iLe, Natalia Lafourcade Share Spellbinding Duet in 'En Cantos'

Puerto Rican folk artist Ileana “iLe” Cabra Joglar and Mexican alt-pop star Natalia Lafourcade play a hairdressing sister act in the new music video for “En Cantos.” The two women run a barber shop, where they suddenly find themselves enamored with a mysterious male patron.

As iLe did in her 2019 album Almadura, she shapes “En Cantos,” or “In Pieces,” with the Caribbean rhythms indigenous to her island, while adding a pulsating electronic kick to the mix. Together iLe and Lafourcade trade hymn-like verses, detailing the magnetic power of their object of their affection. The fire behind their burning desire further fuels their hypnotic performance. “Don’t call me crazy for loving you like this,” they sing together in Spanish.

“This song is about the uncontrollable curiosity that comes from creating this ‘mystical someone’ who we believe makes us feel complete,” iLe said in a press statement. “The music video intends to portray this unreachable person that we, as characters, needed to feel closer to by distilling an enigmatic drink made from different traces of himself.”

In the Alejandro Pedrosa-directed video, iLe and Lafourcade are transfixed by a man who enters their shop with a Virgin Mary-like glow. As if under a spell, the singers surrender to his unassuming charm as they service him with a shave. In an underground lab, the women later down the guy’s facial hair scraps like a shot of alcohol. This is iLe’s first taste of new music since wrapping her Almadura tour in the U.S. earlier this year.