July 2026 Featured Artist
Learning to Lean on Music, Family and Faith
An Interview with Adassa
Adassa
Photo Credit: Gabriel Candiani |
Adassa is a Golden Globe, Oscar, and Grammy-winning artist, best known as the voice of Dolores in Disney’s Encanto and as a featured vocalist on the Billboard #1 hit “We Don’t Talk About Bruno.” She has performed at the Grammys, Oscars, American Music Awards, and American Idol. She regularly headlines Disney concerts worldwide and is currently a featured guest artist on the Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s world tour (2024–2026). As the global face of Disney’s Encanto campaign, Adassa led over 100 international press junkets and appeared monthly as a headlining guest at Comicons across the U.S., performing for thousands of Disney superfans.
With a four-octave vocal range and writing credits in the sync catalogs of Warner, Universal and SONY, Adassa brings both polish and purpose to the mic. She’s now stepping into country music with a sound that’s genre-bending, rhythm-forward, and emotionally rooted — in line with the evolving country landscape led by artists like Walker Hayes, Shaboozey, and Post Malone. Her brand partnerships span Pepsi, McDonald’s, Toyota, LEGO and Secret, and she recently voiced a guest role in the animated series The Tuttle Twins. A wife, mother of seven, and creative partner to producer Gabriel Candiani, Adassa’s work is rooted in authenticity, strength and redemption, which is illustrated in her memoir Love Keeps Showing Up: Music, Messes, and Miracles. "The secret is to stop trying to make things happen. Follow the path." ~ Adassa |
Karen Maserjian Shan, assistant editor, recently spoke with musician, performer and writer Adassa about achieving her musical dreams, overcoming challenges, and divine timing.
You’ve faced major medical problems from infancy — including total paralysis resulting from COVID-19 – along with financial instability and career challenges on your way to an award-winning career in music and performance. Through it all, music, family and faith have kept you grounded through every stage and moving forward. How so?
I think I wouldn’t be anything without my faith. Through hardships of health and with family and the craziness of being a mom, I learned my greatest lessons through faith. I’ve learned to lean on community and lean on faith.
You’ve faced major medical problems from infancy — including total paralysis resulting from COVID-19 – along with financial instability and career challenges on your way to an award-winning career in music and performance. Through it all, music, family and faith have kept you grounded through every stage and moving forward. How so?
I think I wouldn’t be anything without my faith. Through hardships of health and with family and the craziness of being a mom, I learned my greatest lessons through faith. I’ve learned to lean on community and lean on faith.
You’ve lived in Florida, Columbia, Honduras, Tennessee, Houston, Utah, Mexico, Arizona and traveled extensively for your career and family. Having called yourself and husband -- the music producer, composer and songwriter Gabriel Candiani -- experience-chasers, you’ve now settled in Tennessee. What changed?
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I’m 100 percent American and 100 percent Columbian because that heritage stays with you. You’re trying to seek the place where you can have both — the best of both worlds. We have finally found the cure. Tennessee has been the place that we have always come back to, and now this is the place that we really want to stay.
Now that you’ve settled in one spot, what do you hope your family has gained from living in various places? I think that we learn from the experiences we have and that influences our music as well. With our children, we’ve told them from the beginning, we’re giving you all the experiences because we don’t know the kind of world you’re going to be stepping into. [Our children] know what it is to experience a different culture, to experience a different place, different weather, different people, and to learn. It’s helped them appreciate everything they’ve had in a deeper sense because sometimes people get comfortable. One thing I’ve learned is that every experience we’ve had has taught us [something], and we’ve grown and learned [from those experiences]. Some things have been wonderful to go through. Other things have been very hard, but I know it’s changed our character for the better. |
Bilingual Afro-Latino Singer and Performer Adassa is Stepping into Country Music with a Genre-Bending Sound
Photo Credit: Gabriel Candiani |
Your husband, Gabriel Candiani, is also your music producer, co-songwriter and composer. What’s it like working together?
I think that for my husband and I, our love language and our therapy language is music…and as we’re writing it, we’re understanding ourselves even more.
That’s what I love about producing and songwriting with my husband, because we’re living the same experience, but we can see it from separate angles. At the end of the song or the end of the day, we get to appreciate living what we’re living through.
I think that for my husband and I, our love language and our therapy language is music…and as we’re writing it, we’re understanding ourselves even more.
That’s what I love about producing and songwriting with my husband, because we’re living the same experience, but we can see it from separate angles. At the end of the song or the end of the day, we get to appreciate living what we’re living through.
