Even Disney could not resist the “Encanto” of Carolina Gaitán, Colombian to the core but a citizen of the world. This integral artist, in every sense of the word, opens her heart to Rolling Stone Korea and shares with us drops of her wisdom to achieve the success of your dreams and rise even higher.

At the same time she parked his car in Miami, she greeted the Asian audience with a warmth as natural as it was exciting.

May be that we are just getting to know “La Gaita” as she is named in her role as a singer, but surely the world already knows her as “Aunt Pepa”, a beautiful character from the Disney movie “Encanto” who also performs the song above the movie “We don't talk about bruno”. She is Aunt Pepa, the one who controls the weather. It should be noted that this film is based on magical realism, a Colombian literary genre inspired and created by our Colombian Nobel Prize winner in literature (1982) Gabriel García Márquez, recognized worldwide for his masterpiece “One Hundred Years of Solitude.”

“La Gaita” tells us, in short, it has been two decades of working hard to see, from the current summit, his career flourish.

1. [RSK] Carolina, has been around 20 years shining in every artistic aspect: actress on television, film, theater, singer, composer since her beginnings with a talent as versatile as it is inspiring. What's next for you in these directions?

As for music, I am presenting “Flaco”, the music video directed by Samir Helo. This song deeply excites me because it means opening a new path in a genre that I had somewhat forgotten. Today I took it back and included electronic sounds. My musical career has been extensive. Throughout these almost twenty years I have had the opportunity to be inspired by different rhythms. With electronic sounds, brought to my experience through a character from a series inspired by Cuban singers, mainly Celia Cruz, I played “La Lupe” and I fell in love with bolero, Cuban son and salsa. From that moment on I began to compose with a producer, exploring these genres 100%. Later, I started working with a label called Mun Entertainment, and we began to look for ways to interpret Latin genres and thus open the possibility of a slightly more commercial range. This is how in this journey of the Latin I realize that I need to return to my previous search: the electronic.

“FLACO MV”

Carolina Gaitán (La Gaita) - Flaco (Video Oficial)

“Flaco” has this latin mix , because it has a very bolero feel, but some electronic sounds come in, which is the vibe through which at this moment I want to return and feel close again. “This is the opening to that sound and I'm very excited about that song.”

The video is absolutely conceptual. It inspires me to re-explore everything related to the audiovisual field. More than the result of reaching a certain number of people, I am interested in expressing what I want to tell and how I want to tell it:

"I want to be able to talk more about my way of seeing and perceiving the world through letters and forms, not seeking to please but to communicate a little of what I am and how I want to express myself with respect to music..."

About the audiovisual field , theater, cinema and television series, this year there is the release of a film, which we shot for Netflix, “Juanpis Presidente”. I play a character of a very intelligent, sagacious woman, a woman who has developed since the “Juanpis” series that is already on Netflix. Now comes the movie where we are going to see an evolution of my character. Her name is Camila.

 This year I am also working on a series called “Rojo Carmesi” produced by RCN for Netflix. She is a very passionate character, complex to interpret, because she has many nuances and layers. She is a villain, a new character that I had never played and that is why she challenges my histrionic capacity by taking me through the intricacies of the human condition. It refers to the area of ​​the cosmetics industry, which is what constitutes a bit of the “Rojo Carmesi” universe.

 On the other hand, this year my play, which is a musical monologue, will probably become a series or movie,

“My training is theater and for me it brings together the depths of acting. For me, leaving the theater is an impossible thing. This composes me, composes what I do and gives meaning to my job”

I have been writing my musical monologue for about 4 years, which talks about truths and lies in the entertainment universe. It expresses the depth of the lives of the great divas of music. She is inspired by singers like “La lupe”, Janis Joplin, Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone, those stormy lives, those voices that are so deep, beautiful, sublime and powerful. These women are my inspiration because they take up the commonplaces of being a woman in the entertainment universe, an industry that can be as voracious as it is surprising for those who dare to enter it.

My musical monologue addresses that topic and I have been working on it for 4 years now in theaters both in Colombia and internationally. I represent a Cuban woman. This musical monologue has been presented at the Teatro Colón, the most important in Colombia, and also in Florida at the Flamingo. The goal is to also take it to New York and turn it into an audiovisual piece as well. We are in this whole process. I am interested in power, through 360 interpretation. Dramatic art in general is my fascination because it allows me to communicate my way of seeing the world.

2. [RSK] Carolina, “la Gaita,” which is your stage name, takes on not only meaning for your work but also carries a deeper meaning for Latin American culture, especially Colombian folklore. Now, for our South Korean audience, could you make us understand the deep meaning of this stage name?

"Las Gaitas" The bagpipes are a fundamental part of the history of our music, of our cumbia originating from Colombia. The sound of the Bagpipes is as close as my last name because they resonate within me. Since I was a child, at school, they called me “Gaita, Gaita, Gaita”. When it came time to make music I felt it was absolutely coherent. I thought I was going to tell the country about myself, but life has been very beautiful. When I went to live in Los Angeles, I decided to take a leap and open markets and, at that time, although:

“Everything seemed difficult: getting agents, managers, PR, penetrating that universe so explored by so many but achieved by so few, it was a very high and great ambition but I told myself: you have to experience it, the worst that can happen is that I would return with a suitcase. And the path turned out to be very beautiful. It turned out that I began to walk towards the biggest dream of my life, which was to do a voice for Disney…”

Since I was little, it really was my dream, I sang all the songs from all the movies, I knew by heart all the texts from all the movies, I performed all the voices, and suddenly without saying it, outloud was constantly my dream and it happened in a very magical way. and natural.

