 By Valentina Hernández What do two queer Colombians running on questionable sleep and armed with a microphone have in common? Apparently, enough to turn a simple interview into a therapy / jam session — which is exactly what happened when Eva Pagán sat down with me to ramble about her new song ‘Til I Die’. It feels oddly full-circle to be here, interviewing Eva. I’ve been following her since 2020, when she dropped ‘I’ve Never Written One Song About a Boy’ and instantly hooked me. This time, we yapped for 30 minutes (virtually), cracked open what she calls “cans of worms,” and shared a mini crisis over people asking if her rebrand means “she’s not gay anymore.” Going by the title alone, ‘Til I Die’ sounds like a classic big-love confession — and it is. But while people might assume Eva’s serenading some lucky lover, the truth is better: it’s about New York— an electropop love letter to the city that’s kept her coming back for more. Naturally, our conversation barely stuck to the city — because with Eva, one song always means a dozen tangents, confessions, and a few laughs. But she did paint a picture: to her, ‘Til I Die’ is dark blue — just as she sees ‘In the Mirror’ as light blue, representing both versions of the Puerto Rican flag: the current dark blue and the independence’s light blue, like the ocean. This song’s colour is the New York sky at night. It’s glittery, like sequins on one of those pillows you can’t stop running your hand over. And if it had a scent? She said it would be summer rain on the pavement by the river. I can't say New York City scents because they're disgusting. I don't want it to be like ‘It smells like pee!'  Ironically, she decided to celebrate this release in Italy instead of NYC; she says it feels like living in a long-distance relationship — something she’ll have to get used to anyway, since she’s moving to LA soon to pursue her law degree. But before I get carried away with my own review (which you can read here), here’s what actually went down in our chaotic conversation. *** Eva, your releases are insane. Are you excited about this one? I'm so excited. For this project, what feels new is that every song makes me wonder, ‘Is this the one?’ But even if it’s not, I feel so passionate about them. I genuinely believe in the sound and the music, and it feels so… me. It's the most excited I've been about my music, I've just been having a lot of fun with it and just really enjoying it. Tell us a little bit about its origin story — what’s the lyric that unlocked the whole song? It's the first time I'll answer completely honestly. In little clips, I'll be like “it's about the love of my life,” which is true, but I've never said the actual thing that it's about. I sat in the studio with two of my co-writers — Emma Botti and Sabrina Song — and I was like “I want to write a love song. I want my ‘forever’ by Charli XCX moment”, where she's just like singing about being obsessed with someone. For me, it's being in love with New York. This place drives me insane, but I wouldn't want to be anywhere else; it's the place that feels most like home, and so we started writing it. I wanted a chorus that was very one-note, kind of bouncy, that you could build the rest of the song on, and I loved the chorus: “always be my baby” — I think that’s the whole song in one sentence. So they were like, “Eva, that sounds insane! You sound like a U-Haul lesbian right now”, and I was like “yeah? well, good.” I've been marketing it as a love song, and I do think it is very queer coded — like, the fact that I'm so obsessed and in love. That feeling of being in love with something or someone… This will always be so important to me. I know it. I know it in my bones. I'm going to be 85 and hopefully I'll still be in New York, but even if I'm not, it's always going to be my baby. I think it fits if it was about a person, but for me, it's about New York. New York is always going to be my baby. It also fits very nicely with your rebrand. Why did you decide on this musical shift? I'm never gonna be the kind of artist that's like "I don't like that song that I released." I appreciate the music I've made for what it is, and I love performing all the songs. I do think that, after a while, the music I was making started feeling further from the music I was listening to and further from who I showed up as in my daily life. I felt like people wouldn't care or listen unless I was the same thing that initially made me viral, which was with the guitar and starting right off the bat with a female pronoun and a love song. And that's all lovely, I love songs like ‘She's Mine’ and ‘Loud’. I'm really proud of those songs. But I also think that repeating that for the sake of repeating it, for the sake of not wanting to lose followers in the end, wasn't worth it to me. And I think that now I make the songs out of artistic vision, and because I enjoy writing them and I want to capture a moment and put out something that I'm really proud of. As you should. So, what’s your main objective as an artist right now? I