- 6 weeks ago
Billboard Women in Music 2026 Icon Award recipient, Thalia, talks about the heartache that helped shape her career, her lifelong love with cumbia music and what it means to receive the Billboard Women in Music’s Icon Award. She also breaks down her huge hits, “No Me Enseñaste,” “Entre El Mar Y Una Estrella,” “Marimar” and more!
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MusicTranscript
00:00And I was a teenager, I started very, very young.
00:03I never expected that I was gonna be an example
00:05in my worst moments for someone.
00:08Sometimes I pinch myself like, wow, it was so worth it.
00:11Everything was so worth it.
00:22First of all, I'm very relaxed in my life,
00:26happy in my own skin, and I feel that it's a moment
00:30of celebration, and Cumbia is exactly that.
00:34It's party, it's celebration, it's family, it's memories,
00:37it's roots, it's your hood.
00:40A project that is so dear to my heart,
00:44it's like algo tan profundo en mi corazón.
00:45It was just spontaneous and something that I needed to do,
00:50and my body needed to feel that energy and that music
00:54and those arrangements, to sing about love
00:57and about happiness and broken hearts.
01:01And nothing sounds better when it's made with Cumbia.
01:05Dancing Queen is esa canción épica, that's an epic song
01:18that everybody like has a memory about Dancing Queen, somehow.
01:23It was just dancing in my living room with my family,
01:26with my sisters, and I remember that beautiful sisterhood,
01:30and I miss that.
01:32It's also like that insurance that, you know,
01:36no matter what's happening in your life,
01:38no matter what's going on around,
01:40you have to keep the head up,
01:42you have to keep your crown shiny and up.
01:45You're a princess, you're a queen, you're a king.
01:48Celebrate your life, your history, have fun, enjoy it, dance.
01:52Don't ever forget where you come from.
01:54And that's how Dancing Queen happened.
02:01This is that group that happened at the moment
02:03that I was writing or creating the songs,
02:06when we were basically like concentrated in the studio
02:10about the story and about what we were planning to say
02:16and how and the sounds and the accordion and all of that,
02:19then these artists, they just came to me at the moment, right?
02:24Like the, for instance, Todo, Todo, Todo,
02:26it was like to me, it was no doubt, no brainer
02:30that it had to be Yuri.
02:31We were talking about this for decades,
02:33Yuri and I, we were like, we have to collab,
02:36we have to do something together.
02:38This was the perfect timing in our lives
02:42and in our careers.
02:44And with this song, it's just perfect, it's magical.
02:47When you see the video, it's just like,
02:49I look at her and I'm like, oh my God, Yuri.
02:52It's like my friend and it's Yuri.
02:54And we're singing a song that was also from another icon,
03:00Daniela Romo, that is Todo, Todo, Todo,
03:02que marcó una generación y es así como honrar a esas mujeres.
03:12Oh my God, es que all of them are like incredible.
03:17Entre el mar y una estrella is magical.
03:20It reminds me about my mother, for instance,
03:24because it's like between the ocean and between that star.
03:28It's always a candle lit on thinking about you.
03:32So it's just that memory of mi mamá.
03:35That's like an epic song.
03:37The arrangements were incredible, impeccable.
03:41The lyrics, the moment in time.
03:43So that's an epic.
03:44But Tú y yo is also like a powerhouse song.
03:49And it's just very, como muy agresiva, no?
03:53Entonces, un poco más rock.
03:55And I love that song too.
03:57No me enseñaste has to be one of my favorites to it.
04:08No me enseñaste right now is so relevant.
04:12And I just like someone doing a huge concert
04:16and they were singing it in cumbia, talking about cumbia.
04:20You see? Todo suena mejor en cumbia, even that song.
04:23It gave me that idea, like, yeah, I'm going to do that song too.
04:27Maybe for my next cumbia album, you never know.
04:29It's really important.
