Samuel opens up about 'SAMUELITO,' his creative process, & dream collaborations

Hi, my name is Samuel and nice to meet you. Well, I want to first congratulate you on your album, Samuelito. You spent so much of your career in Korea, but this project feels like you're embracing every part of who you are. What was the moment you realized that this project had to be centered around your Mexican heritage and your identity? First, it's a very way back long story. But while I was growing up, I listened to a lot of a lot of Spanish music and even the environment with my dad and dad's family side as well. And also my mom, she loved listening to music as well. So it's just as soon as I was born, listening to music was just immediately into my ears and coming up now with this Samuelito album. It was just like nobody told me to do Spanish music or like reggaeton type. It just automatically just came into my vision and it just felt like now was the perfect time to kind of bring back my heritage and bring the roots. And, you know, just be true to myself, especially and do what I like to do. And I love to dance. And, you know, reggaeton is the perfect dance music style that I could express. So that was just the whole purpose of coming up with this album. Yeah. And you were saying that you listened to like reggaeton when you were growing up. So what drew you to K-pop? So growing up, definitely I was listening to a lot of reggaeton. And when I first started dancing officially, I was like seven, eight years old. And my mom took me to a dance academy. And that's when I officially started to dance. And I got to knew about hip hop and R&B and pop music at that time. And I was going through a lot of videos, and then I figured out an artist called Justin Bieber. And I was like, wow, he's amazing. I want to be like him. And he started dancing, too. I was like, wow, one day I want to be like him. And then I discovered about K-pop. And there was a huge group called TVXQ. And I just loved the energy and the visuals, the performance, the music, everything. So I was like, I want to become a K-pop idol. And I did audition. And luckily, I went to Korea at that time. And sad news, I didn't make it to the next round. But after I failed, I came out and I got street cast. And I was in a trainee, which it was 17. And I was just nine, 10 years old at that time. And there were all brothers. I was the little small niño and little boy that just loved doing dance and singing. And that was the first starting career point of me doing K-pop. You've been doing K-pop for the past 10 years plus, I guess you can say. And but now you're now you're returning to your roots. Were there parts of yourself that you felt got lost along the way that you're reconnecting yourself with Samuel Lito? I wouldn't say I got lost. It's just I just had the times where I had to discover.