When Yami Safdie was just three years old, she loved to sing along to Disney princess movies. “I learned to talk and sing at the same time,” Safdie says with a gentle smile on her face. “Singing was like breathing; it’s something I was born with — it came naturally. I can’t remember when I discovered my love for music because it was always there. Now, I can’t imagine a life without music, without singing.”
Learning Disney songs would later come in handy (more on that below) and that love for music is what fuels her songs today. In the past two years alone, the 27-year-old singer-songwriter from Argentina has become a go-to collaborator for artists like Camilo (“Querida Yo”), Lasso (“En Otra Vida”) and, most recently, Emilia (“+ Te Vale”), thanks to her soulful lyrics and pop-ballad sound paired with her delicate yet poignant vocals.
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It’s her stripped-down acoustic style that makes her stand out in a crowded field of emerging acts from her native Argentina, many of them learning urban. “When I started doing music, I saw that the scene was very urban, and a few times I also approached the urban sound because I felt that was what I had to do to be heard,” she says. “And it’s crazy because when I stopped trying to sound like the others and became truer to myself, to pop, to acoustic, that’s when my music started to work best.”
After her parents – who aren’t musicians themselves – noticed that Safdie was really into music (and Disney), they signed her up at a local school where she learned to sing, act, dance and perform theater at 9 years old. “For me, it was like an entire new world opened, and I said, ‘I want to do this for the rest of my life,’” Safdie says. The songwriting part would come later in her early teen years when her diary entries began reading like songs. “I used to pretend I was Taylor Swift,” she says with a chuckle. “I am very dramatic and romantic, and if I liked a boy who didn’t pay any attention to me at school, I would write about that. It was kind of like a game for me.”
In 2017, Safdie turned that game into reality singing covers and uploading them to social media. It was her cover of Netflix’s Money Heist theme song that went viral. Shortly after, she began releasing her own music independently — and, in 2021, she got a call from Warner Music Argentina and signed a record deal with the company that same year. “They asked if I was interested in signing, and I said, ‘Yes, of course!’”
The call couldn’t come at a more perfect time. Then, Safdie was dressing up as Disney princesses, mainly Elsa and Anna from Frozen, and performing at kids’ parties to help cover what she was spending recording her own music and music videos productions. “Suddenly, I had a company like Warner supporting me, it changed everything.” (Earlier this year, Warner Music Latina signed Safdie.)
She released her debut album Dije Que No Me Iba a Enamorar in 2022 and, a year later, her sophomore LP Sur. While both were already packed with collabs, it was her team up with Camilo, “Querida Yo,” that scored Safdie her first entry on the Billboard charts. The track peaked at No. 15 on the Latin Pop Airplay chart dated May 24. Over on the Billboard Argentina Hot 100, she had already entered three songs, including “En Otra Vida” with Lasso, her highest charting song on that tally, which peaked at No. 6.
Now, she’s gearing up to release her third album later this year, which she says will include a few other collaborations. “I’m working hard on the new album and I think that, out of everything I’ve done, it represents me the most.”
Below, learn more about June’s Billboard Latin Artist on the Rise:
Name: Yamila Safdie
Age: 27
Recommended Song: “Querida Yo”
Biggest Accomplishment: “Putting on my own show in a theater (Teatro Ópera) and selling it out is the hardest thing to achieve as an artist, and it’s the most valuable thing because people chose you and bought a ticket. That’s worth a lot.”
What’s Next: “If everything goes well and things work out, I’ll release my new album later this year. And I’ll be announcing a few tour dates here and there.”