04:31It's kind of like a mission and it's, lo tengo que hacer.
04:36Es algo que lo tengo que hacer.
04:38I remember when I was starting, very young,
04:41few artists came to me and talked to me that way,
04:45like, whatever you need, I'm here for you.
04:47You want a song, I'm going to give you a song.
04:49Let me introduce you with this producer, with this other writer.
04:52I never forgot that, and big ones.
04:55Las leyendas que ahora recordamos son Juan Gabriel, por ejemplo.
04:59Y para mí eso me marcó.
05:01That was like, that's a mission.
05:03And whenever I can and whenever somebody is telling me,
05:06for instance, oh my God, there's a new upcoming singer
05:10from whatever, Colombia, Mexico, whatever it is.
05:14I get so excited and I say like, okay,
05:16I would love to do something.
05:19If they want to, I'm here and let's do something amazing and epic.
05:22It's just something that we have to do in this industry.
05:26We have to look for each other.
05:27We have to protect each other.
05:29It's a big family.
05:30It's a dysfunctional, toxic family, but full of love.
05:35At the end of the day, our mission is to entertain
05:38and to make people forget about their pains,
05:42their traumas, their solitude.
05:45And it's that moment when they hear a song
05:48that it puts words into the pain
05:51or it makes them forget about it and dance.
05:54So we are there for our people.
05:58And it's important to be there together, together as a team.
06:02I have to say it was like a Rocio Durcal,
06:07Isabel Pantoja, Vicky Carr.
06:10Those were my idols.
06:13Those were the ones, Lisette, those names, of course,
06:16you know, those were powerful women.
06:19D'Alessio, Lupe D'Alessio, me desmayo, you know, Lucha Villa.
06:25All of them were like La Chapeau.
06:28They were these very strong women.
06:30They stood up and they sang about their problems
06:35and about men.
06:37And back then it was not a thing.
06:39You can't do that, right?
06:41And they did it.
06:43And with such an elegance and the dresses
06:46and the hairs and the makeup.
06:48And it was very powerful, beautiful.
06:51It's just that dream come true.
06:53It's just like it's just like I have to pinch myself sometimes
06:56to wake up and to be present and just think, wow, I'm here.
07:02I'm doing the thing that I love to do.
07:05I keep my dreams.
07:07I keep following my dreams, inventing new paths,
07:11discovering new ways to express myself.
07:14It amazed me, like, how other artists are like, you know,
07:18how they saw me growing up is very intense to think
07:23because I was surviving back then, right?
07:26I was following my instinct, following my dream,
07:31having the backup of my mother with me all the time.
07:34And, you know, like my faith in God, I was surviving my dream.
07:40And I never thought back then I was an example
07:43for a little girl looking at me while I was struggling.
07:47I was going through pain back then.
07:49I was going through tears.
07:51I was doubting.
07:53I was not believing in myself.
07:55I was brainwashing myself that you are going to do it.
08:00You're worthy.
08:01You can do it.
08:02Don't listen to what everybody's saying.
08:04Just go ahead and do it.
08:05And I was a teenager.
08:06I started very, very young.
08:08And then I never expected that I was going to be an example
08:13in my worst moments for someone.
08:16And it's like, that's what I'm saying.
08:18Sometimes I pinch myself like, wow, it was so worth it.
08:22Everything was so worth it.
08:25Marimar, oh, costellita soy.
08:29Marimar was suffering so badly.
08:32Y ahora que lo vemos, como que no lo puedo creer.
08:34It was like, you know, it was suffering so badly.
08:36And I was having real tears of that teenager.
08:41Wow.
08:42Going through like,
08:43Y uno de corazones rotos.
08:46Y like, deaths and doubts and people like judging you and destroying you and you kept going.
08:54You kept going.
08:55And, you know, that's why I think that soap opera and maybe those songs back then, like the Piel Morena,
09:00the Amor a la Mexicana.
