'Elite' star Danna on making 'peace' with early fame, why she quit acting for music

Danna has mastered the art of playing a role, so now she’s flipping the script.

Born Danna Paola Rivera Munguía, the Mexican pop singer who recently shortened her stage name from Danna Paola to Danna, entered show business at the age of 5. She cut her teeth as an actress with wholesome roles in the youth telenovelas “María Belén,” “Pablo y Andrea” and “Atrévete a Soñar,” among others. Danna’s star continued to rise into adulthood with leading roles in the Spanish-language dramas “La Doña” and Netflix’s “Elite.”

But after two decades of bringing characters to life, Danna quit acting in 2020. Having released a series of pop albums between the ages of 6 and 25, Danna committed to a full-time music career. Her newest album “Childstar,” which drops at 8 p.m. ET April 11, finds the 28-year-old singer reconciling her unique upbringing with a search for self-identity.

“Building myself through characters all the time and through different personalities was really crazy, so that’s why I think I started molding myself based on many personalities,” Danna tells USA TODAY in an interview conducted in English and Spanish. “And in therapy, I understood that there were things that were really (messed) up and that didn’t allow me to be my most authentic person. So, for this album, I made my peace with that.”

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But for those expecting a cynical album about the pitfalls of fame, think again. The 13-track LP is largely a collection of cathartic dance-pop, in which Danna combs through the kaleidoscope of life experiences that have placed her at the center of her own story.

“I found myself as an artist. I found my voice, my way to produce my music, how I want to write my own songs,” Danna says. “It’s a beautiful journey, but at the same time, it has been really hard and emotional.”

How the ‘darkness’ of depression inspired Danna on ‘Childstar’

A face smudged with jet black tears. A fishnet-clad devil trashing a dressing room. Bodies writhing in a strobe light-filled nightclub. Unlike the bright spotlight of child stardom, the video imagery for “Childstar” is moody and gritty, which Danna says is a tribute to her battle with depression.

“I wanted to deconstruct the image people had about me in this pink, perfect world and this sweetie thing with this aesthetic,” Danna says. “This darkness is what made me find myself as an artist, and if it wasn’t for that depression and the hole I was living in, I wouldn’t have discovered myself.”

Danna also channels this darkness on the album’s opening track “The Fall,” a mournful ballad in which the singer accepts her inner turmoil but vows to rise above the pain, a lesson she’s learned from living in the public eye. “You’re going to see me fall thousands of time because I’m not perfect, but I’m going to make art and music from it,” she says.

“I’m a human being, and I make mistakes too every day, public or not public,” Danna says. “I don’t want to be perfect. I just want to learn about life. I think that’s something that’s given me a lot of peace today.”

Danna broke free from the ‘comfort zone’ of acting with music

Danna’s final acting role before diving back into music was Lu Montesinos, a sharp-tongued schoolgirl on the teen crime thriller “Elite.” Danna, who won a Premios Juventud award for her performance, said she ultimately left acting because she was “tired of being someone else instead of discovering myself.”

“As an actress, I enjoyed so much being in another skin and another world in my mind, and I became that person,” Danna says. “It takes a lot to detach myself from a character after three, four, six months. Lucretia, which was my last character, really left particles of her DNA in me.”

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But Danna hasn’t left the dramatic artform completely behind. The singer, who performed an emotional monologue for the “Childstar” trailer, said she’s been able to fuse the heightened emotion of acting with the unrestricted self-expression she’s found in music.

“I think that I’m feeling free making music,” Danna says. “It’s not because I hate acting, but it was a comfort zone just being an actress and not believing in myself as an artist and as a singer. I love singing, and interpreting a song and really feeling what I wrote is really important to me.”

Why ‘Childstar’ makes Danna feel ‘empowered’

On “Tenemos Que Hablar,” one of the songs that rounds out “Childstar,” Danna takes a sobering look at a relationship that has crumbled in the wake of the singer’s newfound independence. “Today, my happiness doesn’t depend on anyone,” she sings over a pulsing dark synthpop beat.

“In the end, happiness is a choice. It’s a thing you that you have to create in your life every day,” Danna says. “When we put our happiness in others and depend on them, we limit ourselves to create our own magic, our own world and our way of viewing life.”

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Part of Danna’s happiness today comes from the self-realization of her renewed creativity.

“In every inch of this album is my DNA, so that’s what I’m really, really proud of,” Danna says. “Because for me, now is the first time where I’m really comfortable with all the things I’m saying: with my music, with the way I dress, with my sexuality. I’m empowered.”