dream of this project expanding to new demographics, and to have the Latin pop girlies and the Charlie XCX–electropop fans discover it and love it. I think it's honestly just a matter of time, but I think that that's been one thing like that I've had to adjust to. I've built my career off of acoustic pop songs, this is a different genre. It's going to take time to adjust, because that's what the algorithm is used to from me. But slowly and surely I feel it working. I'm also so lucky because the core fans haven’t lost interest which is lovely. That’s so nice! I’m glad you have a strong fanbase who know that who you truly are is what matters. But of course you must’ve got mixed responses… I was so worried that the people who have been there for years were gonna be like "it's not guitar-centric anymore so I don't care", but... No, I'm still me, I'm still writing the same emotional lyrics, I'm still gay — THAT WAS ONE THING LIKE... WHAT IS GOING ON? That was a thing I hadn't anticipated, I was so confused!!! But one thing I want to say that is so lovely about the people who listen to my music — and I hope this continues as I grow — is that I have never felt weirded out or uncomfortable in an in-person setting. Which I think is actually really unique and speaks to you guys’ character, I feel very respected and I feel like an actual person… Which is really weird because I'm just a random person going to law school, but it’s really cool. I have to shout out Liz, who runs a fan account, because she’s just lovely. She made me a crochet pillow of the sunset and she gave it to me at a show like two years ago. I have it on my bed and my dog likes to curl up on it. Anyway… we’re open to fanclub names. We’re all manifesting the Eva Pagán DNA world tour, since you have heritage from multiple countries (including Colombia)… when is this happening? Either when I get a support slot for an artist that really makes sense for my music, or when I'm big enough to be able to afford it. That's the goal. I loved the tour I did at the beginning of 2025, but I did it knowing — and I feel a little bad about this, because people didn’t really know — that it was kind of my send-off to the Eva Westphal project. I feel like for me to do an Eva Pagán tour, I would want at least 8 Eva Pagán released songs, and hopefully for those to be what I'm mostly known for. I love "Loud", I love singing "Like Wine", I love singing "Belong", but I don't want to go on tour now and have that be the centerpiece of the tour when I just kind of did that. There's smaller acts that I'm obsessed with and I hope they blow up so that they can take me on tour —if it didn't happen the other way around first —. I love “Backseat” by Ali Wolv, she's so good; I've also been obsessed with Earth to Emily. I wish one of them was three times as big as they are so I could just reach out to them… please take me on tour. If you could pick one artist to do a surprise remix of ‘Til I Die’ — or a future collaboration — who would it be? No limits: alive, dead, gay, anyone! Go big. Okay I have ideas! First of all, I would love a collab with The Marias. I think they're amazing, and we could do an extended Spanish version — which is what they're good at, that's like their thing —, I would love that. I would also love a Charlie XCX feature, that is like the dream. I think that even counts as a remix because I know that she would have her producer do crazy sh*t to the track. But my ultimate, if there was an open verse, I’d like to have Bad Bunny in it. Lastly, a very random series of existential questions: is cereal soup? Are empanadas ravioli? I could go on but I’ll stop — I can see you’re making funny faces! Sorry???? Is cereal soup? No!! And I don't want to hear the thing that soups can be cold because of gazpacho. Are ravioli empanadas? What the hell? Like what does that even mean? No! That’s crazy, I’m so disturbed (she laughs). I feel there’s other examples of other foods that do that, so to single empanadas out is just cruel and anti-latino (she laughs). What a way to end this interview, oh my god. *** If you take one thing from this chaotic 30-minute conversation: Eva Pagán is still here, still queer, and still balancing electropop dreams with law school applications and cross-country moves. Go stream ‘Til I Die’ — and maybe ask yourself whether cereal is soup while you’re at it.
About the artist Eva Pagán is a New York–based singer-songwriter who previously released music under her legal name, Eva Westphal. Fans call her an “international artist”, thanks to her German, Puerto Rican, and Colombian roots. She began her musical journey with stripped-back, honest songs about mental health and queerness — a rawness she’s carried into her more pop-forward sound today. A Columbia University graduate, she’s currently studying law while continuing to write, produce, and connect with her growing audience. Chronically online — in the best way: clever, funny, and deeply in touch with the community she’s singing for.
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