Julieta Venegas mostly lives away from the spotlight. She made this decision consciously. In her small apartment in Buenos Aires, Argentina a piano shares the room with the dining table and her 12-year-old daughter Simona’s drawings. They work in perfect harmony in her new life.

In the past six years, the Mexican pop star has left a lot of the things she knew: the big stages, a solid career with an international music label and her beloved Mexico City. She moved across the continent to Buenos Aires with her daughter. “I kind of stopped everything, ¿cómo se dice? Lo desarmé todo,” says the singer, who was born in Long Beach, California, grew up between Tijuana and San Diego, and who got her big break as a musician in Mexico City.

Before her move to Buenos Aires, Julieta spent most of her time between her home in  Mexico City, airplane seats and stages somewhere in the world. She was finishing a three-year-long tour for her album “Algo sucede” when she felt like it had all become too much.

“At the end of the tour, I was … not just burnt out physically, but mentally. And I just felt like, I don’t know if this is what I want,” she says.

Eventually, she found out exactly what she wanted. And that’s how the singer-songwriter with global hits like “Eres para mí,” “Lento” and “Limón y sal,” decided to start over.

Now, Julieta shares what it meant to step back from releasing consecutive studio albums and touring. Away from it all, she reconnected with the piano, an old friend, and new music was born. In this episode, the artist talks about the process of creating “Tu historia,” her first studio album in seven years. And about the reward she found in making big life decisions.

Featured photo courtesy of Julieta Venegas.