Sabrina Claudio Spent Years Pouring Herself Into Other Artists & Now It’s Her Turn: ‘I’m in Heaven’

Sabrina Claudio is in creative bliss. After untangling from a tumultuous relationship inside the major label system, the R&B singer couldn’t be more thrilled in her partnership with EMPIRE, as Claudio joined the indie powerhouse earlier in 2025.

After spending years pouring her songwriting prowess into other artists behind the scenes — including a 2017 song she made with Syd evolving into Beyoncé’s Rennaisance track “PLASTIC OFF THE SOFA” — the mirror was turned to herself.

Claudio’s best friend, Jazmin Garcia-Larracuente, presented her with a short film script for what became the album’s title track, which put the pressure on the singer to build out a universe for an album. “I had a guide of what I wanted the album to be about,” Claudio tells Billboard. “Conceptually, all the songs are related to that story, but they’re all written from personal experiences.”

A cathartic journey, what followed was Claudio’s Fall in Love With Her album, which arrived on June 6. Claudio’s story is one of perseverance as she detoxifies from burdensome relationships of the past to rebuild herself to the point she’s open to try again with a brighter perspective, but the layers she’s shed serving as lessons.

The 28-year-old trades her ethereal R&B sound for a lean into alternative female rage. Think if early 2000s Avril Lavigne had a dreamy whispering singing voice. “The past two years I was dating and going through all these emotions. I think because I was giving all my storytelling concepts away to the artists I was writing with, I was like, ‘Okay, now you’re putting me on the spot,'” the Florida native explains. “It was actually the most liberating thing ever.”

Claudio hopes an upcoming short film will showcase her acting ability, with hopes of one day starring in a Hereditary-esque horror movie, or voicing a Disney princess. On the music side, she’s planning to continue experimenting with her sound, which could lead to mini-EPs dipping into dance or connecting with her Cuban and Puerto Rican roots for a full Spanish-language project.

Check out the rest of our interview with Sabrina Claudio, as she touches on a Teddy Swims feature that fell through the cracks, her upcoming tour with Russ and Big Sean and that dating pumpfake stunt she pulled with Tyga.

How’s the reception to the album been?

It’s been so positive. Honestly, I’m so overwhelmed still. I always get really in-depth messages [about] how a song relates to somebody. It’s a bit overwhelming, but it’s amazing. They’re really emotional messages; they’ve been in my feels. For some reason, this album has people relating to it in a grieving way. I get a lot of messages about grieving, so it’s a lot to take in. 

What was your creative process with the album? You said it’s your most conceptual body of work.

Visually, it’s been the most conceptual because it started with something I did with my best friend [Jazmin Garcia-Larracuente]. It’s a script of sorts and that story within the script was written for “Fall in Love With Her,” and that was the only song I had. I wasn’t ready to make an album. When she presented [the script] to me, I was like, “Oh, I guess I do have to make an album.” It put the pressure on me. It was a little bit more curated to the visuals. So all the music videos lead into that final part of the story.  It was a bit challenging, but it was fun. 

Is this your first album written completely from your perspective?

Yes. It wasn’t as much of a challenge as I thought it was gonna be. I think the fear of it being a challenge is what stopped me from doing it. I’m pretty private in my general life. Ever since I was a little girl, I was writing songs from things I’ve never experienced, so that’s how I’ve always written music. As an adult, it became I don’t want to expose myself. Also, I don’t really be dating like that. I wrote a handful of songs with Nasri. He helped pull things out of me that I didn’t know existed. Once he got involved, he pushed the envelope on the sound and things I never spoke about. The reception is so much more powerful. I think people can feel it. I’m so excited for the shows. 

You’ve also lived a lot more life now compared to 2017. As far as your career now, is it easier to promote your music?

Yeah, I be living. I think it’s more work for sure. Just because of social media. I’m not a TikTok girlie. I tried it for a second and hated it. I’m on TikTok, but in terms of posting, I’m not a content girl. Everyone’s posting 100 times a day anyway, so the content tends to get lost. Over-saturating my brand isn’t my ideal situation either, so it’s finding a balance of staying relevant and staying in front of people’s eyes, but also not doing too much to where the credibility is down the drain. It was much easier a long time ago when I first started. 

Do you have a fear of being cringe or an impostor syndrome when creating?

