ROCKLAND — When Latin soul singer Yelena (La Rosa) Rodriguez was 7, her father brought home a DVD of “Selena,” the 1997 film about Selena Quintanilla Pérez, the Texas-born Tejano singer who was on the rise when she was murdered at 23, in 1995.
“I just loved everything about her. Her artistry and the way she went about performing,” the singer said. “Her style. The closeness with her family.”
As a girl, Yelena, who sometimes goes by La Rosa, sang along.
“That’s when I realized I could sing,” she said in an interview with the Globe. In 2022, Yelena was the first winner of the Boston Music Award for Latin Artist of the Year. She has several lush, sultry singles out about love, loss, and resilience. Her latest is “La Rosa.” On Sunday, Oct. 13, she’ll perform at CultureFest at Belleforge Arts Center in Medfield.
Where to find her: linktr.ee/Yelena_Music
Age: 27
Originally from: Boston
Lives in: Brockton
Making a living: “I’m not at that point where I’m doing it full time, but come next year, my hope is that I will be able to,” Yelena said. She works as a crisis counselor for 988 Lifeline.
Studio: She books studios in Boston and on the South Shore. We met at Stillpoint Sound.
How she started: Yelena’s Cuban father and Dominican mother have always supported her passion. When she decided to make a go of a music career, they had doubts.
“My parents are both immigrants. They come to this country and all they’re thinking about is, ‘We want our child to have something that is feasible, something that’s realistic career-wise,’” she said.
“Because of that, I was always fighting myself,” she added. “But music always came back to me. I always got signs: You are meant to become a singer, a performer. This is your life path.”
In school at Emmanuel College, she plugged into Boston’s music scene. She released her first single in January 2020.
What she makes: The singer melds soul’s emotional and vocal passion with Latin beats. “I started off with R&B and soul,” she said. “The more I worked on my music career, and also my personal development, I realized I really want to do music in Spanish. I want to be seen as a Latin artist, but I want to do it my way.”
How she works: “A song comes to me every day. It could be when I’m in the shower. It could be when I’m driving. It could be when I’m home and not doing anything,” she said.
She writes a song, finds a beat she likes, and takes it all to the studio, where she and her engineer collaborate on the sound. She hasn’t partnered with a producer — yet.
“Now I’m in a place where I’m starting to connect with producers that could work with me and create the type of music that I want,” she said.
Advice for artists: “Don’t focus on, ‘I think I should do this because so-and-so is doing this now.’ Listen to yourself and don’t give up on what you feel is meant for you.”
CULTUREFEST 2024 10 a.m.-3 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 13, Belleforge Arts Center, 45 Hospital Rd., Medfield. Free — registration encouraged. bellforge.org/event/culturefest-2024
Cate McQuaid can be reached at catemcquaid@gmail.com. Follow her on Instagram @cate.mcquaid.