iLe's most recent album, “Como las canto yo”, is not only a tribute to several of the most recognized boleristas from Puerto Rico and Cuba. It is also a way to give new meaning to songs that at the time were inspired by sick or violent loves.

For example, one of the songs on the album, "Regáñame", by Puerto Rican Héctor Flores Osuna, says in one of its verses "I understand very well that I offended you. I understand what you have suffered for me. That's why, that's why scold me, hit me, kill me if you want, sweetheart."

Only, as a curious fact, it has never been performed by a woman, and it is something that iLe mentions just before singing this song. He says that when a man sings it, it sounds like an exaggeration, but if a woman sings it, “it becomes something different and very real.”

“There are some wonderful boleros about love and everything healthy and sounds good, but this album I focused more on toxic boleros,” he said, “and also, like suddenly there are boleros that I hear and say, 'wow, what a way to sing it, what strong lyrics,' and I go on a trip to that time that I never lived in and that I have no idea what it was like, but just imagining myself living in that time I don't know how I would have survived.”

The only unreleased song on the album is “No te detengas”, a song written by the singer's maternal grandmother, a woman who saw her dreams of becoming an artist cut short precisely because of the rigid patriarchal system of her time.

It is a song with lyrics full of eroticism and quite demarcated from the strict conventions of the time. But iLe says that, despite everything, her grandmother was able to fulfill herself in part through her grandchildren. In addition to iLe, his brothers Eduardo Cabra and René Pérez—both members of the urban music group Calle 13—are successful singers, composers and producers.

Other songs iLe has recorded about her grandmother include “Who Are You?” and “Dolor,” which he included on his debut album, “Ilevitable.” Luckily, the grandmother left a tape recorded - she died in 2011 - with several songs, almost all of them boleros, with instructions on how they should be performed. The family keeps that cassette as a true treasure.

“Grandma was quite ahead of her time,” iLe said from her residence in San Juan. "For that and for many other reasons I admired her a lot; she had a super strong character, but very loving on the inside, and very passionate about music. I think that was something I learned from her."

This is iLe's fourth studio album, but before that he was a backing vocalist for his brothers' band for ten years. Since he began his career as a soloist, he has explored various genres, such as ballads, pop and bolero itself. But it is only now that he dedicates a complete work to this style that was born in Cuba at the end of the 19th century and that spread to countries like Puerto Rico and Mexico later.

Since he was 13, when he still didn't know what direction his life was going to take, iLe had the intention of performing these types of songs one day.

“It sounds kind of dramatic, right?” he said. “But it was just at 13 that I started to get to know the bolero.”

It was through his father that he learned about performers like La Lupe, Blanca Rosa Gil, Celeste Mendoza and others, most of them Cuban. Then he met Puerto Rican singer-songwriters. But it was the shortage of female performers that drove her the most. This genre, like many others, is dominated by men.

“Just because the voice is female, [the bolero] tells you a lot of things and you understand it better,” said iLe, who will bring her songs to the Ford Theater on August 1 as part of the venue's annual Boleros de Noche series.

The decision and process to make this album was spontaneous, he said. He didn't know when he would do it, but it was on his wish list. Many of her followers asked her because they had already heard her sing boleros on some occasion. It wasn't until last year that he had a hunch that it was the ideal time to do it.

“Everything flowed so well and everything came out so, so fluid, so natural, so harmonious that I think that's when I said, 'well yes, I have to do it,'” he said.

Now he is in the studio planning his next album. He doesn't know yet what he will record, but, as with his bolero album, he will let the vibes flow and let them lead the way.

“I'm in the middle of the creative process, which is actually fun,” he said. "But you enjoy it after you get out of it; it's a nice storm."

In detail

What: Boleros at Night, with iLe

When: Saturday, August 1 at 8 pm

Where: Ford Theater, 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East, Los Angeles

How: tickets from $64; theford.com reports