All the time, I still do. At the end of the day, I think I love myself enough to be like, “This is me.” Why not put it online? If people in my general life don’t find me cringe, then chances are I’m not actually cringe. I have a high level of taste. I just be overthinking everything I do. What I been doing has only brought me closer to my fans. Even the people in my life, letting that dumb thought go, has opened so many more doors for me. I’ll be cringe if I have to be.

How’s EMPIRE been compared to your old label situation with Atlantic?

I’m in heaven. Genuinely, just in terms of the energy that’s surrounding me. A lot of the times in my old situation, I was constantly proving myself to people. With EMPIRE, it was so evident to them to the point where they’re constantly reminding me. That alone has been such a shift and it’s only motivated me to be more of a team player and open-minded. I feel safe. The people on my team are constantly trying to elevate me and the core intention is because they believe in me. Before, it felt like I was being told what to do because they didn’t believe what I was doing on my own.

My favorite track on the album is “Detoxing.” 

I’m glad you said that. That’s the one for me. That was the last song I wrote for the album. It was because I had to have one more song. I needed 11 songs. This was probably February and I felt dependent on Nazeri. We went in and I was just talking to him. A month prior, I ended something officially that was destroying me. My life was getting better. I was happy in my career, friendships were thriving, I was working out, like I was improving, but this lingering thought of this person and what they put me through was consuming me.

I didn’t think we were gonna get a song done because we were talking for hours. The first half was me telling him what I was going through and the other half was I couldn’t get this person off my mind and it was pissing me off. It was frustrating because everything else was so amazing and why am I allowing this person to infiltrate my brain? 

Once I said that, Nazeri said, “It feels like you’re detoxing or something.” I was like, “Bingo.” This is four hours in. It felt like we were purging and once we figured out the title, he wrote the song within three minutes. It was him and I on the guitar and we went in. I wasn’t gonna put this song on the album because I wasn’t in love with it. It was just guitar. I lived with it for a month and my manager kept pushing it on me. I went to STINT, who is my guy and he produced half the album. I gave him the gist of what I wanted it to feel like. I’ll tell him my vision for it and then we’ll sit in silence for four hours straight. The production you hear is what he did in four hours.

The outro Nazeri and I didn’t write. The song feels so rock-heavy, and he was like, “You need something classic at the end that feels like purging. I wanna go to a section where you’re fully belting.” I was like, “You know I don’t be belting, honey. I be whispering.” The melody that’s there is the first thing I did. It turned out to be my favorite song on the album. It completed the package.

I heard Teddy Swims was supposed to hop on “Detoxing.” What happened?

I wish it was, but that’s not happening. I tried and I got ghosted. Maybe the song will blow up and he’ll be like, “Actually, yes.” I think vocally, he’d be amazing on it. I love the song so much that it’s standing alone and I’m happy with that. Maybe he will [get on it] in the future. That’s a goal of mine to have him on there. 

Is it weird to be in the moment of older songs and then hear them years later?

Sometimes it’s weird because I listen back to what I did and I’m like, “How did I do that?” A lot of the times, I’m just a vessel and whatever’s happening is flowing through me. I’m not gonna be able to do that ever again. Like damn, I really ate, but I don’t know how I did it. Some songs I didn’t really want to come out, but they were a part of it because of my label situation. It’s either I’m super thrilled or like, “Damn, I wish that wasn’t out.”

It’s funny you said, “I ate, but I don’t know how I did that.” Do other artists ask you to tap into an old sound?

All the time — and I’m like, “You got the wrong one.” I had one artist and her manager was like, “We want a ‘Belong to You.'” First of all, that pissed me off. Second, why would I give that to you? That’s mine. I’m not giving all my juice. I’ll give you a little bit. Even for myself, I’ve tried, like, “Damn, this did really well, let me try to tap into that.” It’s not happening. 

Are there any other big activations coming surrounding the album?

Yes, a big thing. I want it to be a surprise, but it’s the biggest part of the story. Something visual, something storytelling and something people have never seen me do before. It has to do with acting. 

Any plans for a deluxe?

I think my team’s dreaming of a deluxe. I don’t have that many songs. I was pretty intentional this time around. I was only going in when I was super inspired. I would say there are maybe six songs that didn’t make the album. They’re definitely good enough to put out, but does it make sense with what we’re doing? A deluxe would be nice, and a Teddy Swims feature would be great.

