Nezza is setting the record straight. She’s not an industry plant; you just haven’t been looking hard enough.
The 30-year-old content creator and singer fell in love with dancing at a young age, all thanks to her parents, she tells The Hollywood Reporter. She later launched her YouTube channel in 2009, posting vlogs, dance videos and eventually original music. It has since grown to nearly 400,000 subscribers.
While Nezza has released numerous songs since 2018, it wasn’t until earlier this year that she had a career-defining moment. She performed the national anthem in Spanish ahead of a Los Angeles Dodgers game in June, despite being told beforehand she needed to sing it in English. The moment, which quickly went viral on social media, was important for Nezza as she wanted to honor the Latin community in the wake of the increased immigration raids happening across the country, including in L.A.
As an artist of Colombian and Dominican descent, her Hispanic heritage also plays a big role in her personal music, and it’s why she specifically wants to be a “Spanglish pop artist.”
“I don’t wanna be boxed in either genre ‘cause I’ve encountered a lot of people that are like, ‘Oh why don’t you just do a full Spanish album and market it in Latin America,’ and I’m like, ‘No, because I speak in Spanglish, naturally, and I want that to translate into my music,’” she says.
Below, Nezza opens up about why she wants to stick to Spanglish music and teases her new music. She also reflects on her defining L.A. Dodgers performance and why this Hispanic Heritage Month is one of the most important.
Having been working in the entertainment industry in L.A. since you were a teen, what have you learned that’s helped you become the artist you are today?
Just that hard work always pays off. You know, you watch these Grammy speeches and I feel like one of the main things that people always throw in is hard work, like hard work truly always pays off. And I am a Capricorn, so I am a workaholic (Laughs). If my friends were to describe me with one word, it would be workaholic. Also having the most amazing friends around me has helped keep me really grounded because especially in L.A., and I know that’s so cliche to say, but there really are a lot of shitty people here in L.A. that are for themselves. And I was just so grateful and lucky to have encountered such a beautiful and welcoming friend group and they’ve taught me so much. … Like L.A. is definitely not somewhere that you can just come without a plan. And luckily I had my parents supporting me 100 percent. They’re like, “Go do it!”
With your new song “Tasty” releasing later this month, can you talk about the inspiration behind the single and your upcoming album?
This whole album kind of sounds like it would belong in a Brats movie soundtrack. It’s just really fun and it’s in Spanglish. I wanna stay true to that lane. I wanna be a Spanglish pop artist. I don’t wanna be boxed in either genre ‘cause I’ve encountered a lot of people that are like, “Oh why don’t you just do a full Spanish album and market it in Latin America,” and I’m like, “No, because I speak in Spanglish, naturally, and I want that to translate into my music.” But yeah, “Tasty” is really fun! It’s dancy, it’s sexy, it’s in Spanglish. I’m super excited because it is, I would say, maybe top three favorite [song] on this project.
Do you have a timeline for the album’s release?
It would have been out already, which is a funny thing, but because of the way things have unfolded since the incident (Laughs), there’s new team, there’s a lot of passive change, there’s a lot of different people that are kind of like, “Hey, we want in on on this and her future. How can we incorporate ourselves?” So the timeline of a lot of things have changed, ‘cause the original plan was to release the project by July and be touring in the fall. So it’s looking more like [touring] spring of 2026, and hopefully the album still drops before the end of the year. And if not, people will get it at the beginning of 2026.
When it comes to creating music, what are you hoping to convey to your fans and listeners?
At the end of the day, I want to write music that girls want to scream in their bedroom, the way that I did when I was downloading all my songs off LimeWire. There were so many songs and so many artists that I would just blast and pretend as if I had written them, and that’s kind of the feeling I want to give girls as well as is that it’s relatable. And I think my YouTube life is that, like I’ve put so much of my life online, so why not have my music kind of translate the same thing.
Having a few months to reflect on your L.A. Dodgers performance, what goes through your head when you think back to that impactful moment?
I’ve had quite a little second to kind of reflect and there’s never been regret. Nothing’s changed on that front. If any, I’ve just learned so much about the world since then, about the state of this country, about everything. But I still am so happy that I did what I did because of the people that I meet every day. I mean, anytime I’m out I get stopped at least once at this point and someone will be like, “Thank you so much for what you did,” and that makes it worth it.
Did you ever imagine it would have the reach and impact that it did?