3. [RSK] Carolina! I am fascinated to know what that story was like for Getting to “Encanto”, a film that has become a worldwide boom. When you ask in Korea, on the street, about a Latin artist, no one can identify, but if you ask if they saw the Disney movie “Encanto”, the majority recognize it and even saw it…. Please share with us a little of that magic.

I'm going to make a long story short, look, the magic started when I already had a manager, but I didn't have people and I didn't have PR either. They sent me a casting call, although I only had a manager. For me, I dedicated myself to attending classes: dance, Meisner Technique, since I had already studied at Lee Strasberg. I continued training non-stop. Uncertainty assailed me and also the hope that something would happen in that big, difficult, lonely, cold and hard city.

One day, a friend of mine who was part of the “Terminator Movie”  went out to throw a banana peel into the street because the trash can in the theater where I was in class was very full. Suddenly they yelled at me and I thought: it can't be, on the street in Los Angeles. They speak to me in Spanish: What are you doing here in this bin? And in what I could call a sure chance, I meet Naty and she tells me: What are you doing in this bin? And before answering, he tells me that she is coming to promote Terminator and that she was walking a little. I told her that I was about to do my scene in a class. And she says, now, can I come in with you? And I, of course, was super nervous and thought: now my friend is going to see me perform in English. She came in, we left the class and he told me, where are you going now? And me, no, now I have dance class. So, I say, do you want to come with me? We went together and told each other about our daily struggles. When she came down she said to me: Caro, do you know about the Disney casting? And I do not. You should go to that one

casting. I had never done a casting, but she sent me all the information, lovingly clarifying that friends and actresses help each other, they don't take away each other's work. He sends me the name of the person doing the casting and tells me with affection that whoever wins should win it.

“Terminator with colombian actress”

TERMINATOR 6 DESTINO OSCURO, TRÁILER OFICIAL CON NATALIA REYES

And, yes, that banana peel got me to the casting. God is perfect. I arrived at the casting place, it was full of beautiful applicants, with incredible talents, very tall, blue eyes, curly hair and I was a brunette among them all. We enter the studios and I am greeted by the posters of the films that I knew from beginning to end and that I rehearsed with my brother whose memory brings me to tears, because he died at the age of 22. I know I'm in Los Angeles now casting for Disney. In other words, Mancho, as I used  told my little brother, today we are here, together. Casting made me feel fulfilled. Far from thinking that I was going to be the one who was going to win it. And far from thinking that the most successful song in history would be mine.

4. [RSK] About "Encanto", we highlight that Tia Pepa is a beautiful and sensitive character. From a personal perspective, the character is a representation of the greatness of the feminine and, at the same time, the climatic richness of Colombia. Carolina: How much of Pepa is there in you and how much of Carolina:"La Gaita" , did you bring to Pepa?

It is spectacular because, literally, what Pepa represents is precisely our constant changes, both hormonal and those that we conquer or that conquer us throughout our lives: our daily lives, vulnerability and the possibility of allowing ourselves to feel. I think Pepa is that, she is the representation of allowing yourself to feel. Let the body feel what it has to feel when inhabiting this world. So, if you are sad, you can express your sadness, if you are happy, you can shine like the sun, right? So, she is a very, very human, beautiful and feminine woman. In the same way, she is authentic, fun, she expresses herself as she feels, she has no mental or social filters that imprison her. It's how I am. I am characterized by being an actress in front of the camera, in front of the microphone, on stage. In my personal life I am like Pepa, supremely transparent with what I feel and what I am feeling, so I think yes, we are very connected

5. [RSK] Let's talk about that magic of Carolina which contributed to you getting the role.

Oh, that's a great question, Cami. The truth is, I don't know,

“I believe and I want to think that Colombianness is really a flower of skin. “It was exactly what they were looking for in terms of emotionality, effusiveness and a little bit of madness.”

QUE NO SE DICE DE MI “LA GAITA” MV

Carolina Gaitán (La Gaita) - Qué No Se Dice De Mí (Video Oficial)

That exacerbated nervousness accompanied me at the audition, the running emotions made me sing super loud, and, furthermore, I danced to the song, you know? I think it was a bit like that euphoria that they needed the character to have. I got into the role and did it with authenticity and a lot of strength, that strength that comes from within. Also, the setting was favorable, I was casting for Disney, I couldn't believe it. It was an accumulation of favorable circumstances and I must admit that it also had to be related to the journey of 20 uninterrupted years of career. Always firm, always insisting, without losing focus.

6. [RSK] Caro, Let's invite the readers of Rolling Stone Korea, which has a high reach throughout Asia, 

“I believe there is nothing more beautiful than being able to let yourself be permeated by new cultures. There is nothing more beautiful than being able, in fact, to feel  there is a way of expression different from ours, and this can also generate in us a different way of feeling. I would love for you to be able to listen to my music, see our stories. Thank you for enjoying the movie “Encanto” because it speaks of what really makes us as Colombians. It is our music, it is our sounds, it is our gastronomy, our aesthetics, a way of vibrating, our sense of family, far from stereotypes that, in some way, believe they describe us, right?”

I tell them I'm dying to be there and give ourselves the opportunity to get closer and closer through what we can do together with the language that unites us: the dramatic arts. I love it, I love it.

Photographs by Andrés Oyuela, Daniel Castañeda