll ever get there. And to be honest, I never thought it would be something that would become my reality. Like I said, I’m from Brampton, Ontario, from a blue collar family. This was not something that was ever in our orbit, that we thought would happen to our lives. So when you have those things in front of you so quickly, it’s very hard to process. On one end, it’s “Wow, all my dreams are coming true. This is amazing,” Then on the other side, it’s like, “Is this real? And what happens now?” You know, there’s this sense of pressure to maintain that. So it’s challenging…there are a lot of feelings going on. But I think for the most part, I was just so excited and couldn’t believe that it was happening to me.

DK: After that, you released your album The Pains of Growing (in 2018), which won the Juno Award for Best Album, and then In The Meantime (in 2021). Can you talk about making those two albums and your artistic process?

Cara: I think with The Pains of Growing, I was coming off of this incredible two years, where all my dreams came true. Then there was this new sense of pressure to deliver something that was at the same level. So I think everybody that I was working with at the time had a little bit of fear. And because I’m super stubborn, what I decided to do is—I’m going to do nothing that people expect of me. I’m going to wear a giant ugly suit (for the album cover of The Pains of Growing) because people were always talking about what I wore. So I was like…I’m going to wear the ugliest thing possible. I’m going to write everything by myself. I’m going to do it how I want to do it. And yeah, I think I needed to make that album. I needed to prove to myself that I could do something like that. And I feel really proud. I feel proud that I didn’t succumb to any of the pressures that were being placed on me at the highest level.  So that was like my defiant album.

Then, In The Meantime was all about stepping into adulthood. It was during Covid, and I developed a lot of anxiety. There was a lot of heartbreak in that album. And I think that album was about becoming an adult, and really grappling with that.

Then now we have this new album Love & Hyperbole, which feels like that giant suit that I wore fits me a lot better. I feel like it’s a place of confidence and discovering new joys in life. And I feel a lot more well-rounded as a person and as a writer. I feel like I’ve found myself artistically, just as a person on this project. So definitely, each album reflects a different part of my journey.

DK: You collaborated on several songs with two great writer-producers, Mike Elizondo and Greg Kurstin. How did you connect with Mike and Greg and work with them on your album?

Cara: Both Mike Elizondo and Greg Kurstin are people I’ve always wanted to work with. With Greg, I worked with him remotely on my last album, In The Meantime. It was during Covid, so I didn’t actually get the chance to work with him in person. So I’m glad we had this opportunity to be in the same room together and exchange energy in that way. He’s such a great producer—he plays every instrument, and he’s very quick like me. I thought it’d be fun that we would meet and then talk, and then go into our own little corners and work. And then you come back and it’s a cool way of writing. I feel like we work very similarly, which was great.

Then on the flip side, Mike Elizondo was someone who I’d always wanted to work with. We tried to work together in the past, but things didn’t happen during Covid. But we finally got to work together. I went to his beautiful studio in Nashville and worked there for the first time, which was so fun. He works in a very different way to me, which was great, because he challenged me a lot. Mike was taking me out of my comfort zone and he helped push me a little bit. So I appreciate that, because it helped bring me to another level. Both Mike and Greg are extremely talented. Honestly, I was so grateful to work with everybody I worked with on this album, because they all taught me so much in different ways.

DK: I like your new song “Dead Man” which is very different, with a jazzy, big band sound. What inspired you to write this song, and was it fun recording it with such a big arrangement?

Cara: It was so much fun. We wrote that song at the tail end of this album process and it was with Mike Elizondo. He showed me this rough instrumental that he was working on. It had the drum pattern that you hear on the record, and a track with keys on top with some chords. And I instantly thought it was so cool; it was very reminiscent of a lot of jazz and soul music that I listened to. I don’t think it was territory that I had trekked before, and it was really intriguing to me. It felt like it was the sound that was missing from the record.

It was a song that came quickly, and we didn’t add that jazz break until the very end. Then we had a whole band come and play. We had a horn section, and we had many cool musicians come in. And being in the room with them was so fun…we were feeding off of each other’s energies. It was cool to work with such talented musicians who can do anything. You feel like the canvas is so much larger.

DK: I also like your song, “(Isn’t It) Obvious,” which has a nice guitar solo by John Mayer. Can you talk about writing this song and connecting with John Mayer?

Cara: Yeah that was wild. It was one of the coolest experiences of my life, working with him. I made that song with a producer called Yakob. He’s incredibly talented and it was another one of the songs that came fast for both of us. It felt very natural, and there was this little space in the bridge that I was debating either writing something for, or just leaving it. Then I thought…Oh man, John Mayer would be so good on this song, playing a solo.

I told Yakob, “Hey, I have this little dream of getting John Mayer.” So we drafted up a text and I asked him if he would do it. I fully expected rejection in a kind way, but I got the complete opposite. He was so gracious with his time and his talents, and we got into the studio a couple of days later and he played this incredible solo. It was the greatest gift I could have ever received for the song, for the album. John has been such an idol of mine musically as well. So to have his stamp of approval on this album was super meaningful to me.

DK: Two of my other favorite songs on your album are “Clearly,” which has a very positive theme, and “Fire,” which is romantic and sensual.  Can you talk about writing these two songs?

Cara: Yeah those are two of my favorites, too. Both of these songs felt very intuitive, and they happened quickly. I wrote both songs with (writer/producer) Jon Levine, with Jake Torrey co-writing “Fire” and Dan Farber co-writing “Clearly.”

With “Fire,” we put a mic in the middle of the room, and it was Jake Torrey on drums, Jon Levine on guitar and me on the mic. We just looped right over and over until the lyrics came and the melodies came. We essentially wrote the song in the room on a loop together which I’ve never done before. On the final recording, you hear the vocals that are the exact same demo vocals from our writing session.

On the flip side, I wrote “Clearly” in Toronto. I took this little demo instrumental home and I wrote it in bed. I was thinking a lot about my past—the past people in my life and myself, and wow, realizing how I used to have so much anger in me and so much pain. It’s so interesting how time is such a saving grace, and it can turn pain into understanding and forgiveness, and feel like a gift in a way. So I wrote that song and brought it back to Dan and Jon the next day, and thankfully they loved it. It felt like the perfect way to end this album…the feeling of forgiveness and looking back with a sense of understanding.

DK: I want to ask you about your new concert tour. I read that you’ll be playing shows in the U.S., Canada, Australia, Asia and Europe.

Cara: I’m so excited about the tour. I have not toured in about five years, so it’s been a long time. I’m excited for multiple reasons. First off, it’s been so long since I’ve been onstage and since I’ve heard people sing my music back to me. And on the other side of it, the new album was made predominantly live. It’s like 90% live instrumentation, so it’s meant to be played live. So I’m super-excited to get to translate these songs into a live setting.