There are droves of homemade, online cat videos that feature their peculiar antics and fawning owners. One of those recordings is 2017’s “Gati Lindo Precious,” the feline-doting song that jumpstarted singer/songwriter Isabella Lovestory’s career as a pop artist.
Since then, the Honduran, Montreal-based singer has released a steady stream of singles and two EPs that express her sundry fixations. Ringing in from a farm in upstate New York, Lovestory’s energetic observations of her current environment patterns the impassioned storytelling that inspires her moniker and music.
“There are horses and goats, it’s a huge property, it’s amazing!” Lovestory, born Isabella Rodriguez, exclaims.
While living in Honduras, Lovestory recalls finding inspiration in “the classics.” She rushed to write down lyrics from well-known reggaeton artists like Arcangel and Jowell y Randy and pop icons like Britney Spears and Gwen Stefani as a teen and attributes her artistry to the influences of the changing environments in her youth.
“Moving to Montreal was an eye-opener because it was a city and I had more independence. I kind of became more rebellious over there. I started to find what I wanted to do and got more into art.” Lovestory recounts.
Her early inspirations are effortlessly pitched in the music she makes. Her concepts are engineered with—as Lovestory describes—her “vampiric-major Scorpio” music producer, Chicken.
Their collaboration creates a sonic blend of experimental and “ultra-girly” pop mixed with the preserved sounds of old school reggaeton which the Sagittarius songstress says “isn’t overly processed or produced… It’s definitely reggaeton but I think it’s genre-defying,” she asserts. “I want to bring something new to the table, something that people can get inspired by so that they can also think of more authentic ways to express themselves.”
Her authenticity is growing an audience who gravitates toward the raw and unapologetic hedonism of Lovestory’s sound. Her most recent EP Mariposa is a compilation of erotic lyrics harmonized over experimental synth-pop & reggaeton beats best heard in her bilingual songs “Golosa” and “Whiskey and Coca Cola.”
“Carefree, sexy, rebellious, trouble-child is what I want to convey in my EP and what I was feeling at the time,” Lovestory tells Remezcla. “Each project changes, each project is going to be different, a different side of my persona.” That persona is best characterized as an exaggerated alter ego, channeling multiple artistic mediums to create a distinctive narrative.
“It helps me deal with and process life to make it easier to navigate this world. Even if it can be narcissistic, it’s like, ‘f*ck everything, f*ck the world I’m going to do whatever I want. I’m going to be the protagonist of this movie!” she declares.
The characters in Lovestory’s music reel are often rendered as a defamiliarized frenzie, complemented by extravagant early-2000s stylings. In the salacious “Kitten Heel,” which is a follow-up to her career-starting song, Lovestory celebrates her $12 thrifted Miu Mius.
“I just love how they’re so small and short but still so powerful because I feel like that describes me as well” the 26-year old teases. “A lot of things can be boring and muted, I want my looks to be eye-catching, like a beautiful candy wrapper.”
The sensational world that Lovestory is creating supplies a feeling of chaotic-good escapism that empowers confidence in owning one’s pleasures—guilt-free and with humor.
She further plots a vision for what she hopes to manifest in her artistic career saying “I just want to be the biggest superstar… I have a lot of different sounds that I want to experiment with to show that I’m multifaceted, I want to do it all. Also, It would be a dream to do a song with Britney Spears and Ñengo Flow—together!”
A tantalizing collaboration that warrants Lovestory as an artist to keep an eye on.
