Meet Bad Gyal, the Spanish singer-songwriter making waves with her new album Más Cara

Spanish singer-songwriter Alba Farelo, better known as Bad Gyal, is making waves with her second studio album Más Cara, which dropped on March 6.

Read on to find out more about Bad Gyal.

She was a fashion design student

Alba Farelo was born in March 1997 in Vilassar de Mar in Catalonia, an autonomous community in Spain. She is the daughter of actor Eduard Farelo, who is known for his voice acting work in films like Transformers (2007) and episodes of the Star Wars series.

The eldest of five siblings, Bad Gyal recalls wanting to have an “amazing wardrobe” in a 2017 interview with Pitchfork, and upcycling her friend’s hand-me-downs to fit her own aesthetic. At 19 years old, she was studying fashion design while spending her evenings working at a call centre, before she eventually dropped out of college to pursue music full time.

Pursuing a career in music

Now 29, Bad Gyal recalls discovering artists like Sean Paul in her formative years, and eventually dancehall – a popular genre of Jamaican music that has heavily influenced her music.

While she was at university, the then 19-year-old uploaded her adaptation of Rihanna’s 2016 track “Work”, titled “Pai”, on YouTube – sung in her native language Catalan. Her track was played 14,000 times in the first three days after it was uploaded, garnering attention from Catalan radio.

After her initial success, Bad Gyal dropped out of college to pursue music and released her mixtape Slow Wine in November 2016, followed by another Worldwide Angel (2018), the EP Warm Up (2021), her debut album La Joia (2024) and her latest Más Cara.

Dealing with accusations of cultural appropriation