Just ahead of Billboard Latin Women in Music 2024 — where Kany García will be honored with the Spirit of Change Award on Sunday (June 9) — the Puerto Rican star sat down with Billboard to talk about her new album, García, her friendship with Young Miko and what it means to receive this special honor for her activism.
Her new album, released May 2, includes collabs with Edén Muñoz, Christian Nodal, Carla Morrison and Young Miko, someone who she says is “on an incredible path.” Says Garcia: “I feel it is important in the albums to make room for the new generations who are doing important things like her.”
The two artists met last year at Billboard Latin Music Week, where Young Miko expressed admiration for García. “When we met, it was beautiful,” García adds.
Throughout her career, García has placed 30 songs on Billboard‘s Latin Pop Airplay chart and eight albums — including five in the top 10 and one No. 1, 2019’s Limonada — on Top Latin Albums. Her latest, García, follows her 2022 El Amor Que Merecemos.
“There are two or three key people in my life who have been like anchors and people whose opinions have been important to me who don’t call me Kany and [instead] call me García,” the singer-songwriter says, explaining the meaning behind the album’s name. “These are people who care for me. In the song ‘García,’ I speak to myself and I want to give importance to what I am saying to myself, so I named it that. I love it because it was a way of giving it a certain place to the people who care about me and call me that.”
On receiving the Spirit of Change Award, García says, “On the one hand, it’s like a hug within the effort and the struggle. It’s an opportunity I have to continue inspiring new women who are coming up, and with women who are speaking up.”
Watch Kany García’s interview above.
Billboard’s 2024 Latin Women In Music airs Sunday, June 9, on the Telemundo network (9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. Central), and will stream live on the Telemundo app and on Peacock.
