Ivelisse del Carmen – “Before I’m Done”

Ivelisse Del Carmen has been on a roll this year, and “Before I’m Done” might be the most honest thing she’s put out so far. It’s a song about picking music back up after a long time away, written right in the middle of all the mixed feelings that come with that, and it doesn’t try to make those feelings tidy.

The imagery she draws on is painterly in a way that works. She pulls from the visual tension in John Everett Millais’ Ophelia, that still figure surrounded by a world in motion, and uses it to describe what returning to something you love actually feels like. The line between beauty and collapse is a hard thing to describe, but she finds a way to do it. From the clean production to the stunning vocals, everything needs your attention.

This is some of her strongest writing. There’s a specificity to the emotion here that you don’t always get, and it sits with you a bit after it’s done. If you’re new to her, go back through her 2025 releases, including “Las Mariposas” and “Mi Sangre Baila“, and you’ll get a good picture of where she’s been headed. She’s also worth following on her Substack, where she writes openly about the process behind the music. Have you come across her work before, or is this your first time hearing her?