“BBLs and Rolexes”: One Night in Miami With Isabella Lovestory

To prepare for her set at III Points Festival in Miami last weekend, Isabella Lovestory adopted “the mentality of a K-pop trainee.” This strategy seemed to work. After enticing even the Drainers with her twerking, then turning up with Bladee and the Snow Strippers after her Harajuku-inspired set, we got on Zoom with the Honduran-born pop princess from her hotel room at The Standard to unpack her weekend in the 305 and talk haunted Airbnbs, Bond girls, and seeing BBLs in the wild. 

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JULIETTE JEFFERS: Where are you right now?

ISABELLA LOVESTORY: I’m in Miami at The Standard being all fancy and bougie. It’s very Miami. I’m seeing a lot of BBLs and Rolexes.

JEFFERS: Whenever I’m in Miami, it’s such good people-watching because people don’t have BBLs in New York. You don’t see them.

LOVESTORY: Exactly. It’s very rare to witness a BBL in New York and Montreal. I live in Montreal. But in Miami, if you don’t have a BBL, you’re weird.

JEFFERS: Totally. Have you been to Miami before?

LOVESTORY: It’s my third time. I recorded an album here last year in a haunted Airbnb. It was right after touring for 27 days and I had to go straight to recording an album because it was the only window of time that could work in my schedule. For some reason, we decided Miami because my manager’s from here and he was like, “It’s a vibe.” And we stayed in this Airbnb that was really cheap because it was haunted.

The first night I was there, I had a dream that someone was trying to break into my room with a knife. It was in the Cuban area, which is very brujería, santería vibe. Then all our gear didn’t work because it was haunted and there were a lot of opossums. The guy I was making the album with, he was always stoned. His name’s Chicken and he kept thinking that all the opossums were monkeys and that was really funny.

JEFFERS: Opossums are haunted. Their eyes glow like raccoons in the night.

LOVESTORY: They’re so creepy. I grew up in Honduras. One time, my grandpa was like, “Isabella come, come, come, I need to show you something.” I’m like, “Yay.” I was a child. He’s like, “Look in the trash can.” He opens the trash and there’s an opossum, and he shuts it and I was like, “Oh my god.” It was really scary. But it was pretty iconic.

JEFFERS: That’s so funny. I hope you’re having a better time in Miami this time than in the haunted Airbnb.

LOVESTORY: No, it’s been so cute. I love it. I just played III Points and it was iconic. Very cute vibes, huge festival. I didn’t expect it, but there were a lot of stages. Rick Ross played the same stage as I did.

JEFFERS: That’s crazy. Did you catch anyone else’s set while you were there?

LOVESTORY: Yes, I saw Snow Strippers, Bladee, and Yung Lean. And I went to see Justice for a second. 

JEFFERS: That’s a good list. What did it feel like bringing your reggaeton vibe to Miami? How was the crowd’s reaction?

LOVESTORY: Miami is full of Latinos, so they loved it. I think that I brought a lot of people to my stage because there weren’t a lot of people when I began. With my twerking and dance moves, I captivated people. It’s always a vibe. People are down to just party to whatever. There was a lot of Drainers and Drainers are very particular because you have to really win them over. They’re just very obsessed with Drain Gang. But I had to be like, “Yo, guys. Hi, front row. What’s up? Can you move a little bit?” They were just not moving at all. But it was fun. It was a good lineup for sure.

JEFFERS: Did you have the energy to go out anywhere fun after or were you just straight to bed?

LOVESTORY: Well, I performed at 7:30 and then I wanted to stay for Bladee and Snow Strippers. They performed at midnight and 3 a.m., so I just stayed at the festival. I didn’t do anything after. I just went home. I drank some wine by myself and listened to emotional music and I was just recapping the night.

JEFFERS: Cool. Is that your typical process of unwinding? What music do you listen to?

LOVESTORY: I was listening to Belanova, which is this Mexican early 2000s pop star. She has a very J-pop-y sound. It’s very loungy but electronic and it’s super good. I love it. Very girly pop. And I’ve been really listening to a lot of eighties vibes. Luis Miguel, who is another Mexican pop star. You City Pop in Japan—he started that. Basically, Japanese people got obsessed with him and started copying his sound.