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"This time around, doing music for me is just a place of telling my truth, and if one person hears it or one million, it makes no difference to me. I need to speak from a place of truth." ~ Adassa |
How has your approach to music changed over the years?
At the beginning of my relationship with music, I just wanted to win. That’s a dangerous place when you have spirituality in your life because then, who determines what is good and what is not good and where you’re crossing the line? This time around, doing music for me is just a place of telling my truth, and if one person hears it or one million, it makes no difference to me. I need to speak from a place of truth. |
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How do your career and being a mom of seven children intersect? With my kids, we involve them as much as they would like to be involved in music. That being said, we understand the difficulties of this industry, and it’s a hard thing to navigate if you don’t have your principles in check. After my first 10 years in the industry, [things changed], and that is one thing I try to tell my kids. If you are going to tell your story through any art — and a lot of them are illustrators, we have one that loves doing animation, my sixteen-year-old wants to get into music — I just tell them to come from a place of honesty. Because if you’re coming from a place of wanting to be loved by the public, public opinion changes like the weather. It could rain one day, and then it’s sunny the next. I involve them in music, and they sometimes come with me on tour. I try to stay close to home because I love my family. This is what I do it for. I don’t do music and then have kids. Congratulations on the publication of your memoir, "Love Keeps Showing Up: Music, Messes, and Miracles," (Shadow Mountain, April 2026), including QR links to 12 original songs. In sharing your story, you talk about letting go of perfectionism and focusing on showing up instead. What does that mean?
Perfection is something that can sometimes be dangerous. Even though I choose to try to follow a path that I’ve been given and often know is right, I know that I can’t [follow it] by myself. I’m in the pursuit of trying to be as good as I can possibly be and understanding that I may fall short, and that’s okay because, as long as I’m moving forward, that is the main objective. |
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Click Book Cover for Excerpt in Sanctuary
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When I was sick [with COVID-19], my goodness, my community came to my aid — people from the church and friends of ours to help us. It was hard to accept their help because I’m a person that wants to have everything under control, and I needed to understand that perfection doesn’t exist. I needed to step back and watch people blossom.
Was everything as perfect as I thought it needed to be? No, but I needed to understand that there is more beauty in watching someone flourish than trying to chase your perception of perfection. Can you talk about finding your way to multiplatform, award-winning successes through adversity? The secret is to stop trying to make things happen. Follow the path. It’s easy to say, 'this is who I want people to see' and form this character. We all live where we have a certain character that we put out in front of other people. And then we go home and [be] our true self. I used to be so scared about everything. I was afraid of losing my opportunity, but when you’re scared of losing your life, nothing else matters. I was on the brink of death [from COVID-19]. I was not able to move a finger. I could not even speak. When everything is taken from you, you truly understand what is valuable in life. And your choice is so much more valuable when you finally can take it. So now my choice is to be my true self. |
What’s next?
Right now, I am promoting my new book, and we have the album that goes with the book. I’m going to [be on tour in Canada], so I’ll be sharing some music from Encanto and doing interviews for the book. Then I’ll go to Washington, and I’ll be on a Disney cruise with producer and performer Susan Egan. We’ll be doing music from the film as well as some classics from Disney. I’m just open to life. There’s no expectation from me. I used to live in the expectation of the next thing or the desire of accomplishment, and now I just live to live.
Where do you find sanctuary?
I find it in the arms of my husband late at night, when all the kids are in bed. I find it in the smile of my children to know that they’re alive to live another day. I find it in the scriptures I read every morning. I find it in every bird that flies by my window and every squirrel looking for nuts out by my tree. I find every moment has its moment in which I can find sanctuary.
Right now, I am promoting my new book, and we have the album that goes with the book. I’m going to [be on tour in Canada], so I’ll be sharing some music from Encanto and doing interviews for the book. Then I’ll go to Washington, and I’ll be on a Disney cruise with producer and performer Susan Egan. We’ll be doing music from the film as well as some classics from Disney. I’m just open to life. There’s no expectation from me. I used to live in the expectation of the next thing or the desire of accomplishment, and now I just live to live.
Where do you find sanctuary?
I find it in the arms of my husband late at night, when all the kids are in bed. I find it in the smile of my children to know that they’re alive to live another day. I find it in the scriptures I read every morning. I find it in every bird that flies by my window and every squirrel looking for nuts out by my tree. I find every moment has its moment in which I can find sanctuary.
