Aitana Talks Writing New Single ‘Akureyri’ With Sebastián Yatra: ‘We’ve Understood Each Other Very Well for a Long Time’

“Akureyri,” the new single by Aitana and Sebastián Yatra, reunites — in music, at least — one of the most popular couples in Latin music.

And it could be the first of many reunions. “This is already the third song I have done with Sebastián,” Aitana told Billboard exclusively. “We seem to understand each other very well in the studio,” she adds a bit cryptically without alluding to any romance. “We’ve understood each other very well for a long time, so having that complicity with someone inside a studio is hard to find; having that companionship that allows you to go inside the studio and a very beautiful song comes out again and again.”

So much so that for her next album, Aitana is working on “many Songs” with Yatra. “Not songs to sing together, but songs for my project as composers, both of us.”

But “Akureyri” in particular is a collaboration between Aitana and Yatra at all levels. The song, which came out on April 26, was conceived during a trip that Aitana and Yatra took to Akureyri, a town in Iceland, to celebrate Aitana’s birthday on June 27, 2023.

“Sebastián started tossing some verses, and I started making the melody. And we finished the song in a car,” adds Aitana, who had just gotten her driver’s license. All of those moments – the two of them driving, entering the store, singing with the guitar – are seen in the “Akureyri” video, which was filmed on a subsequent trip once Yatra and Aitana decided to record the song together.

“Akureyri” is one of two recent great looks for Aitana. In April, Netflix released the movie De Pared a Pared, in which Aitana, in her first acting gig, plays the lead role Valentina, a young classical pianist who establishes a “wall-to-wall” relationship with her enigmatic neighbor.

The movie, a sweet romantic comedy that’s utterly disarming, was shot two years ago, when Aitana was only 22 years old.

“I carry Valentina in my heart and all those months of filming that were very beautiful,” she says of the three months of intense filming and piano lessons.

Next up, more songwriting and preparation for her first stadium show at Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu in December. Watch the full interview above.