Toronto’s Multilingual Songstress Flavia Abadía Transcends Boundaries with Fusion of English, French, and Spanish In “MALA”
Flavia Abadía, the singer and songwriter based in Toronto, Canada, seamlessly incorporates English, French, and Spanish into her evolving music. Born in France to Colombian and French-Canadian heritage, Flavia effortlessly blends an array of musical genres, including Latin, Moombahton, Hip Hop, House, Vogue, and other global elements.
Flavia Abadía’s debut album, Crossover, hit the right notes in 2021, delighting fans with its success. The music warmly welcomes listeners into a world where diversity takes center stage, solidifying her reputation as an artist who effortlessly breaks boundaries.
With an impressive track record, Flavia’s original music has garnered over 2 million cumulative streams, attesting to her widespread appeal and creative prowess.
This is simply another fantastic milestone. As the first and only woman to DJ a Toronto Raptors Game, Flavia Abadía left an indelible mark, delivering a memorable performance of her single “Trumpets (Remix)” during the 2019 Championship Season.
In 2020, she shared the stage with Latin Grammy-Award Winner iLe, and since then, she has continued to delight fans with multiple single releases. Building on this success, she unveiled her first all-Spanish album, Hacia La Luz, in 2023, accompanied by additional singles.
She keeps the good vibes flowing with a lineup of hits that earned the love and found their place on key Spotify playlists like New Music Friday Canada, Fresh Finds Canada, New Music Friday Latin, Mood Ring, Tropical Rising, Fresh Finds Latin, and Novedades Dembow.
One of these greatest hits is definitely “MALA“, a track where Flavia Teaming up with Platinum producer Medylandia, highlighting the creative synergy between these two musical talents. This reggaeton fusion, blending R&B, Arab, and brass elements, invites listeners to a captivating world where diverse cultures come together.
Both Flavia and Medylandia share a unique background–being half French-Canadian with diverse French/Arab influences from their upbringing and half Latino: Flavia hails from Colombia, and Medy from the Dominican Republic. Collaborating since 2018, “MALA” is one of their latest singles.
The song’s lyrics weave a mysterious tale, akin to a cat-and-mouse game or the narrative of two spies attempting to decipher each other’s secrets.
‘Yo se que tu no sabes que yo see
Que tu eres un bandolero
Soy buena pero aveces tambien
Soy mala cuando yo quiero’
(‘I know that you don’t know that I know
That you are a bandit
I am good, but sometimes too
I am bad when I want to’)
As the story unfolds, both characters discover that things aren’t always what they seem. A quiet and unspoken attraction emerges, adding a layer of tension. The narrative suggests that a change is on the horizon. The woman shows a rebellious side, while the man carefully maneuvers the situation, finding himself unexpectedly victorious in the end.
As we ease into 2024, Flavia is about to drop something special: her much-anticipated third album, SALVAJE.
Her voice has already found its way onto some of your favorite playlists, making waves on Spotify’s New Music Friday Canada, Fresh Finds Canada, New Music Friday Latin, Mood Ring, Tropical Rising, Fresh Finds Latin, and Novedades Dembow.
Flavia Abadía not only grooves on playlists but has also taken her to stages and events across Canada, the USA, France, Spain, Mexico, Portugal, and beyond.
The music scene is soaking up the positive vibes she’s bringing, and with SALVAJE on the horizon, get ready for your upcoming favorite release of the year.
Care to introduce yourself?
Hello, I’m Flavia Abadía! I’m a creative, life coach and entrepreneur based in Toronto, Canada. I DJ and create music based on my Colombian and French-Canadian roots, my diverse upbringing living in different places as well as my musical influences.
My latest song “MALA” is a Latin, R&B, Pop fusion with brass elements and Arab scales.
Tell us about the process of recording “MALA”?
I’m a little obsessed with brass and Trumpets, I literally made a song called Trumpets and filmed the music video in Cuba. I wanted to start “MALA” with trumpets to give it a more nostalgic, Casablanca, Cuba, 1940s-1960s feel.
My process is to go into the studio with the producer, Medylandia, and co-create. I picked the brass samples on Splice, Medy created the beat as I also gave input.
I started writing the song in the studio and wanted to give it an old-school gangster/ spy theme where someone is trying to figure the other person out and they realize they both have secrets and things to discover.
With Medy the process is very collaborative, I have ideas on the different elements of the beat, and he may have melody ideas or give me suggestions on how to better deliver or write a lyric.
We did “MALA” in a few sessions. In the first session, we made the beat and the concept.
As a songwriter for certain songs, I like to collaborate with other songwriters to grow my artistry. For this one, I started writing it and then contacted my friend Kiki who I’ve collaborated with many times before. She helped me with a couple of parts and from there I took it to the studio to refine it and try things out until we got “MALA” as you hear it now!
What’s it like being a musician in Toronto?
Very interesting question, I’ve never been asked this before!
I make music because I love the process. Toronto is a very diverse city and I love the various influences we have. I also listen to a lot of music from different countries so I know that my sound here in Toronto is definitely unique. I don’t know of anyone else here making music that sounds like mine.
Who was the first and most recent Canadian artist to blow you away?
I LOVED the Weeknd when he first came out. I remember sharing his music with everyone I could in 2011. I also saw him live that year which was cool!
He and Drake were some artists I was really excited about.
I also loved DJ/ Producer 4Korner’s remix of a Stromae song which is really cool to see him making so much more music now and being so successful with it!
Recent artists/ singers I’ve been listening to and love from Toronto are Ana Lía who I have a song “Gandío” with, Altur Santos who I’ve collaborated with on 3 songs including “Hola”, “Apeche” and “LA MUSICA SUENA”. I also really like Najove who is another Latin artist from Toronto. I have to collaborate with him soon!
You’ve been making music for a bit of time now, what’s one piece of advice you can offer to those starting out?
The first piece of advice is to learn as much as you can about the music business!!
This is extremely valuable and underrated. Learn about the music rights organizations, how a song copyright/ split is determined etc.
There are many good books including Donald S. Passman’s book “All You Need to Know About the Music Business” and Ari Herstand’s “How to Make it in the New Music Business”.
Canada’s Music Incubator (CMI) also offers great programs for artists and artist managers.
Practically speaking, as an artist I would say not to rely on only making music as a form of income. Producers can get paid better through the actual creation process.
I would recommend people expand their creativity and skill set to other avenues as well. For example, if someone is super visual or creative they can learn how to film or edit videos. If someone loves to paint, they can create art, sell it, work at a gallery, etc.
Having a different source of income also allows you to be and stay creative because it’s enjoyable. It will also give you more freedom and options.
Another piece of advice that a super famous and successful Salsa singer, Jose Alberto “El Canario” gave me is to stay true to yourself. As an artist, you can listen to other people’s points of view with a grain of sand. Stick to your vision!!
That has served me well!
I wish I had known that in the beginning, especially in the first few years when I was starting out!
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