09:02All those songs were so powerful because I was really struggling.
09:07I was crying.
09:08I was suffering.
09:09I was really, really, really, really down.
09:13Take another woman and another person to believe in you.
09:18It's just so important to surround yourself with someone that is your cheerleader, you know?
09:24And that was my mother.
09:25I was so blessed and lucky that my mother was there for me.
09:28And it was like, come on, let's do it.
09:30If you don't want to do it, if you don't want to do it, we leave this country, we go
09:35to another country, start from zero, whatever you want to learn, to be a biologist, to be a doctor, whatever
09:41it is, we start from zero.
09:42Now, if you're going to stay and you're going to do it, you do it.
09:45You do it.
09:46Okay.
09:47So then it took that, too.
09:49First of all, about the queen, I remember like a mark in my mind when she was saying, like, I
09:56just want to be the queen in people's hearts.
10:00And I just remember that, like, that was something that was, like, so impactful for me.
10:05Hearing you saying that is just like, I just want to be in a little, little, little place in people's
10:10hearts.
10:10That's it.
10:11Live there in their low moments, in their parties, in their celebrations.
10:17It's like, oh, my God, I got married with your song.
10:19And I'm like, wow, which song?
10:21It's just so exciting that you're part of someone's life.
10:24It's really a gift.
10:27It's a gift.
10:27It's a gift.
10:28I'm blessed to have this life.
10:32I think the first time where I was, like, shocked was the first trips to Indonesia and to Philippines and
10:39to Greece and to Hungary and all of those places where the country stopped.
10:44Stopped.
10:45And that was with your music career or?
10:47That was with the soap operas and my music.
10:50What we, what I thought all the time, yeah, we're going to do the soap opera, but the song has
10:56to be sang by me and attached to my next album.
10:59And so everything was, like, una estrategia, okay, vamos a crear las canciones al mismo tiempo, the same time that
11:06the soap opera is going global 180 countries, we're going to have the music.
11:11And then it was, like, I arrived to those countries and I was, Marimar, and everybody, oh, it was not
11:17about language.
11:18It was about, oh, everybody just, like, Marimar, pulgoso, Marimar.
11:23It was, like, right?
11:25And then it was, like, oh, then Talía, Talía.
11:27And so it was just incredible to discover that in the other side of the world.
11:32It was, like, precedence and the whole thing was incredible that happened.
11:37I just was, like, wow, this is for real.
11:42How old were you?
11:43I was, like, in my 20s, in my early, early 20s.
11:48I love how she was, like, Marimar first, then Pulgoso, then Talía.
11:52Claro, then Talía.
11:53Pero claro.
11:55And that's, imagine how cool it is, because everything in my life has been like this.
12:00Uh-huh.
12:01It's been, como se dice, entretran.
12:04I could sing very sad ballads, make you cry, make you feel like your heart is destroyed.
12:12But then I have the other side of me that is party, irreverent.
12:16I do whatever I want, however I want.
12:18Like, those are the songs, so everything is, like, opposites.
12:21And then it's just the actress and then the singer.
12:25Uh-huh.
12:25And it's just the actress, the singer, the entrepreneur.
12:29But I'm the mother.
12:30I'm the wife.
12:32I'm the sister.
12:33But, you know, it's just, like, everything is magical.
12:37Everything is, like, so incredible.
12:38Like a rainbow, like a glitter, like a powerhouse.
12:45Like, I don't know.
12:46I have a concept that we are all a big staircase, right?
12:52And this industry is a huge staircase.
12:55And we are one step.
12:57We all are just one step of that huge staircase.
13:02And talking about, like, back then, back then, right?
13:05Or even just the, los precursores, una Gloria Estefan.
13:10O sea, me entiendes?
13:12Como que siempre todos, everybody is part of this staircase.
13:15And I think, like, my step is, like, so, like, the one, I will say, the one made out of
13:22gold.
13:24I would put some diamonds and things.