No, because I’ve been online a very long time. And I guess it is always the things that you never really expect to reach that goal that far, but I never in a million years [could have predicted that], ‘cause nothing like this has ever happened to me, and I’ve been online a long time. But never did I think it would expand to the point that it did, but I’m a huge believer in God, and I think that he was like, yeah, this has to be everywhere, and I feel like he was like, he put me in that position for that reason to shine line more on what’s happening even though it is everywhere. But it also kind of feels like not everyone is doing their part in the fight.
You also just released the first-ever studio-recorded version of the U.S. National Anthem in Spanish. How excited were you to do that?
I was honored. I remember even the week that we went to record it, I still wasn’t aware that there wasn’t a recording. I thought that there must have been something, but my manager was like, “No, this is going to be the first,” and that was really overwhelming in a good way. I was like, is this my purpose to shine light on this again because it was buried. I still don’t really understand how it’s never come up even through Google, ‘cause I’ve looked up the national anthem before, I’ve sang it a lot of times, just even to look up lyrics, like how has this version never popped up. So I’m honored, honestly, to be able to shine a light on it again so that Clotilde, the composer, didn’t do it for nothing.
Amid Hispanic Heritage Month, what does this month of honor and celebration mean to you?
Obviously we should always celebrate Latin heritage (Laughs), but I mean this month is a beautiful opportunity to just shine light on our culture, our music, our passion, our relentless energy, but also to kind of celebrate what’s up next for our community and be hopeful for what’s coming.
Given the current political climate in the U.S. and the targeting of immigrants, do you think it’s especially important to bring more awareness to Hispanic Heritage Month this year?
Oh my God, yeah! Even though things kind of seem like they’ve slowed down online, obviously everything was so heightened that week. It was on everyone’s stories, it was in everyone’s faces, and just because it’s slowed down online doesn’t mean that it’s just not as heightened. I just got to work with the Esperanza immigration organization, and I went into their offices and we sat and we just cried together and exchanged stories of families that they’ve been helping every week, and I just could not believe the scale of what is still happening, even though we’re not really seeing it online right now. So it’s more important now than ever for everyone to use their voices and take a stand and I hope people take kind of my situation and realize that there’s always going to be a community there to uplift you, no matter what you’re fighting for.
You’ve also built a large fanbase through your YouTube videos and Twitch account with Franny Arrieta. How would you say social media has been beneficial to your career?
I mean, I wouldn’t be where I’m at without it, right? I feel like social media really had its spike in 2017, 2018, but if you were to tell me even a couple years prior to that that I was gonna be a YouTuber, I would have been like, doing what? What are people gonna watch me do? Sing and dance? I never in a million years thought I’d be in this field, but everything happens the way it’s supposed to and I’m so unbelievably thankful every day that this is what I get to call work, because being a creative in art, it is my first love. And so thankful for the fandom that I have because I wouldn’t be here without them.
With your focus on music currently, do you see yourself still wanting to do YouTube and social media in the future?
I think I will always be online because I truly love it. And whether it’s someone else running it for me, I feel like I will always have a YouTube channel. I will always have Twitch. I fell in love with Twitch, didn’t think I would fall in love with yet another platform. But yeah, I think I’ll always be online because I feel like that’s how people are gonna relate to me the most is staying online.
If you could go back and tell your younger self something, seeing where you are today, what would you say?
First off, she simply would not believe where I’m at right now. I actually found this little memo pad that I would keep as a kid and I think I was 15 in the last entry, and I literally wrote, “One day I’m gonna live in Los Angeles, California,” and it’s so embarrassing but I said, “I’m gonna have an apartment of my own where I can strut my stuff.” Not sure what that means, but it is crazy to be living… I’m just so thankful, and I would be like, “Hey, just don’t give up because you truly are going to end up where you were meant to be, even though there will be times where you feel like giving up, don’t.”
Looking ahead, what do you hope to accomplish in the next five years?
I have a lot of things. I know I keep saying the Capricorn thing, but there’s so many things I wanna do, like people think that I’m crazy. My manager thinks I’m crazy. Today I start lessons on how to take care of a stable. Wveryone’s like, “You already have a million things going on, what do you mean that tomorrow you’re gonna go be a cowgirl?” There’s so many things I wanna do. I wanna start an animal rehabilitation center one day. I want to write a book. I want to put out a whole series of books. I hope to be a touring artist forever. I hope to just be on a stage until I’m 65, putting out music till the end of time, but books are my passion, so I would love to adapt books into film at some point. I also love acting, so I’d love to book a role by next year. Yeah, there’s so many things I wanna do.
If you had to describe what makes Nezza, Nezza, what would you say?
I’m just a goofy girl, man. At the end of the day, I just wanna make people laugh, whether it’s comedy, whether it’s music, whether it’s anything. I just know that I was born to make people feel good and and entertain.