When Empara Mi sings, it doesn’t feel like a performance—it feels like a revelation. Her new single “On Call For You” is seductive, eerie, and dripping in vulnerability, a confession wrapped in cinematic strings and a shadowed melody. It’s more than a song—it’s a chapter in a much bigger story. And Empara Mi is the one writing it, directing it, and living it in real time.

“I think of surrender when I think of this song,” she tells me. “It’s about being so entangled with someone that you lose track of where they end and you begin.” The track pulses with that same sense of emotional gravity—a dangerous tenderness. “It’s honest, raw, and a little dangerous,” she adds.

That same duality—light and shadow, softness and edge—runs through everything Empara Mi creates. Her conceptual second album, Monsters & Masochists, isn’t just a collection of songs. It’s a breathing, evolving narrative. It’s a universe of its own. “Some of the music is dark and angry, some is mournful,” she explains. “It’s the idea that you can be the villain and the hero—and internally battle the two.”

That battle comes to life visually too, especially in the music videos she directs and obsesses over frame by frame. “I love storyboarding. I’m involved in every detail,” she says. “I don’t think I could ever be the kind of artist who leaves things in someone else’s hands and just hopes for the best.” It’s clear: Empara Mi isn’t just the face of her project—she’s the engine behind it.

The video for “I Can’t”, which won Best Music Video at the Cannes World Film Festival, is steeped in symbolism. “The girls in the video are like my guardian angels,” she shares. “We wanted it to feel like we were moving into a new chapter—grief transforming into anger and self-destruction.” That transformation bleeds into “Masochist”, and together, they create a saga of feeling rather than a standard album rollout.

What’s most fascinating about Empara Mi is how fearlessly she blends genre and form. She describes her sound as an intersection of cinematic scores, operatic grandeur, and hip-hop grit. “It’s the most honest thing I can do,” she says. “I’m mood-driven, and I listen to so many genres, so I’d find it impossible to pick one.” The result is music that lives outside any traditional box—but resonates deeply inside the listener.

Her work has become a go-to for bold cinematic moments—landing placements in Transformers, Fortnite, Dynasty, Riviera, and Ginny and Georgia. Her reinterpretation of “God’s Gonna Cut You Down” for The Day of the Jackal is a stunning example of her ability to make a well-known song feel intimate and newly devastating. “We wanted it to carry the weight of an inevitable truth,” she says. “Something quietly powerful.”

Empara Mi’s visuals, sound, and ethos seem designed for screen—but she’s not chasing virality or syncs. She’s building a legacy. “Virality is fleeting, but authenticity sticks,” she says, with the kind of clarity that cuts through industry noise. “I’ve learned to move at my own pace, creating work that feels true, whether it catches a wave or not.”

Still, the numbers are staggering. Over 45 million global streams. More than 10 million views on YouTube. And her breakout song “Ditch” alone boasts over 6.4 million TikTok views. And yet, Empara Mi remains grounded. “None of that actually matters,” she reflects. “As long as I feel like I’m progressing in some way, I’m happy.”

That self-awareness extends to how she sees her evolving relationship with fans, particularly on TikTok. “When those songs were circulating, I wasn’t even on the app,” she laughs. “Now that I am, I realize it’s not about waiting for the audience to find me. It’s about showing up.”

And show up she does—fully, honestly, powerfully. Whether she’s scoring dream collaborations with directors like Baz Luhrmann, Quentin Tarantino, or Denis Villeneuve (her current holy grail), or simply sculpting the next chapter of Monsters & Masochists, Empara Mi is already doing what most artists spend years trying to master: crafting a world.

So what’s next?

“The next chapter is one of my favorites,” she teases. “It’ll hurt a little—but in a way that makes you feel alive and young again. It’s full of nostalgia.” And if there’s one thing Empara Mi knows how to do, it’s create music that doesn’t just soundtrack a moment—it leaves a mark.

“I want people to feel seen in their contradictions,” she says. “To know that it’s okay to be tender and fierce, broken and beautiful, all at once.”

In other words, to feel human. And in Empara Mi’s world, that’s the greatest power of all.