“Mirror mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?” I inquire to the Zoom screen before my conversation with Isabella Lovestory. Is the camera capturing the blemish on my chin? The remnants of glitter in my eyes? In person, it creates a slight "glitter tear" look. The answer is no, but now I’m in the perfect mindset to discuss ‘Vanity’.
It feels fitting to chat with Isabella Lovestory on a hot summer day. It’s only when we connect on Zoom that we discover we’re both in Montreal; “We could have met for coffee!” she exclaims, despite the heat warning.
Montreal may be Canada's second-largest city, but it has a small-town feel. Known as a creative hub for a long time, there's only a short list of artists who have made names for themselves beyond our local scene.
“That’s how I found you,” I tell Lovestory, “I thought it was incredible to see a Montreal girl achieving international success and showcasing a different side of the culture.”
Lovestory’s story is already legendary. Born to a radio DJ and an architect who loved post-punk, alternative rock, new wave, and electro-pop, her family moved from Honduras to Virginia and eventually to Montreal, where she studied fine arts. It was during a multimedia course that Lovestory realized she could merge all her interests into a career as a popstar. Over time, she has crafted her path to stardom, taking on multiple roles as she wrote, produced, styled, edited, and directed, melding her diverse influences to create the quintessential popstar.
“What defines a good pop star is a curiosity and an eagerness to explore new things and new realms, along with a fascination for your own inner world and a whimsical outlook on life,” she suggests.
After releasing her debut album ‘Amor Hardcore’ in 2022, she’s worked with Mura Masa, Villano Antillano, Shygirl, Pinkpantheress, and Brooke Candy, opened for Pitbull, and toured worldwide. In May 2024, she released ‘Botoxxx’. Although the track didn’t make the album, it heralded a new era, as Lovestory poses on a medical table, surrounded by alluring yet sinister nurses, immersing herself in a pool of botox. The video concludes with a quote from Modernist poet Rainer Maria Rilke about the fear of beauty.
Emerging from the pool, Lovestory presents ‘Vanity’, her 13-track sophomore album centered on waning beauty, artificiality, and love. Collaborating with longtime producers Chicken and Kamixlo, Lovestory ventures into even more experimental territory—dreamy, electronic, pop, reggaeton. It’s a fresh direction for her, but a natural evolution. The contrasts of horror and fantasy, love and obsession, tragedy and comedy, trash and luxury imbue ‘Vanity’ with rich depth and delightful tension. Lyrically, ‘Vanity’ nods to cautionary tales of Hollywood as Lovestory embodies the innocent starlet, the tainted diva, the casting couch director, and the devil offering fame and everlasting youth.
Her reflections on perfection resonate deeply, especially coming from a self-proclaimed control-freak, “I’m really excited it’s finally being released. And it kind of signifies the start of like, breaking a dam or something that’s going to pour forth.”
“I tend to overthink and strive for perfection, so finishing this album required letting go of many production aspects. As my own creative director, I make all the decisions, and I’m learning I need to be quicker about it because you only have one life. After my first album, I felt a lot of pressure about what my next step would be. What would my sound evolve into? Letting go of perfection has been quite freeing.”
While Lovestory characterizes ‘Amor Hardcore’ as “the hot bitch,” ‘Vanity’ reflects a Cinderella or Ugly Duckling transformed into a gorgeous swan. The playful, hypersexual vibe of ‘Amor Hardcore’ continues in tracks like “Puchica” (slang for darn it), where Lovestory boasts about hitting the pussy lottery, the crunk-inspired earworm ‘VIP’ (Very Important Pussy), the enchanting self-love anthem ‘Gorgeous’, and ‘Bling’, which describes a couple’s first encounter in a Tokyo love hotel.
Of course, Lovestory is a maverick who resists being categorized or simplified. If she’s known for lighthearted, sexy tracks, she feels compelled to deliver tragic love.
‘Tu Te Vas’ shifts gears and finds Lovestory expressing longing, “it’s like a princess desiring her prince, trying to remember his voice from romantic films.”
Among all the love stories Lovestory sings about, her relationship with fashion has been unwavering,
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“Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?” I inquire of the Zoom window before my call with Isabella Lovestory. Is the camera capturing the