From Child Star to Pop It Girl, DANNA's Hot Next Chapter Begins

Refinery29

4 days ago

For years, DANNA has lived in the spotlight. As a child actor on beloved telenovelas and a star of Netflix's Élite, she was part of Latin pop culture long before she had the chance to define her own sound. But over time, and often behind the scenes, she was building a different kind of career — one rooted in music, creative control, and a clear desire for evolution.
'I'm in my just having fun era,' she tells Somos. 'I'm not taking shit too seriously. I'm just having fun with music, with life … and I'm loving it so much.'
That sense of release pulses through her latest single, 'Khe Calor' — a sweaty, bass-heavy track that seems to announce a new chapter. Built around a sample from Conchi Cortés's 'Yo Tengo Un Novio (Toma Que Toma),' it nods to early-2000s Latin party hits while layering in synths, hard percussion, and a looped chorus that feels more like a spell than a lyric. DANNA calls it both a mantra and a gift, and she debuted it live for the first time on Jimmy Kimmel Live! this July.
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"I'm in my just having fun era."
DANNA
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'I think I manifested that moment,' she says. 'I prepared everything — the team, the dancers, the sound. It felt like the right time. I took a shot of Don Julio before going on stage, and then it was just magical. I'm still processing it.'
The performance — her U.S. late-night debut — felt like a turning point. Dressed in a custom vaquera look by Mexican designers The Weird Market and surrounded by dancers in Y2K-ish fits, DANNA delivered a transition into that next phase. The track is flirty, confident, and steeped in movement. But underneath that heat is a kind of clarity: this is a reset.
The 'Khe Calor' music video casts DANNA in a role she's written for herself, leaning fully into melodrama and reinvention. It opens like a scene from Como Agua Para Chocolate: she's accused of causing a 777-day drought, and only her tears can bring the rain. What starts as high drama quickly unravels into a surreal, heat-soaked fantasy. Her emotions become a kind of power, literal magic, transporting her into a world of cactus fields, sensual choreography, and rotating novios played by familiar faces like Michel Duval and El Malilla. The aesthetic is part high fashion, part satire, part dream sequence. It's raunchy, glamorous, and deeply self-aware, a reflection of DANNA's willingness to turn vulnerability into spectacle on her own terms.
Though DANNA's catalog has long leaned pop, 'Khe Calor' shifts the focus from heartbreak to embodiment. The mood is looser. The lyrics, less filtered. She hints that more experimentation is on the way. 'I'm really into techno right now,' she says. 'For now, I'll just leave it at that.' She won't say what's coming next, only that it will sound different. And that's the point.
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"I care deeply about my work, but I'm learning to let go. To just put the music out, even if it's not perfect."
DANNA
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Her career has never followed a single lane. After breaking out in Latin America as a child star, she pivoted to music, releasing projects like Sie7e+ and K.O., both of which blended radio-friendly hooks with sonic risk. She didn't follow a typical path into music. After years in front of the camera, shifting into full-time artistry required a new kind of discipline. 'I'm such a perfectionist,' she says. 'I care deeply about my work, but I'm learning to let go. To just put the music out, even if it's not perfect. The best advice I can give any new artist is just put your music out there.'
That shift, from control to confidence, is what's fueling this latest chapter. Today, she's just as likely to talk about her creative direction as she is her spiritual routine. She travels with Palo Santo and quartz. She detoxes from her phone. She cries 'a lot' and laughs at how predictable that is: 'I'm a Cancer, of course.'
And while this personal evolution is clear, so is her cultural grounding. Born and raised in Mexico City, DANNA has made it a priority to amplify her roots through language, fashion, and collaboration. Whether performing in Spanish on mainstream U.S. stages or working with local artisans and designers, she's intentional about what and who she brings with her. 'Music is art. Tequila is art. They go hand in hand,' she says of her recent collaboration with Don Julio. 'So it's important to me, collaborating with a brand that aligns with my art, my music, my culture.'
Now 30, she doesn't claim to have it all figured out. But she does sound like someone who knows what she wants and doesn't need permission to get there. 'I feel so confident. … I feel like I'm in my best moment.'