Music

After winning the Latin Grammy for best new artist in 2024, Colombian singer-songwriter Ela Taubert finally released Preguntas a las 11:11, her debut album, on Friday (May 9). The 16-track set, which took two years to bring to life, is a reflection of her deepest thoughts and her tendency to overthink.
All the song titles are framed as questions except for one, which is simply titled “Pregunta” (Question) and is the 11th track on the album.

“I’ve always overthought things since I was little, and that hasn’t changed now that I’m an adult,” explains the 24-year-old artist to Billboard Español. “When I started writing [these songs,] I realized all that came out were questions, which I think reflect my tendency to question everything. Obviously, when all the songs started to have this kind of title, we said, ‘Well, it’s going to be Preguntas, and a las 11:11 (at 11:11) because at home we always make a sacred wish at 11:11. So we unified these two universes.”

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Sonically, Taubert says that for this album — released under Universal Music Latina and featuring the singles “¿Cómo Pasó” (with and without Joe Jonas, and in a third live version with Morat), “¿Quién Diría?” and “¿Cómo Haces?”, among others — she drew inspiration from the pop superstars she grew up listening to.

“I used to watch the Hannah Montana movies. I literally wanted to be like that, a pop star. I’d wear sparkly gloves and everything,” she says enthusiastically. “Maybe I’m still holding on to that childhood dream of bringing the sound of the artists I listened to as a kid, like Miley [Cyrus], Taylor Swift, and Adele, to our language, Spanish — obviously while keeping my Latin roots super present, because I also grew up listening to Reik and Jesse & Joy. So I’d say it’s like a fusion.”

Designed to be listened to from start to finish, the LP weaves a narrative that feels both intimate and universal, addressing themes like love, heartbreak, and the complexities of human connection in songs like the focus tack “¿Trato Hecho?” as well as “¿Es En Serio?”, “¿Te Imaginas?”, “¿Qué Más Quieres?”, “¿Si Eras Tú?”, and more.

“This album is like a midnight diary for me. It’s about those moments when there’s no TV, no phone, nothing, and you can’t sleep, so you start thinking about 45,000 things at once,” Taubert summarizes. “I hope that the people who listen to me, who support me, find refuge in each of these songs and see themselves reflected in them. That’s been one of the most beautiful things about these last two years — growing the family, realizing I’m not the only one who feels the way I feel, and learning to grow together through this whole process.”

Below, Ela Taubert breaks down five essential tracks from Preguntas a las 11:11. Listen to the full album here.

“¿Quién Diría?”

Contextually, the album as a whole is a love story with all its ups and downs and emotions. But “¿Quién Diría?” (Who Would Say?) is precisely the track that starts it all. It’s the only love song on the album, so it opens up this universe and speaks about the first time I truly felt I was in love. I was always very rebellious about that kind of thing on a personal level — like, “I’m not going to fall in love, I’m not in love, I don’t like anything romantic.” And in the end, I fell in love, and that’s how the story begins. That’s why it’s so special, because it opens up this world. And also because fans were always asking me, “When are you going to release a love song?” So it’s like giving them a little taste of the fact that love has existed in my life — and it still does.

“¿Cómo Pasó?”

I think this was one of the most fun songs to make and also one of the quickest. It’s about my first heartbreak as a teenager, the first time I felt like my heart was broken. But it’s very beautiful, because when we started writing it — obviously I’m in a different place now. The idea behind this song was that I wanted people to feel exactly what I felt during that strong heartbreak. I wanted to share how I truly felt. That’s why at first it gives you the sense that it’s a love song — just like how I felt when I got my hopes up — and then suddenly, your world falls apart and you think, “Wow, this is a heartbreak song.” I wanted to allow people to navigate that emotion with me, the way I felt that intense disappointment.

And the twist with Joe Jonas — well, that was a dream come true for me. Joe was one of my childhood idols. I think he was for everyone, honestly, for people who watched Camp Rock and all those kinds of childhood series. It was a blessing, and I’m proof that dreams really do come true. Right when I got nominated for the Latin Grammy, I decided to look for a video of myself as a little girl singing, and I found one of me singing “This Is Me” from Camp Rock. So I wrote him thanking him for inspiring me, and then it was crazy, because a few days later, he replied — which blew my mind, because I never thought he’d reply. And the rest is history. This version is something I’ll carry in my heart forever, thinking about how it fulfilled my inner child’s dream.

“¿Cómo Haces?”

This is a very special song for me. It’s track No. 7 on the album because, for me, 7 is the number of my family. Everything has its reason. I wrote it for my mom, because my mom has been my anchor and my grounding force — she’s always there. It’s a very beautiful song, and I also realized it’s a song for all the people who’ve been there for me — the fans, everyone. So when we announced the album, the most beautiful way to do it was paying homage to her, to my whole family, my friends, and everyone who’s been there. That’s why, at the end of the song, during last year’s tour, after 40 attempts during the show in Bogotá where my mom was, where the fans were, everyone learned the song and we were able to record them and include them in the song [with a live snippet at the end].

“Preguntas”

Well, “Preguntas” (Questions) is the epicenter of the album. “Preguntas” represents where I’m at in my life right now on a very personal and emotional level. It’s the 2.0 version of a song I wrote for my first EP called “Crecer”. It talks about that difficult moment I experienced back then, about how hard I found it to grow up. I left my country alone at 18 or 19. It was really hard for me as an only child. So this song is very special to me, and honestly, “Preguntas” feels like the answer, almost three years later, to what I’m living now and how I see growth now. The fans will understand it deeply because they know what this symbolizes for me. That’s why it’s the 11th track, because it’s the most vulnerable part of me, and it’s the epicenter where questions are born.

“¿Trato Hecho?”

This is one of my favorites. To me, writing music is immortalizing memories, but this song specifically — the lyrics teleport me over and over again to that same place and bring me so much peace, for some reason, [even though] is a super sad song. Sonically, it’s one of the ones I feel most proud of as well, in the sense that I was able to pour all the emotions I felt in that moment into the song. That’s why it’s the focus track and why it’s the third track — it connects the whole story of the album very well. It’s been one of those promises, so to speak, that I’ve broken. It’s like a trato hecho (done deal) that we wouldn’t see each other again, but we saw each other again and tried again.