Meet LA GURU, the Pereira Artist Behind Karol G, Anitta and Shakira’s Orbit

Two years after Karol G latched onto her song “Perra Melancólica,” La Guru is on the verge of a bigger move of her own: the Pereira-born artist will release Agítese Antes de Usar at the end of May.

The moment that put her on more people’s radar began with that early track and a viral Juanpis González interview, but the story never really stayed there. Karol G didn’t just amplify one song. She brought La Guru into her circle, invited her into writing sessions and eventually pulled her into the creative process for Tropicoqueta. In Los Angeles, during a songwriting camp, Karol suggested they work one-on-one in the studio, and that session produced “LATINA FOREVER,” the album’s lead single.

“Our relationship has been very beautiful, not like we’re best friends who are always together, but very professional,” La Guru told Billboard Colombia. “She respects my journey a lot and hasn’t wanted to interfere, and she’s told me that many times.” It’s the kind of exchange that makes sense for an artist who has spent about 15 years in the business writing, singing, recording and pushing through doors others didn’t seem eager to open.

In that studio, she says, the work started less with hard strategy than with chemistry. “The first thing we did was set the vibe, connect, talk, have a few cocktails and laugh,” La Guru said. “We shared some really intimate things. Then, we realized that the Latin community was missing unity, especially among women, and that now everyone wants to be Latino — everyone wants to marry a Colombian and come here.”

She says she and Karol have written many songs together, though “LATINA FOREVER” is the only one released so far. After that, La Guru’s profile widened again through “Choka Choka,” the new single by Anitta and Shakira, a collaboration that placed her in yet another high-wattage orbit. She’ll also appear on “No Era Mío,” a track from Greeicy’s new album due at the end of May, this time not just as a songwriter but as a featured artist.

Her path to Anitta came through producer friend Daramola, who has worked with Boza, Beéle and Farruko and connected her to the song “Choka Choka.” La Guru says she worked closely with Anitta, who loved the song without knowing another star would eventually join it. Only days before the release did she learn the guest was Shakira. “It wasn’t part of my plans, and it was even more gratifying when I heard the final master of what was going to be released,” she said.

Now she’s preparing to issue Agítese Antes de Usar after Gurundanga in 2022, the album that included the song that first caught Karol G’s attention. The new record arrives only months after NUMEN, her 2023 EP with The Rudeboyz, the Colombian production duo whose credits include Maluma, Prince Royce and Shakira.

So far, she has released one single from the album: “Pereke,” a trap track with Latin percussion that she made last year during a trip to Europe, while recording with “a bunch of people who had nothing to do with Latin music.”

The clearest change between her last album and this one is thematic. Where Gurundanga was centered on heartbreak, Agítese Antes de Usar looks outward and forward, even if it still comes from a bruised place.

“It’s loaded with a different kind of emotion, no longer about ‘my heart was broken in a relationship,’ but rather, ‘my heart was broken by the people around me.’ The industry, close friends, work colleagues,” she admitted.

That framing gives the album the feel of a reckoning more than a comeback. La Guru sounds like someone taking stock of a long career in motion, turning frustration, distance and hard-won perspective into new material. It’s a familiar survival tactic in music, but one she seems to know well.

This interview was originally published by Billboard Colombia.