Colombian singer-songwriter Elsa y Elmar, the stage name of Elsa Margarita Carvajal, opens up about burnout, self-care, and the creative pressures that shaped her latest album, “PALACIO.” In a Q&A for the Tell Me Más feature series, the Latin Grammy-nominated artist reflects on the demands of building a career in music, the decision to step back after her previous album “Ya No Somos Los Mismos,” and the lessons she learned during a two-year break from labels, A&Rs, and constant expectations.
Carvajal says the pressure to keep creating can be both motivating and harmful. While it can push artists toward bigger goals, she notes that it can also become mentally draining when it turns into nonstop comparison and a feeling that one must always be working. After years of performing independently and trying to define a sound that did not fit neatly into genre categories, she reached a point where she needed to stop, reset, and protect her mental health. During her hiatus, she learned to recognize when to be fully present for work and when to step back without guilt.
“PALACIO,” the first album released under her new label, Elmar Presenta, reflects that period of healing and growth. The project tackles everyday emotional and social struggles, including burnout, vulnerability, communication, and taboos often left unaddressed in mainstream music. One of the album’s most talked-about songs, “Entre Las Piernas,” centers menstruation, a subject Carvajal says is still treated as uncomfortable or off-limits despite being a shared experience for half the world’s population. She says the inspiration came from realizing how rarely women’s bodies and experiences are discussed openly in song.
Another standout track, “Visto,” transforms the experience of being left on read into a deeply personal and relatable emotional moment. Carvajal explains that the pain comes not from a delayed response itself, but from the silence and uncertainty that follow when someone avoids honest communication. That lack of clarity, she says, can trigger self-doubt and make a small digital interaction feel like a larger rejection.
As she prepares for her biggest venue yet and the release of “PALACIO” on August 30, Carvajal describes this moment in her career as both rewarding and hard-won. She says her path has not followed the expected route for a pop star or urbano artist, and for much of her career she struggled with being told her sound was difficult to categorize. Still, she has continued forward on her own terms, prioritizing authenticity over external approval.
Her advice for anyone facing heartbreak, creative pressure, or emotional overwhelm is rooted in perspective: if a problem has a solution, then it can be addressed; if it has no solution, it should not consume one’s peace. For Carvajal, the central lesson of the past two years has been the importance of making space for oneself first. Only by doing that, she suggests, can there be room for love, work, and the rest of life.
