When I meet Sophie Castillo on an scoring afternoon of 93 degrees in Austin, Texas, she takes a seat by the pool at the Fairmont hotel with a long leather jacket, and tells me that she is keeping it.
“We were seven consecutive days without Sol last month,” says the singer and composer born in London, who performed at the city South By Southwest Festival (SXSW). “I need to absorb the sun!”
The daughter of a Colombian mother and a Cuban father, Castillo has the mission of amplifying the Latin American diaspora in the United Kingdom, mainly through her music: an elegant mixture of electronic and Latin textures of Latin America sounds like salsa, bachata and reggaeton. She expects these genres to take off in the United Kingdom, as well as Afrobeats, Ska, Bhangra and other musical styles that immigrants helped to integrate into British popular music.
“British People [don’t] Get enough credit about how open mind they are, “she says.” Every time I have seen people react to Latin music in the United Kingdom, they are excited. They are not like, 'Oh, I don't want to hear that because he is in Spanish'. They say: 'This is great, tell me more!' “
During the friend's showcase on the night of March 12 of Rozco, Castillo, adorned with a cowboy hat and a red velvet set, he presented his new single, “The Betlayal”. A cut of his next EP, which is due in April, “The Betrayal” is a sensual funk song that eggs slowly with a fair outrage.
“I love Brazilian music, so I wanted to try a fusion of funk,” explains Castillo. “Everything joined with this Shakira -style Arab scale. The drama was there, the cinematographic element was there, which is what I love.”
(Elana Marie / de los; photos of Leila Sophie Castillo)
Beyond Latinity, music extends in Castillo's blood. His father, the renowned salsa dancer and DJ Nelson Batista, studied dance at the House of Culture in Havana before emigrating to London in the 1980s. It became the first salsa instructor known in the sparks of the United Kingdom flew between him and Castillo's mother, a salsa dancer who emigrated from Colombia.
The uncles of Castillo, Eddie and Lee, took the young Sophie to see the musicals as a child. And when I was old enough, they encouraged her to attend a theater program after school. Then he complemented his musical education learning how to produce songs using Garageband at home.
“My uncle Eddie left my CD in Universal when I was 13 years old,” she says. “It was very fun. I didn't know anyone in the music industry, or in the Latin music industry. How is noise made? “
Castillo built his audience organically in Tiktok, where he tested the clips of his songs among the fans of the Marias and Kali Uchis, two acts based in the United States that were essential in his own development as a Latin artist between cultures. “I always wanted to sing in Spanish, but it was a bit shy,” says Castillo. “But Kali Uchis really presented the way for Latin indie by making music in English with a little Spanish. I really have a lot of love and respect for that.”
In 2022, Castillo launched the song, “Call Me By Your Name”, a dream bachata melody sung in English. “Pov: You are listening to a bachata independent of a British Latin,” said the legend of his video. It was a viral sensation. “The Americans said: 'What are you there?'” “They would say: 'I can't believe [a] Latino from the United Kingdom is one thing! '
While there are demographic categories for the Caribbean people of the ancient colonies of the United Kingdom, it is difficult to find a precise count of the Latin American population. In 2013, the Census reported at least 250,000 Latin Americans living in the United Kingdom, according to a 2024 report, the population of Latin Americans increased by 406% in London and by 395% in England and Wales from 2001 to 2021.
Castillo made small nights of open microphone in restaurants and clubs in Brixton, often with the Latin alternative artist highlight French, who is Colombian and Italian. But Castillo got his greatest concert in the summer of 2024, when he received an email from the J Balvin team, inviting her to open for the Colombian superstar during her June 5 concert at the O2 Arena in London. It became the first Latin of the United Kingdom to act in the place.
“It's amazing, you know, Tiktok is like such a powerful tool,” he says about his experience. “I have been able to be a completely independent artist and I like to have all the freedom and control to do what I would like.”