13:26Just make it happy and good and it's solid, it's truth, it's real.
13:32And I put the diamonds there because the diamond is a piece of, it's a stone.
13:37And it takes that guy, right?
13:40In my case, my God, takes it and starts polishing it, start polishing it.
13:45It hurts.
13:46It really hurts.
13:48And it cuts it and it cuts it.
13:50And it gets rid of the things that you don't need anymore till you become a diamond.
13:55And that's what I think every song and every project can give to my followers, my audience,
14:03people that like my music.
14:05Definitely, I have to say, the star, right?
14:08The Hollywood star was epic in the moment that happened.
14:12And it was just a dream that my mother and I chased for so many, many, many years.
14:17That was one of those moments.
14:19And of course, when you go out, just people, just when they approach you and they're like,
14:25oh my God, can I take a picture of you?
14:28Or, oh my God, my name is Talia, like you or my mother.
14:33You know, just those things are when you realize that everything is worth it.
14:40And all of these years, every single step of it.
14:44And what is coming?
14:46Because, like I always say, this is just the beginning.
14:49This is just part of your book of life.
14:53And it's one chapter.
14:56That gift, el amor de la gente.
14:59Y seguir aquí.
15:00Seguir creando, seguir creciendo, seguir soñando.
15:04Soñando.
15:05Get a good lawyer.
15:06Get a good lawyer is super, super important.
15:10An accountant.
15:11Super, super important.
15:13Creative and creative team.
15:16And maybe younger than you.
15:18So you get that new mentality and the new blueprint of business.
15:23It's super, super important.
15:25And don't stop.
15:27Like if you stop, you stop.
15:29Like, that's it.
15:31That's it.
15:32You have to keep going.
15:33You have to keep going.
15:34My sister, we were talking yesterday and she said, are you tired?
15:39You don't think like you want to just take it easy for like a little time?
15:43I said, no.
15:45No.
15:45If I stop, I feel I'm going to just get like el hombre de lata de Alicia.
15:52Like they oxidize.
15:53You're going to oxidize and go.
15:56I said, you have to keep going.
15:58Muy a la Celia Cruz.
16:00Muy a la Madonna.
16:02They keep going, no matter what.
16:04Oh my goodness.
16:05Ceramics.
16:07Maybe it's the coffee.
16:09I love coffee.
16:10I'm obsessed with coffee.
16:11Maybe creating my own coffee machine with my little coffee.
16:13tea cups.
16:15And you know, it's endless.
16:17Your own coffee brand.
16:18Yes, my own coffee brand.
16:20A ver, cafeteros.
16:22Pónganse las pilas.
16:24No, but just keep going.
16:26Keep doing things.
16:27Now, I'm so happy in the process.
16:31In my era right now, in my life right now, I'm so happy in the studio process.
16:37In the writing the songs.
16:39In the thinking about the story of the song.
16:42That magical moment where you're thinking about which arrangement you're going to do.
16:47And what is the musicians that you're going to contact and you're going to get.
16:51And where you're going to record it.
16:52That is my favorite process right now.
16:55That is what is just so exciting and invigorating.
16:59Because you can do whatever.
17:01Like you can do pop.
17:02You can do Christian.
17:03You can do R&B.
17:06You can do Mexican.
17:08You can do Cumbia.
17:09You can do everything.
17:11Honesty is always the same.
17:12Telling a part of your story.
17:14Always telling something that is bothering you.
17:17Something that you have stuck in there, right?
17:18Something you just want to just puke it out and get it out of yourself.
17:23Because then you're not alone.
17:25There's so many millions that feel like you.
17:27They don't have the healing power of music.
17:30Because music heals you.
17:31Even like just singing.
17:32Sometimes you're like stuck in here and you just want to go like,
17:35Sing and scream and get in the shower.
17:39Right?
17:39It's very healing.
17:41But I think I always focus on being honest.