Writing for Beyoncé, did you actually end up meeting her? I know it was years ago you wrote a song with Syd in like 2017 and then it ended up becoming “PLASTIC OFF THE SOFA.” How did it get into her hands?

Syd is a songwriter and it was probably within the pitched songs and maybe got to the A&R. That was God for real. I’m not out here thinking I’m writing a song for Beyoncé, especially when I’m just starting out. I ended up not keeping it. I remember Syd asked me if she was okay to pitch it. I said, “Yeah,” and then years later it ends up on [Renaissance].

Syd DM’d me about a year before the album came out, saying she heard that Beyoncé cut the record. I was at my parents’ house and we started screaming. I was like, “Wait, I don’t know if this is real.” I didn’t hear about it for a year and our team got a call about a month before the album. I went into her Parkwoods Studios and her A&R played me her version. I was shook. Nothing’s confirmed until it comes out. A day or two before the album is released, the track list was leaked and I didn’t see my song on there. I’m like, “I knew it!” Truth is, she changed the title. I named it something like “I Love It.” I thought I didn’t get the placement. The credits dropped the day before the album and I saw my name. Then the whole Grammys thing happened and the song got nominated on its own. 

How did you get over the mentality you had of, “If another songwriter’s in the room, the song isn’t mine?” 

Once I became another songwriter in the room. It was a weird ego mentality that I had. I have written with other songwriters for my stuff. The reason I felt that way was the intention behind my label putting songwriters in my room was because they made me feel like I wasn’t good enough. It’s not that I didn’t need the help, I think I was just being made to feel like I wasn’t good enough. When I started writing for other people and realized how amazing collaboration could be, now I have a different mentality. I don’t have people telling me I need a big songwriter in the room to get a hit. That was so annoying. 

What’s next musically? I heard you had an idea of doing a dance EP.

That would be great. I think in the future I’d like to do tiny EPs of different genres. A dance one, one that’s fully in Spanish. Musically, I have a couple of features in the work. 

Whose idea was the Tyga collab that got sparked as a fake relationship? That was a good troll. You guys got me. 

Me. The [Instagram] post was. I thought those pictures were bomb. We look fully in love. I texted him, “Why don’t we post this picture, but like no caption?” I didn’t think he’d be down. He responded in two songs and said, “Let’s do a collab post.” It was easy. 

How was working with Marshmello?

That was amazing, and he’s so sweet. Maybe this was 2023 — I just went in as a songwriter. He reached out to us and we had mutuals for many years, so there was some communication. He asked me to come to a couple of sessions. We wrote a song, and I didn’t hear about it for a long time. He just hits us up asking if I can stay on it. He’s the sweetest guy ever.

Did you see him without the mask on?

Am I allowed to see he’s in the studio without his mask on? Yes, I’ve seen him without his mask. I didn’t know who Marshmello was. Was he even there? I think it was him. He’s amazing. 

What can we expect on tour with Russ and Big Sean?

The thing I love about Russ, and why I thought it made sense to me, was that even though genre-wise we’re in different categories, his lyrical content and what he’s about make us very similar. The fans we bring to the shows enjoy the same thing. We just like to be in our feelings. Expect a lot of emotions.

My set is probably going to be 30 minutes. I’m trying to consolidate six bodies of work into that. I want to sing some of the new songs. I always have my band. A lot of new fans that I’ll hopefully gain, I’m trying to keep it really song-focused.

Getting in your acting bag, what can we expect? You got any roles lined up?

Not yet, but I will after they see what comes out. I’m making my own resume at this point. The project I have coming out is, “Here’s what I can do, now hire me!” Next time you see me, I’ll be too busy to talk to you. A voiceover for a Disney princess or a horror movie like Hereditary.  

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

Hopefully, I’ll be a mom with a good baby daddy who wants to be in my life forever. My friends will have kids, so we’ll be the mom-life group. Hopefully, I’ll be in some films. Maybe I’ll tap more into the songwriting thing so I’ll have a lot more placements under my belt. Musically, on my end, “Detoxing” will be No. 1 forever and I’ll have a lot of money because of it, and so will everyone in my life. I see myself very happy and fulfilled.