Every Wednesday until August 9, as part of SummerScreen — Brooklyn’s free outdoor movie and concert series in McCarren Park — TIDAL has introduced the borough to a few rising stars in the music industry. Last week during SummerScreen’s Selena night, OurBKSocial caught up with the newest Roc Nation Latin signee, Karen Rodriguez, before her performance on TIDAL’s Rising stage.

American Idol fans may remember Karen from her journey on season 10. She blew audiences away with her performances of “Hero” by Mariah Carey, “If You Had MyLove” by Jennifer Lopez, but it was her rendition of “I Could Fall in Love” by Selena that helped the Miami born singer move into the Top 12. Though her run in the competition came to an end shortly there-after, Karen broke barriers by becoming the show’s first bi-lingual contestant to make it into the Top 13.

Dubbing Selena and Jennifer Lopez as her major inspirations, Karen was determined to continue her musical journey. She began to use YouTube as a key source to reaching more people and profile her talent. Preforming both English and Spanish covers of songs like Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” and Drake’s “One Dance.” Her Spanglish cover of Adele’s “Hello” went viral, surpassing over 10 million YouTube views, and charted #5 onUS iTunes Latino chart and #7 Billboard Latin Digital charts.

Karen has also sung background vocals for Latin Grammy award winning song “Vivir Mi Vida” by Marc Anthony which allowed her to meet with Roc Nation Latin’s CEO, Romeo Santos. Santos took interest in her immediately and by the end of 2016 Karen had officially signed with Roc Nation Latin. In May she released her first song as a signed solo artist, “Happy April Fools” or in Spanish “La Tonta de Abril.”

OurBKSocial: What’s your favorite Selena song?

Karen: “Oh my gosh, I have so many. I love all of her music since she was a little girl but my favorite is “No Me Quedas Mas/ I Could Fall In Love” has to be one of my favorites.”

As a new artist in this competitive industry it’s important to have your own flavor, do you plan to adapt to one genre of music?

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“I will always implement both English and Spanish in my music because that’s who I am. I don’t limit myself to one specific genre of music so I’m gonna test the waters in everything. When I’m writing my music I don’t sit down and say ‘alright I’m going to write a Ballard or I’m gonna write something up tempo’ I just go ahead and do whatever comes from the heart.”

What was the inspiration behind “Happy April Fools/La Tonta de Abril?”

“You know what? The song was inspired by true events. I was actually waiting for a guy to show up to a party and he stood me up – on April Fools Day. It  had just turned 12 and I was waiting and he never showed up, so that day I went home super sad and I wrote this song that same night. I wrote the whole song in English, took a nap, woke up and wrote the Spanish translation of it.”

What inspired the idea to shoot the video in Coney Island?

“It was a collective decision between me and my mentor, Romeo Santos. We always envisioned the song to have like this dreamy kind of dream sequence. Being in a deserted Coney Island with a beautiful dress and kind of like having a Cinderella story gone wrong. The whole fact that the guy never showed up to the party, he’s kind of in and out of Coney Island, I was like chasing him –It kinda gave people their own way to figure out what was going on and make their own assumptions and create a story that they can identify with themselves.”

This is a TIDAL event, and the music service is still new for a lot of people. What is your favorite part about the music streaming company?

“I love everything about TIDAL. Just the layout, the way that the music is presented, the little spinning rotating disk – I love it. It’s so sleek and chic but I also love the behind the scene. It makes you feel closer to the artist. So like all these little sneak previews and things that are only available on Tidal will make you feel closer. You have access to things not a lot of people have, so I do a lot of work with Tidal like Q and A’s and I love my fans to be tuned in because they can always learn about me. Besides having first dibs in the release of a lot of artists that I love, I love that so I’m so excited to be part of the family.”

How can we keep up with Karen?

“I’m very open on social media. I’m always responding to people’s messages on Facebook, on Twitter – I just engage with fans because it just keeps me grounded. People sometime, you know get surprised like “Oh my gosh, I didn’t think you’d respond. If I have a chance to eat something, I’m always with my phone. I can take a second or two to respond to beautiful messages.

You can follow Karen Rodriguez on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Watch her video “Happy April Fools/La Tonta de Abril” above and subscribe to her YouTube channel here.