“I cried when I saw my statue of favorite Christ, and I cried when I saw my favorite singer on television,” explains the singer of Spanish origin before her first American tour.
Inside her apartment in Madrid, the 22-year-old singer-songwriter Lara Fernández Castrelo, better known as Judline, searches in her closet, bringing together friendly looks before skipping a plane for Los Angeles. On Saturday afternoon, she will make her debut in Coachella on the Sonora stage.
It will also be an inaugural stop of its very first American tour, which includes a date of April 17 at Roxy in West Hollywood. During a video call, I see her standing in front of her closet, visibly overwhelmed by the options. “My house is in disorder right now – I don't even know (how much) I'm going to be in the United States – then later Mexico and Bogotá,” said Judline. “It's going to be a crazy trip!”
Released in 2024 via Interscope, her first feature film “Bodhiria” came to her as a spiritual revelation. The title is derived from the “bodhi” Buddhist term or a state of illumination; For Judline, “Bodhiria” is the limited space that her alter ego, “Angela”, occupies between God and her lover. “In the album, I imagine myself as a high thing,” she says. “I love it when you meet someone and become so obsessed, it's almost a divine thing. I love it when the boys are very obsessed with me. I love feeling romanticized. “
“Bodhiria” is sound on the external signs of pop, electronica, flamenco and other folk sounds with which it was raised. Born in the city of Andalusia of Jerez de la Frontera, and grew up in the seaside town of Caños de Meca, Judline incorporated Arab lyrics and rhythms of Maghreb corrugated in her single “INRI”, to honor the proximity of the city with North Africa. “My hometown is so close to Morocco that (we) grew up hearing their channels on the car radio,” she says.
And with the floating scratches of a Vennezolano cuatro in “Joropo”, she drew attention to the South American folk genre of the same name. She learned to play her father's cuatro, whose family took refuge in Venezuela during the Spanish civil war. They recorded “Joropo” together in a studio in Madrid, with the help of his duo of trusted, Tuist and Mayo producer duo.
“I called him and said,” Papá, I want to do a joropo. Come to the studio and try it, ”she recalls. “It was very, very cute. My father never had the chance to enter (a) studio. He was so happy to share this (sound) with young people. He would play a lot of Venezuelan music, Brazilian Bossa Nova, but also a lot of rock and Beatles. ” (Funny fact: his stage name is a play on the song of his father's favorite Beatles, “Hey Jude”.)
As she started writing “Bodhiria”, Judline had already won the favor of massive males like Rosalía and Bad Bunny; They all went to social networks to share songs from her EP “de la Luz”, which she published independently in 2022. The following year, she signed for Interscope and honored the reggaeton piece “Si Preguna Por Mi” with the star of Porto Rican Kris Floyd and the artist-producer Tainy. In the spring of 2024, she opened J Balvin on the European leg of her tour “that Bueno Volver has a green”. “Bodhiria” was produced by Diva Whisperer, winner of a Grammy, Rob Bisel, who directed production on the Sza, Doja Cat and Tate McRae files.
With an abundance of powerful co-signs, Judline joined the rising tide of Spanish-speaking artists fill the gap between regional sounds and the dominant world current. However, it was American pop music, she says, inspired her to express himself more daring.
“I was born in 2003,” she said. “Like all the other children, I was a fan of Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Selena Gomez. I wanted to become a singer because of Hannah Montana. When Miley Cyrus changed for his “ detraction ball '' … and all these singers experimented with their sexuality … I was obsessed! This strong expression of sexuality, I loved it. ”
Judline's songs are impregnated with a bewitching sensuality and romanticism that check religious devotion. In her guitar ballad tinged with Psychedelia, “Zarcillos de Plata”, she wink at her weakness for gangsters and bad boys, in whom she seeks something deeper below the surface. “And if they should separate us again / I will bless you from the sky,” she sings in Spanish.
Although she practices spirituality in a more personal way than can be described by a single religion – “When I am stressed, I pray to El Padre Nuestro, but I also believe in the law of attraction”, she says – the cultural domination of Catholicism in her community has inevitably colored her work as an artist. Having such a foundation of faith, she says, is what prompted her to move to Madrid and pursue a career in pop music at 16; This is also what also motivates pop fandoms. “Any religion is to be fanatic with something,” she says.
“From where I come from, people go crazy for all saints and virgins,” she adds. “They cry, they cry. It's similar to what we also feel for pop stars. I cried when I saw my favorite Christ statue, and I cried when I saw my favorite singer on television.”
Judline will undoubtedly cause cries of adulation and ecstasy in the crowd of Coachella – and finally, in the cities of the Western hemisphere. Catch it on the Sonora stage on Saturday April 12 and 19 from 3:50 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
