Hey
[Chorus: Camila Cabello & Pharrell Williams]
Havana, ooh, na-na (Hey)
Half of my heart is in Havana, ooh na-na (Hey, hey)
He took me back to East Atlanta, na-na-na, ah
Oh, but my heart is in Havana (Hey)
There's somethin' 'bout his manners (Uh-huh)
Havana, ooh, na-na (Uh)
[Verse 1: Camila Cabello & Pharrell Williams]
He didn't walk up with that "how you doin'?" (Uh)
When he came in the room
He said there's a lot of girls I can do with (Uh)
But I can't without you
I knew him forever in a minute (Hey)
That summer night in June
And papa says he got malo in him (Uh)
[Pre-Chorus: Camila Cabello & Pharrell Williams]
He got me feelin' like, "Ooh, ooh, ooh-ooh" (Ayy)
I knew it when I met him (Ayy), I loved him when I left him
Got me feelin' like, "Ooh, ooh, ooh-ooh"
And then I had to tell him, I had to go
Oh, na-na-na-na-na (Woo)
Havana, ooh, na-na (Hey, hey)
Half of my heart is in Havana, ooh na-na (Hey, hey, uh-huh)
He took me back to East Atlanta, na-na-na
Oh, but my heart is in Havana (Huh)
My heart is in Havana (Hey)
Havana, ooh, na-na
[Verse 2: Young Thug]
(Jeffery) Just graduated, fresh on campus, hm
Fresh out East Atlanta with no manners, damn
Fresh out East Atlanta
(Bump, bump) Bump on her bumper like a traffic jam
Hey, I was quick to pay that girl like Uncle Sam (Here you go, ayy)
Back it on me (Back it up)
Shawty cravin' on me, get to eatin' on me (On me)
She waited on me (And what?)
Shawty cakin' on me, got the bacon on me (Wait up)
This is history in the makin', homie (Homie)
Point blank, close range, that B (Tah, tah)
If it cost a million, that's me (That's me)
I was gettin' mula, baby
[Chorus: Camila Cabello & Pharrell Williams]
Havana, ooh, na-na (Hey, hey)
Half of my heart is in Havana, ooh, na-na (Hey, hey; oh, oh)
He took me back to East Atlanta (Uh-huh), na-na-na (Oh no)
Oh, but my heart is in Havana (Huh)
My heart is in Havana (Ayy)
Havana, ooh, na-na
Ooh, na-na, oh, na-na-na (Ooh, ooh, ooh-ooh)
Take me back, back, back, like (Yeah, babe)
Ooh, na-na, oh, na-na-na
Take me back, back, back, like (Yeah, yeah)
Ooh, na-na, oh, na-na-na
Take me back, back, back like (Yeah, babe)
Ooh, na-na, oh, na-na-na
Take me back, back, back (Ah)
Ayy, ayy
Ooh, ooh, ooh-ooh (Ayy)
Ooh, ooh, ooh-ooh (Ayy)
Take me back to my Havana
[Chorus: Camila Cabello & Pharrell Williams]
Havana, ooh, na-na
Half of my heart is in Havana, ooh, na-na (Oh, yeah)
He took me back to East Atlanta, na-na-na (Hey, hey)
Oh, but my heart is in Havana
My heart is in Havana (Hey)
Havana, ooh, na-na (Uh-huh)
[Outro: Starrah & Camila Cabello]
Oh, na-na-na (Oh, na, yeah)
Oh, na-na-na
Oh, na-na-na (No, no, no, take me back)
Oh, na-na-na
Havana, ooh, na-na
About
“Havana” is about Camila falling in love “with this bad boy from Havana.” It is also an ode to her hometown. Camila was born in Cojímar, award – or consejo popular – that belongs to the municipality of La Habana Del Este, which is a district of Havana. Camila immigrated to the US when she was still a kid:
I was almost 7 at the time, born in Havana, Cuba. My papá is puro Mexicano and we lived back and forth between the heat of Havana and the concrete jungle of Mexico City. I didn’t realize it then, but, boy, does it hit me now. I realize how scary it must have been for them.
The song was released as a “Summer Double Feature” along with “OMG” from Camila Cabello’s debut album. The song’s music video was released on October 24. On November 9, a “vertical video” was released for the track.
Camila confirmed it to be a single on August 30. As “Crying in the Club” won’t be included on the album, “Havana” is the lead single of the record. Camila has publicly stated that some people doubted that “Havana” had the potential of being a single, including herself. As of now, it is her favorite song to perform.
There are at least nine versions of the song, including a solo version, a Spanglish version, and a Spanglish remix featuring Daddy Yankee. In an interview with 98.7 AMP, Camila stated that Havana was the hardest song to write of the whole album:
I have performed a version of it in Chicago for a radio show that I had. And, before the song came out, I re-wrote the pre-chorus. That’s how many different times the song had to be worked on.
According to producer Louis Bell, “Havana” is definitely a “Camila song” and it changed the tone of her debut album:
The album started off more serious — dealing with relationship stuff, dealing with a lot of heartbreak, dealing with a lot of life things, with the Fifth Harmony thing. It started off darker, but then towards the end, it lightened up because of where she was in her life. She felt more liberated.
The track eventually reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Thug’s first #1 hit and Cabello’s first solo #1 hit as a lead artist. On April 12, 2018, the song was certified 5x multi-platinum.
On July 3rd, 2018, “Havana” ended it’s 46 week run on the Billboard Hot 100, making it her first solo single to spend the most weeks on the Hot 100.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
[Working with Pharrell] was insane. That was crazy. So I went in with my executive producer Frank Dukes—he’s amazing. … [For] “Havana,” we wrote verses for that like three different times and the last time was with Pharrell. I basically tricked him into doing that ad-lib track for me because, at first he was like, you know, ‘I think it’d be super dope if you did it because you’re a girl and to have those rappy ad-libs in there would be dope,’ and I was like, ‘Oh, why don’t you like sketch them out for me?’ And I just kept all of them in there/ I was like, “Yes!” But, yeah he’s amazing. … When I came in, he played us his album that he’s working on, and just feeding off of that energy is inspiring. … Just the way that he takes obviously artistry super seriously and everything has a purpose, levery lyric has a purpose, every word has a purpose, every ad-lib that he did has a purpose.
I feel like people have only seen one side of me, like, the performer Camila. That’s kinda the side of me that most of the world has seen, so I wanted to do something that showed more of my personality and my essence. This kind of represents my life before The X Factor. I still am super introverted. And my parents and family were like “you gotta get out, you gotta do stuff!”. And I was always living in my own little world. For me, it was always music and being a fan of people. That was my escape. So, Karla is pretty much what I was like and my essence. Anyone who knows me knows that I’m like that: a homebody. So, the idea was to have the different parts of my personality super exaggerated. Camila is that bombshell, super confident and unfazed by boys whereas Karla is more me. We had the idea of making that movie thing and making it both a music video and a very autobiographical representation of me.
The song has done quite well on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. As of the chart issued January 27th, 2018, Cabello’s single “Havana” has reached a peak of #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Before “Havana”, Cabello reached a #4 peak as featured artist on the song “Bad Things” by Machine Gun Kelly. As a member of Fifth Harmony she reached number four on the Hot 100 in June of 2016 with the song “Work From Home.”
- 4.Havana
- 5.Inside Out
- 6.Consequences
- 7.Real Friends
- 9.In the Dark
- 10.Into It
- 12.Havana (Remix)
