Rodrigo Massa has many talents.

Currently seen on the Univision/Netflix series El Dragon: Return of the Warriors, the Brazilian actor released his newest single ‘If I Close My Eyes (Sin Mirar Atras) in English and Spanish. His full album La Fiesta is currently available.

LRM Online had an exclusive interview with Rodrigo Massa on his music projects.

Read the full interview below.

Rodrigo Massa: Hi Nancy! How are you?

Nancy Tapia: I’m good. How are you doing?

Rodrigo Massa: I’m good. I’m here at home working on the promotion of the album. Vero has been keeping me busy during this whole nightmare that we’re living right now.

Nancy Tapia: Well, that’s great! I’m sure that with this nightmare we are keeping busy and not losing our mind.

Rodrigo Massa: Yeah, exactly. That’s important.

Nancy Tapia: Rodrigo, I am very pleased to speak to you. You’re a singer, an actor, a host, songwriter, composer, polyglot. Anything I’m missing in there?

Rodrigo Massa: [Laughs] Well, there are a few things. [Laughs] I always try to explore different fields of knowledge. We might add being a pianist soon. I am taking lessons right now. In a few months, we can add that to the list.

Nancy Tapia: Next time we speak, I am adding pianists. Let’s talk about your album. I did have a chance to check out your album on Spotify. If you don’t mind me saying, I really liked the beat of your Portuguese songs. I didn’t see the English or Spanish version of them. I speak Spanish so I was able to pick up you know words here and there, but the beats were awesome.

Rodrigo Massa: I have thought about that because a lot of people have been saying that to me. I wasn’t expecting that to be honest. I made those four songs by thinking about Brazil, and what is hot right now in Brazil.

We have this thing called banqui carioac and we have batucada. We have these music genres that are very popular right now. I wanted to get into that market because it’s my home country. People should know that there is a Brazilian out there who’s doing well on Netflix and who also sings.

In Brazil, people don’t know a lot about me. Now it’s starting to change because of the show. I just wanted to give them a little bit of what they’re used to hearing.

I didn’t really know if that would work with other markets, but apparently it does. Everybody keeps telling me, “Oh, I love the songs in Portuguese. They’re my favorite.” Maybe a variant in Spanish or English would be reasonable and I could do.

Nancy Tapia: I thought of Shakira. She did the crossover with a CD in English and the separate CD in Spanish. The thought of that when I was listening to your Portuguese melodies would be really awesome. And I bet those songs would be playing in clubs.

Rodrigo Massa: Oh, totally. I explored that in this album. There’s a song that’s like half and half. These songs start in Portuguese and Spanish or vice versa. Maybe I could do that with English as well. It would help penetrate these markets like Canada where I live right now and the United States. People would enjoy that.

Those are all things that we’re looking into and we’re getting started. The album was just released like a month ago. There are so many things that we want to do with it. We’re exploring all the options right now.

Nancy Tapia: The song, ‘If I Close My Eyes’ is definitely the new proposal song theme. After watching the video, you can get kind of teary eye. You can find that happiness out there.

Rodrigo Massa: That song is very special for me because I’m very romantic. I didn’t write this song to someone. I just put myself in the shoes of someone who is ready to commit and is ready to tell someone that they wanted to spend the rest of my life with them.

Also, I decided to write something thinking about what I would like to say to my soulmate when that moment comes. Hopefully, it comes soon. In the meantime, it’s this imagination exercise.

I’m one of those composers and songwriters where I can either write about something real that I’m feeling right now or want to say this to my ex. Or I can write about something hypothetically if I were in this situation on what would I like to say. This is something that happened with ‘If I Close My Eyes.’ I’m so glad to hear that you enjoyed the song.

Nancy Tapia: For sure! I hope that song is in the background of eventually my proposal. Just throwing it out there. [Laughs]

Rodrigo Massa: Oh, my God. That would make me so happy. Yes, seriously. I mean just give me a call and I will go sing it at your wedding. [Laughs]

Nancy Tapia: Oh, my God! I am going to hold you to it! I am going to contact you.

