Sebastián Yatra is still counting his blessings. Following a whirlwind past few years which have included stints acting for screen and stage, the Colombian superstar is taking a moment to catch his breath and appreciate the present. 

The two-time GRAMMY nominee has taken note of life's everyday miracles and channeled that celestial energy into his most vulnerable and romantic collection of songs yet, His latest album, Milagro, is out May 16.

"It's the happiness era," Yatra tells GRAMMY.com. "I'm grateful for everything. I'm so in love with life, everything that I get to do, and with this opportunity to live a different experience each day. It seems very magical."

Yatra emerged from Medellín's reggaeton scene in 2016 —  led at the time by J Balvin, Maluma, and Karol G — and set himself apart by releasing perreo-ready hits alongside heartfelt ballads like "No Hay Nadie Más." Yatra was later hand-picked as the opening act for Ricky Martin and Enrique Iglesias' co-headlining tour in 2021, which established him as next in line to their Latin pop throne.

The heartthrob with a heart of gold has since received 14 Latin GRAMMY nominations and awards, including Best Pop Song for the Roy Orbison-esque "Tacones Rojes" and Best Pop Albums for Dharma at the 2022 Latin GRAMMYs. The following year, Yatra took to the Latin GRAMMY stage to perform a medley of "Energia Bacana" and "Vagabundo." 

In the three years leading up to Milagro, Yatra has stretched his artistry even further. He starred in the Netflix series Once Upon a Time... Happily Never After and made his Broadway debut as Billy Flynn in "Chicago." 

Milagro, Yatra's fourth LP, reflects this personal and emotional growth with wide-eyed wonder. Album standouts include the ethereal "Templo de Piceas" featuring Mexican singer Humbe and the intoxicating reggaeton of "2AM" with Spanish provocateur Bad Gyal. Yatra also returns to his ballad roots in the introspective "Los Domingos," the stomping folk-pop of "La Pelirroja," and the gospel-infused "Amen." His father Aníbal Obando Agudelo features in an off-the-cuff moment as well.

Ahead of Milagro, Yatra looked back on his decade-plus in the industry and opened up his new outlook on life and his sentimental LP.

It's been 12 years since you released your first single. What have you learned about yourself in that time?

I learned that I'm always going to be like a little kid. No matter how much I grow, there's always going to be a lot more things to discover because the world is infinite. It's mega exciting. 

I'm getting super involved in each part of my creativity, the live shows that we're doing this summer, the album, the visuals, and even the storytelling in my social media. It's fun to take more control because you appreciate a lot of the things that maybe you took for granted before or that had a lot of room for improvement, but that you didn't have time for. My goal is to make a mark in people's hearts and help them see the world and feel it from a place that makes us realize the miracle that this is. 

What's your secret to having longevity as a Latin pop star?

I think it's always being open to learning new things and never thinking that you cracked the code. Maybe you crack a code one day, but the next day there's a different code. So you have to figure out how to reinvent yourself every single day. 

You have to be open to love. Do whatever it is you’re crafting because of your love for it and not because of the result you want to get to. Obviously, we all have goals, but the results are never in our hands completely. It's about knowing what direction you want to go, but letting life surprise you, and focusing on the art, the music, the emotions, and what you're translating from the universe to a three-minute song. 

You have previously won two Latin GRAMMY awards. What did those wins for Best Pop Album and Best Pop Song mean to you?

For me, that was like my Everest. Some people have the huge goal of wanting to climb Everest one day. That goal for me was to win a Latin GRAMMY. 

It was such a beautiful moment and I will carry it with me forever, but it was time to go down the mountain, chill there for a little bit, and see what was my next mountain because I still love climbing. Now there's different goals and things that I want to do. I hope to keep singing at the Latin GRAMMYs and be a part of the GRAMMYs for a long time. I was able to have the opportunity to be the host of the 2023 Latin GRAMMYs in Sevilla, which was awesome. Let's see what happens at this year's Latin GRAMMYs.

Would you say that getting to acting and Broadway help shaped the artist that you are today?

Definitely! I think once you do Broadway, you transform into a different human being. That's what Ricky Martin told me when I told him that I was going to do Broadway: "Get ready because there's going to be a Sebas before Broadway and a Sebas after Broadway." It also taught me a lot about choreography, not just dance-wise, but in general throughout a show. I learned how to tell a story from beginning to end and to focus on the details and the importance of each detail.

Throughout your career, you've had hits with ballads like "No Hay Nadie Más" and "Cristina." How do you feel about returning to returning your ballad roots in Milagro with songs like "La Pelirroja?"

It was necessary for me in a way. It's just what flows out of me the most. The most exciting thing for me as a songwriter and as an artist about what's happened with my ballads is…seeing that enormous vision I had come to life. 

"No Hay Nadie Más" is one of the most-viewed ballads in Spanish ever. That's a song that I wrote on the couch in my house by myself about my first girlfriend when I was 21. I just wrote it to send her a song, so that we wouldn't be mad at each other because we had a small fight. Nobody wanted to produce that song. No one believed in the song. I believed in it and that was enough for things to start happening with it. It ended up being what it is because there was so much belief behind it and it came from a real place.

What is the inspiration behind your new album and why did you want to name it Milagro?

I always wanted to have an album called Milagro. I just didn't know exactly the reason and then I found a book, which talked about a miracle being something as simple as seeing things from a different perspective. I thought that was so beautiful to change your way of seeing things because you can't change the outside world right away. It takes time, but you can change your way of seeing and perceiving it. 

My brother writes books and his last one includes a line that says: “Life has so many miracles that you realize that everything is a miracle.” That blew my mind a bit. In the videos, I also wanted to portray all those things we see as normal, but that are everyday miracles like a hug, dancing, being able to say sorry, family, venting, and friendship. We portrayed all these different miracles in different songs. 

Humbe is also known for his emotional and sentimental songs. How would you describe the experience of collaborating with him for "Templo de Piceas?"

The experience was just as magical as the song we did together. When you guys hear that song, you're going to understand how special it was for us to write it and how excited we are to share it with the world. I think it's going to be a lot of people's favorite song on the album just because it's so different. It's like a meditation. It's so calming and it feels like waking up next to the person that has your heart. 

Your dad appears at the end of the album in the song "Óleo de Mujer Con Sombrero." Why was it important for you to make him a part of this album?

My dad's my favorite artist; he's so good. He's the first person I ever heard live and I think it was worth it for people to hear his voice around the world. This is one of the songs that he's always played and I thought it was a perfect song for us to do together. 

It's also recorded live because my dad's never recorded in a studio or anything. He plays with his guitar and I was like, "Okay, let's just record this and I'll sing on top of it with you." It's cool because it's not edited or anything. It just is what it is.

You have previously said that you would love to perform "2 AM" with Bad Gyal at LGBTQ+ Pride events. What does it mean for you to have a large following from that community that connects with you and your music?

I've always had a connection with human beings, and everyone in general. I have a lot of gay friends and we connect through our way of seeing life and our way of feeling love. They're just people with different sexual orientations, but for me, it's all the same way of feeling love. That's why there's this connection between me and the LGBTQ+ community because we feel love exactly the same way and we're just as open with our hearts and our emotions. I can't wait to sing this song in Spain this summer. 

What do you want to accomplish next in your career?

There will be some surprises for sure. Let's see if I sing in English this year finally. I'll be doing the Entre Tanta Gente Summer Tour in Spain. I want to tour the world. In these next couple of years, I would love to tour everywhere. That's my big dream to get to know all different types of cultures. For the future, there's a lot of things I imagine, but what I'm most excited about is the things that I can't even fathom yet.