17:46When I sing my songs and when I write my songs.
17:50Or when I pick a song that somebody sent me.
17:52And the story resonates with me.
17:54The new learning aspect of it.
17:57I don't take myself so seriously anymore.
18:00You know, it was a moment that everything was like,
18:03De vida o muerte.
18:05It was like black or white.
18:07It has to be now or it's never going to happen.
18:10Decision has to happen today.
18:12Not to...
18:13Now it's just, guess what?
18:14Yes, it has to happen today.
18:17But...
18:18Easy.
18:19It's...
18:20It's...
18:20It's...
18:21Take it easy.
18:22Easy.
18:22It's okay.
18:23It's okay.
18:24I earn a place.
18:26I have a whole story.
18:29And just now have fun.
18:31Don't take it so serious.
18:34Don't take it like...
18:35Don't let it eat you.
18:37Because you can...
18:38You can get drained by that.
18:41Drain.
18:42And it just right now is like, you know,
18:44Let's have fun.
18:45I see like a Celia Cruz, right?
18:48Oh my God.
18:50Like I see Gloria and Emilio.
18:53I see Madonna or Cher.
18:57And it's just like, that's it.
19:00It's about that.
19:01It's just about having fun.
19:03Enjoying the ride.
19:05And just do something that feels honest to you.
19:08Music is so loyal and so generous.
19:11So it allows you to just sing at any age or step in your life.
19:19It's just...
19:19It's there for you.
19:21Like as a full concept, for instance, the cumbia.
19:24Yo necesitaba un full concept.
19:26I really needed a full album of the cumbia.
19:29But, you know, maybe I just in the future decide to do a bachata
19:33or decide to do a salsa song.
19:35But this cumbia, it needed some kind of special space, you know?
19:40Like it just...
19:40It just like part of me, part of my growing up in Mexico.
19:45Don't forget like cumbia came into Mexico
19:48and then we made it our own style with the accordions
19:52and then the DJs made it a little urban.
19:54Of course, in the 50s, it just infiltrated into the movies.
19:59And it was like all these incredible black and white movies
20:02in the Epoca de Oro del Cine de Mexico.
20:05They were cumbia songs and then these cumbieras.
20:09And then all of that went infiltrated into the TV.
20:13So it's a big part of our DNA, you know?
20:16Cumbia is for celebrating.
20:19It's a celebratory sound and it's part of my neighborhood.
20:23That required a full concept album.
20:26And it takes me back to my...
20:28Yo creo que Amor a la Mexicana es cumbia o Piel Morena es cumbia,
20:33este, Mujer Latina, todas esas canciones que hice.
20:36Even María Mercedes was cumbia.
20:39With Cumbia Kings with it and a version of Tu y Yo,
20:42talking about Tu y Yo.
20:43Cumbia has been always part of...
20:45Like...
20:46Me ha estado enamorando toda mi vida.
20:48Ha sido como...
20:49My partner.
20:50Oh my goodness.
20:51Wow, right?
20:53I conquered.
20:54I conquered.
20:54Right?
20:55I conquered.
20:56I don't know.
20:57I think I'm gonna cry.
20:58It's like...
20:59Como un lugar segurito.
21:00Como...
21:01Like...
21:01You earn it, but you don't.
21:04And it's something that people gave you.
21:07And it's yours, but it's not.
21:09And sometimes you are, and sometimes you're not.
21:12And it's just like...
21:12It's very ethereal.
21:15But for me to just...
21:17Being here with you and having the honor to receive this award,
21:23this Icon Award is one of those things that I'm very appreciative and thankful
21:27and a gift in my life right now that I wanna share it with everybody that is part of this
21:35moment for me.
21:36I'm very thankful.
21:37I'm very thankful.
21:38And Icon is that.
21:40I conquer.
21:41I love that.
21:43I love that.
21:45I love that.
21:53I love that.
21:53I love that.
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