Hola, Paloma Mami: Get to know the rising star with a Drake-inspired stage name

USA Today

6 days ago

The Chilean American singer's sophomore effort, "Códigos de Muñeka," is a bold and playful follow-up to her acclaimed debut album "Sueños de Dalí."
Paloma Mami is getting all dolled up for her musical return, but not in the ways you might imagine.
The Chilean American songstress, born Paloma Castillo Astorga, first bewitched the Latin urban scene with her 2021 debut album "Sueños de Dalí," a haunting record that seamlessly blended R&B, reggaeton and trap influences with Paloma's combination of ethereal vocals and razor-sharp rapping.
The singer, the first artist of Chilean descent to sign with Sony Music Latin, made her mark by nabbing a pair of platinum singles and a Latin Grammy nomination for best new artist.
But instead of caving into self-imposed expectations of "what I want to have people hear from me," Paloma says she vowed to loosen up and take a "natural" approach for her much-anticipated follow-up.
"Every artist learns from creative processes and work experiences what not to do and what to do better next time," Paloma Mami, 25, tells USA TODAY. "With this album, I realized I was going to be a lot more free just to play around."
Playtime is up, and the result is Paloma's bold sophomore effort, "Códigos de Muñeka" ("Doll Codes", out now), a chameleonic album in which the singer-songwriter uses her ever-shifting identities, personified as "dolls," to get candid on the trials and tribulations of romance.
"During one day, I have a bunch of different personalities. I just change thoughts and like an hour later, I'm a whole other person," Paloma says. "I was very heavy on the thought of not overthinking the lyrics and not putting so much 'Oh, I have to represent for this type of people.' I was more just on what I feel and how I would want to hear something."
Here are five things to know about Paloma and her latest musical chapter.
Rap superstar Drake influenced Paloma Mami's stage name
Paloma Mami owes a piece of her artistic origin story to the Champagne Papi himself.
The singer's stage name was inspired, in part, by rap icon Drake and his Instagram username, @champagnepapi.
"I always loved the way he writes and his musical production in all his albums," Paloma says. "My favorite album of his is 'Views,' and I feel like when I was younger, that album definitely inspired me a lot to want to make music."
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The Canadian emcee's Grammy-nominated fourth album features the now-iconic R&B jam "Hotline Bling," as well as the dancehall-inflected "One Dance." While Drizzy has sonically evolved with his latest releases, the dance-influenced "Honestly, Nevermind" and the hip-hop heavy "For All the Dogs" Paloma doesn't rule out a musical link-up someday.
"Listen, if he brough back (the) 'Views' era, it would be a dream collaboration," Paloma says. "Now, he's older, he talks about different things. He sounds different, obviously, because you can't always sound the same."
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Why Paloma Mami's Rauw Alejandro collaboration 'La Freak' was written in the stars
Of all the collaborations on Paloma Mami's new album, one was truly the work of el universo.
The singer teamed up with fellow reggaeton star Rauw Alejandro on "La Freak," a steamy hook-up anthem that sees the pair trade raunchy flirtations with blush-worthy rizz. Paloma says she had the "intuition" that Alejandro, known for his Casanova persona and NSFW lyrics, would be the perfect collaborator, and a chance conversation proved her right.
"He had literally reached out to me and was just asking me about where I was and everything," Paloma reflects. "I was going to where he was, like, a week later. So, I was like, 'Oh my God, I was just thinking about you, and I have this song. I would love for you to be on it.'"
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Paloma's creative manifestation fully came to life when she and Alejandro met up in New York to work together in the studio.
"He was super quick," Paloma says. "He was really cool to watch create. I loved the process. I always love to see how artists make their music, and it was really dope."
Paloma Mami shares the inspiration behind emotional 'Astros' video
Paloma Mami's newest music video is a coming-of-age of sorts.
The visuals for "Astros," a bruising breakup track about an ill-fated love, see Paloma navigate an arctic environment — including getting trapped inside a block of ice — as she grieves the loneliness of her heartbreak.
The video is also peppered with references to her 2019 hit "Fingías," an Easter egg that Paloma says was meant to "pay homage to my younger self and close a cycle."
"In this environment that I'm in, I kind of froze myself because I was trying to get to somebody else," Paloma explains. "I basically was where I was because I was trying to reach somebody that wasn't reachable, things that happen when you put others before yourself."
Will Paloma Mami go on tour for 'Códigos de Muñeka'?
Paloma Mami may be coming to a city near you.
The singer, who treated fans to a headliner set at Coke Studio at L.A. LIVE on July 25, teases that a concert tour is likely to get on the books for 2026.
"I definitely want to be able to plan everything super well for this tour just because I have so much care for the aesthetic of the album," says Paloma, whose album campaign is coated in the classic doll color, pink and the hyper-femininity of magical girl anime.
"It's just so detailed, I feel like we have to come up with a really great visual aesthetic to it, so that everybody can kind of feel like they're immersed in the world," Paloma adds. "So, we're just going to work on how to do that for now."
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Paloma Mami looks back on Major Lazer hit 'QueLoQue'
Paloma Mami was courted by music royalty early on in her career, and the experience was "fire," she says.
2025 marks the five-year anniversary of Paloma's song "QueLoQue," a collaboration with EDM heavyweight Major Lazer that the singer landed before her debut album even dropped.
The mambo-infused, hip-hop banger earned the rising star a Top 20 hit on Billboard's Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart and helped her meet Major Lazer frontman and Grammy-winning producer Diplo.
"Major Lazer and Diplo had been reaching out to me when I first started everything, too, which was really cool that they were able to recognize sounds just for sounding good," Paloma says. "They're really dope in that area of finding artists who are underground … I really loved collaborating with them."