Alessia Cara On Growing Stronger Through Heartbreak: “Pain Is Our Greatest Teacher”

Canadian singer-songwriter Alessia Cara started to become a household name when she was only 19. Having spent her formative teenage years peppered with teen angst, social anxiety, and perpetual fly-on-the-wall antics at every purposeless party she reluctantly attended, her scripture of intentional isolation manifested into Here; her debut single from 2015.

The song was a hit from the moment Cara’s sweetly raspy vocals emerged onto the track with the simple line of “I’m sorry if I seem uninterested…”. With an apologetic truthfulness to it, she would go on to express her disinterest through proclamations of boredom, vowing she would rather be anywhere else than among the drunken revellers and stoner kids she’s found herself shoulder-to-shoulder with at this party. Quickly and rapidly, Here became a bespoke anthem for introverted teenagers who show no interest in the partaking and social performance of drinking, drugs and parties. And with that, the song became an instant hit.

When asked if parties are still something she actively avoids, the artist responds with a nostalgic perspective on how much she has grown since first penning the reclusive lyrics of Here when she was only 16.

“I think I've become a lot better at managing when I am at a party now; how to just feel chill about it and how to feel like myself,” she said via Zoom.

“I don’t go to them unless I have to. But if I do have to go to one, I feel more comfortable with myself. And I think it just comes with time,”

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“Something that I actively have to work on is being present. I am a very anxious person. I get in my head a lot. It’s a daily work in progress. At the core of it, I am comfortable with myself, which really helps because you're just able to navigate those social situations and life a little bit better when you feel centred. Sometimes the anxiety will creep back in like it does for all of us, but I think it's more in the background now.”

Here went on to peak at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and sold three million copies. It was evident from very early that Cara possessed storytelling abilities that far surpassed her age at the time. Her introspective outlook on life, relationships, self-perception and young adulthood suggested an aura of honesty and maturity that would take some fully grown adults years to confront. These natural instincts and personal narratives found a home within Cara’s platinum-selling debut album Know-It-All, featuring another one of her hit tracks, Scars To Your Beautiful.

Both in and out of music, the singer-songwriter has never failed to remind herself and her audience of her humanity; in all of its beautiful fragility and imperfection. Working a career within an industry that can mechanicalise you from a single signature, Cara’s open battle with everyday, real struggle has ultimately provided a safe haven for fans who feel seen and heard. It’s why Cara’s stellar debut still holds undeniable longevity ten years later.

“For a while I tried to subconsciously separate myself from [this album]. I think when you're so well known for a version of yourself that you don't relate to as much anymore, you kind of cringe at it because it was like a time capsule of my teenage self. Who wants to be known for that forever?”

“I think for a while I was trying to be like “I just want to move forward". But I think enough time has passed now where I'm able to sort of rediscover that music and redevelop a new relationship with it where I'm able to embrace it and love and nurture that part of myself.”

Now 28, a brooding, eager and inquisitive version of Cara exists solemnly on her fourth studio album Love & Hyperbole. Birthed out of the inherent need to seek out normalcy in a life that is typically abnormal and skewed by fame, making Love & Hyperbole was a necessity for Cara to re-establish who she wants to be. The album makes a provocative statement for someone who had to grow up in front of flashing lights, and the watchful eyes of the public, signalling to the triumphs and losses of the last few years for the artist.

On the other hand, the album dives into the sporadic and exhausting thrill of love and heartbreak; an otherwise private aspect that Cara hasn’t previously drawn too much detail to in her music. Over the last five or so years, she has actively searched for connection in a world completely different to the one she began making music in. As such, Love & Hyperbole acts as both a shoulder to cry on for herself, and for those who feel jaded by the world around them.

“I was dealing with a lot of things, first of all, pertaining to my relationship to music, and sort of my resentment towards it for a little bit, and I kind of had to reshape my understanding of myself as an artist, and if I even wanted to continue doing music, or if I did, what the purpose behind it was,” she said.

“Then there’s also this other aspect of love and heartbreak, and learning to come to terms with that, and falling in love again and understanding what all of that means. It's basically just a story of the last few years of my life and me sort of grappling with the different realms of love, including self love and how to navigate all of those things…It's an album about coming to terms with myself,”

“When I was younger, I didn't really have much else in my life other than music. It was my everything. And then I allowed music to inform my identity and my own perspective of myself, which was great, but also not great when your only value is based on what you're doing artistically,”

“I think taking that time away and just nourishing relationships in my life with other people, and nourishing my relationship with myself, allowed me to reshape my priorities. Now, I think I have a way healthier relationship to music. I love it and I enjoy it, and I can take the good parts of it, but I also know when to leave the bad parts, and only let things in my personal life inform my relationship to myself and how I feel about myself,”

“It's important for any artist's mental health to know how to separate this very strange world that we work in; it’s hard to compute. So it’s been nothing but beneficial to be able to turn it on and off.”

Cara has not shied away from expressing that Love & Hyperbole takes the cake as her favourite album out of all of her works. And there’s never been more clarity as to why.

Responding to trials and tribulations with acts of self-preservation and deep inner-work is a strenuous journey in itself, let alone doing so in front of an audience. Still, the “buts”, “what if’s” and naysayers never discouraged the artist from seeking out a version of herself that she can display with assuredness. Love & Hyperbole is not only a rose in full bloom, but the scratches and bloodshed that comes from being pricked by its thorns. Much like how life holds turmoil, it just as much possesses beauty.

“I feel like a more sophisticated version of myself. I feel very proud of how I've come out on the other side,” she said.

“My thesis statement for this album was that we're all a product of everything that has happened to us and for us, good and bad. Rather than pushing all the bad away to try to find good, we need to use the bad and use the pain and reshape it in order to teach us things. Pain is our greatest teacher. Oftentimes, it can be kind of agonising and awful at first, but I really do think it is our biggest teacher, and it makes us who we are, and it makes that contrast in life so important. It makes life beautiful.”

Alessia Cara’s fourth studio album Love & Hyperbole is out now on all streaming platforms. She will be playing the album live on her Love & Hyperbole Tour Australia 2025 this coming May. Tickets can be purchased here. Find all the details below.