Former Fifth Harmony member Camila Cabello’s solo debut album Camila arrived on Friday. It celebrates the Cuban-Mexican pop singer’s heritage and addresses the ups and downs of relationships, but one of the most prevalent themes is the concept of maintaining or fighting for control.
On the opening track “Never Be the Same Again,” Camila sings about falling helplessly in love and compares the feeling to being on drugs. As someone who likes to maintain control, she struggles to deal with the effects.
She recalls how she had to be talked into letting go:
Sneaking in L.A. when the lights are low
Off of one touch, I could overdose
You said, “Stop playing it safe, girl, I wanna see you lose control”
“Something’s Gotta Give” also centers around the topic of control within a relationship. In it, Camila leaves her ex-lover after realizing it’s a toxic situation.
On the chorus, Camila tells him why she has to go:
Something’s gotta give, something’s gotta break
But all I do is give, and all you do is take
Something’s gotta change, but I know that it won’t
No reason to stay is a good reason to go
The album contains a song entirely based on the concept of control entitled “She Wants Control.” It’s about not looking back on the past and taking agency of her career and within relationships.
Camila sings about getting what she wants:
She loves control, she wants it her way
And there’s no way she’ll ever stay unless you give it up (give it up)
She loves control, she wants it her way
And all it takes is just one taste, you wanna give it up (give it up)
In a YouTube Live interview with Genius' own Rob Markman, Camila explained the inspiration behind the song:
For me, it was about creative control and just having control over my life. I definitely do love control over the decisions in my career and creative control. Also just feeling good about deciding what you want and getting what you want. I just loved the idea of girls singing a lyric like that… it’s a bold statement to make. I feel like it’s a good way to want to life your life, is to have control of how you do it, how you live it.
The theme of control goes back to the album’s title. As Camila explained in an episode of Genius' IRL series, she changed it from the original name The Hurting, The Healing, The Loving because it gave another person too much power:
I just needed to let that situation go. I was just kind of like, ‘I’m over talking about this. I’m over having this album that is me, just like be credited to this person.’ I can’t talk about that anymore because I need to just move on from this. I need to forgive that situation, it’s not about you anymore. It’s about me.
Camila currently sits at No. 1 on Genius' Top Albums chart, while more than half of the LP’s tracks are in the Top 20 of the Top Songs chart.
Read all the lyrics from Camila Cabello’s album Camila on Genius now.
