Paulina Goto, Mexican pop singer, releases new single "Cuidame de Mi"

Paulina Goto released the single "Cuidame de Mi" on August 14, the first taste of a new stretch of music she says grew out of a period of self-reflection. She wrote the song with Cecy Leos, Hector Mena and Pepe Portilla, and recorded it at the studio 3KMZ, run by the production trio Tres Kamikazes. In an interview with Rolling Stone en Espanol, Goto said the song is about self-sabotage, the ways people can become their own worst enemies, and about the people who stay close during a hard stretch instead of leaving someone to go through it alone. "No one can save you," she said, "but when the people who love you are there, that's enough."

Goto has been a public figure in Mexican pop for 18 years, first as a member of the group EME 15 and then as a solo artist since 2010. Her most recent album, Natural, arrived in 2025 and leaned further into her roots than earlier records, working Latin rhythms and touches of salsa into her usual pop songwriting.

The new single also marks a turn toward what Goto calls her shadow work, the emotions she says she was raised to believe she couldn't show: vulnerability, anger, jealousy, even sensuality. She described the process as turning that shadow into music instead of keeping it locked away, and said the new songs sit further from the brighter side of her catalog than anything she has released before. "A songwriting session is sometimes better than going to therapy," she said. "Music gives me strength, and it has saved me a thousand times."

Goto traces her influences back to childhood: Taylor Swift, Shakira's early albums Donde Estan los Ladrones? and Pies Descalzos, Kabah and Britney Spears, alongside music she absorbed from her father, who introduced her to Alejandro Sanz and Joaquin Sabina and with whom she wrote her first songs. She singled out Swift's "Long Live" as a song that still carries her straight back to being a teenager falling in love for the first time.

Natural wasn't the only place she's stretched beyond straightforward pop. She has a Latin pop collaboration with Emilio called "Como Olvidar," and reworked her early hit "Vete al Diablo" into a rockier version with Rafa Loar of the band Elefante, alongside other tracks that lean into urban sounds. Pop remains home base, though: "I am faithful to my pop," she said. "Pop is the best, and I grew up listening to pop."

Goto isn't walking away from Natural yet. She is set to close out that album's era with a show at Mexico City's Lunario, billed as one more run through those songs before she leans fully into the chapter "Cuidame de Mi" opens. "Cuidame de Mi" is out now, one of several new arrivals this week tracked on the release calendar, and continues the Latin rhythms Goto folded into Natural.