JEFFERS: I didn’t know that.

LOVESTORY: Yeah, it’s crazy. So many people go viral in Japan and for no reason. Japanese people just love them. Like Strawberry Switchblade. I love Strawberry Switchblade and they basically were the inspiration for gothic lolitas, which is a fun fact.

JEFFERS: Not that your stage look was very gothic, but it was so good.

LOVESTORY: Thank you.

JEFFERS: It’s very you, very Y2K. The accessories, the micro shorts. What was the process there?

LOVESTORY: Well, I’ve been following this girl, her name’s Qiu Qiu. She’s just on Instagram. We had never met, and I loved her style. It’s very Harajuku vibes. She’s from China but we have similar style. It’s very vintage, a lot of thrifted pieces, and we just had a fitting. She had four looks prepared, and then I picked that one because it was the most Miami and it looked like Gwen Stefani a little bit. I’m giving the L.A.M.B. era.

 

JEFFERS: The glam was very Gwen Stefani too. 

LOVESTORY: Yeah, I did my own makeup. I always do my own makeup. Just because I feel like I am very drained all the time by meeting people, so I like to keep it really small when I can. And I use my fingers a lot, which is fast and efficient.

JEFFERS: And it always looks good.

LOVESTORY: Thank you. With the wig, I had never met the hairstylist, but he tore and it was really cute. He did a little butterfly on the side of the wig and it was just giving Gwen Stefani. It just all came together. I didn’t plan for it to be that way, but I don’t really plan my looks, to be honest. I just have a circus of vintage pieces and lots of people that I like to connect with.

JEFFERS: I loved your shoes too. Were they comfortable? They were sneaker-heels?

LOVESTORY: They were so comfy, which is perfect for me. I’ve had some stylists give me very, very thin heels where I cannot move and they’re all vintage, so they’re falling apart on stage and it’s been very stressful sometimes. I lost my luggage last year right before tour, it was full of costumes that I designed. Literally, I was like Cinderella doing it myself, sewing that shit and designing everything and taking pieces I already had and remixing them for the stage. And then it got stolen in L.A. a day before my debut show, the first show of the tour. But then I posted online and I was like, “Everything got lost, if anybody wants to send me stuff.” I got an overwhelming, amazing response from so many people who just sent me a bunch of stuff. Fans that made me shit, custom pieces. It’s a tradition now everywhere I go. For example, I was just in Chile and Argentina and Sao Paulo and fans hit me up being like, “I made you this for your show.” And then I wear it and it’s just very heart-warming. I’m like a walking collage sometimes when I perform. I love details and storytelling.

JEFFERS: For sure. How did you get ready for the show? What was in your system? 

LOVESTORY: I was trying to be like, “I’m going to be the best I can be today.” Just be healthy and practice. I had the mentality of a K-pop trainee. I woke up. I had a lot of cold brew coffee. I was asking if there was any Adderall around, but there wasn’t, so just cold brew, cold brew, cold brew, cold brew. Then I had a little chia pudding situation. I went to the gym. I did some yoga. Pamela Reif, that’s my girl. She’s this Russian doll that just does Pilates and looks amazing. Then I went to soundcheck and hung out backstage. Soundcheck was really quick. I love to be super fast in my soundchecks. It’s five minutes. I got a massage and then I got my nails done. I got Boats & Bikinis, that’s what this nail polish is called.

JEFFERS: Love that.

LOVESTORY: Cute little nails. Then I started doing my makeup. The theme was ocean, with the blue eyeshadow. Then I met the stylist and then I met the hairstylist and then I had some salad and chicken, and then I went to the festival and that’s it. Just preparing my body to perform. I feel like I want to be a stunt woman one day or something, so I like to work out.

 

JEFFERS: Who would you do stunts for?

LOVESTORY: I don’t know. James Bond.

JEFFERS: I feel like you’d be a really good Bond Girl.

LOVESTORY: I would love to be a Bond Girl. If they’re casting for the next one, hit me up.

JEFFERS: Isabella Lovestory is like a Bond Girl name already.

LOVESTORY: A pop star who’s a spy. That’d be sick.