Rodrigo Massa: No, but I am serious! When I released that video and that single, I would love to sing this song at a wedding. It hasn’t happened yet. I’m waiting for someone to invite me because I said it out there on social media. I’m waiting for someone to be like, “Oh, I’m going to get married. Come sing ‘If I Close My Eyes’ at my wedding.” But, it hasn’t happened.

Nancy Tapia: I’m on it. I’m definitely on it. No worries.

Rodrigo Massa: [Laughs] Awesome. Exciting.

Nancy Tapia: You have the romantic melodies. Then you also throw in the upbeat ‘La Fiesta’ a good combo.

Rodrigo Massa: It was a decision that wasn’t that easy to make. I’ve been focusing on love songs and people were really enjoying it. But, I’m not just about love songs and being romantic.

I am also young. I like to go out and have fun at a dance with my friends. So, I did also want to show that part of me to the public, particularly to my fans. That part of me is always there.

When I sit down to write a song it is not about having my heart broken in which a lot of songs my songs are about. But, there are good days where I’m just jogging at the beach and this cool reggaeton beat in my head. Let’s see where this goes. So I do write a lot of fun songs as well.

I haven’t released them in quite a while since I was 23. It made a lot more sense to pick it back then. Right now, I just decided to do this album with both universes. The industry wants you to stick to one thing and people are often confused. People often give you that advice of like, “Don’t be all over the place. Focus on one thing.”

Humans are not like that. It’s not a story that is told only in this way. We are stories that are told in so many different ways. That’s what I wanted to show in this album.

Nancy Tapia: I understand you had an exclusive for La Fiesta video. Congratulations! Can you share about that? 

Rodrigo Massa: Thank you! I’ve been bragging about it with so many people. It’s so exciting. Having an exclusive on Telemundo. A national premiere of the video that reached millions of people.

Nancy Tapia: Especially right now. We’re all in tune with what’s new on TV.

Rodrigo Massa: Everyone is at home. They’re watching a lot more TV than they used to. The one thing that I was sure that they were going to take some parts of the video out and not show—the controversial scenes. There’s a gay kiss. A threesome under the shower with a boy and a girl. We are wearing clothes. It’s not explicit.

I thought they’re going to take it because it’s 11 a.m. with kids are watching. They didn’t and that was pretty cool. That’s a huge step! A lot of artists can brag about that. I had my music video with a gay kiss and all these very sensual scenes shown on Telemundo at 11 a.m. That’s a pretty cool thing to put on your resume.

Nancy Tapia: By you telling me this, it means that means Latin America is starting to be a little more open. We are all the same humans and we have choices.

Rodrigo Massa: It’s a process that Latin America in general right now. Some countries are a lot more behind when it comes to all these LGBT issues.

In my country Brazil, we are super open-minded. It is something that has been present in Brazilian telenovelas and even like Big Brother. There’s a lot of that kind of content. Gay celebrities are very outspoken about it.

Other countries are a lot more conservative. Kids growing up there and thinking–there’s something wrong with me and I cannot tell anyone about it. I need to live with this huge secret because if I tell my mom or dad they’re going to kick me out of the house.

At least half of my followers are within that community. As public figures who have a huge LGBT following, we have the responsibility of speaking to those kids who feel alone in a way so they can feel that they are not alone out there. A lot of people like me out there, they’re doing well. They are living their dreams. They don’t have to hide. That’s the message that we’re trying to express. Being on Telemundo at 11 a.m. with that passionate gay kiss is a huge step.

Nancy Tapia: Again, congratulations on your national exclusive. Well, I love talking about your album. We will be in touch after my proposal to sing at my wedding. You’re invited.

Rodrigo Massa: [Laughs] Seriously, you can pick me up on it.

Nancy Tapia: Sounds good. You take care, suerte!

Rodrigo Massa: Gracias!

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Source: LRM Online Exclusive, Rodrigo Massa YouTube