Paloma Mami - Sueños de Dalí (2021) Hi-Res

Paloma Rocío Castillo Astorga was just 18 when she wrote her first song. She self-released it as a single — “Not Steady,” a gauzy, Spanglish R&B reproach to an overzealous suitor — with a music video that she filmed in the parking lot of her tía’s apartment complex. Within a few months, she became the first Chilean American artist to sign to Sony Music Latin. “Literally, ‘Not Steady’ was the first song I ever wrote, ever sang, ever recorded,” she says.

It’s a change of pace from how she spent much of 2020, quarantining in Puerto Rico as she recorded her debut album, Sueños de Dalí (due out March 19th). “Honestly, if it hadn’t been for making music, I don’t know what I would have been doing,” says the singer, 21, who records as Paloma Mami.