Wander Santos is on the rise. Not only is he a multi-talented singer and model, but he also has some big plans for touring when the opportunity arises. He shares this and more with MITL MAG's own, Leeza A.

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How did you end up in the industry as a singer?

I mean when I was a kid, I used to listen to a lot of songs. In the Dominican Republic everyone there listens to a lot of songs. We also used to listen to Michael Jackson and even Amy Winehouse. When I was a kid, I was like “I want to do this but I don't know if I want to produce or even sing?” I wasn't sure about it until I was 16 years old. I started studying arts. I had a part where I was starting music and dance and that's when I was fell in love with music.

I was understanding everything about music and understanding that music wasn't just about putting sounds together that sound okay but it was a really big job and a really big thing. That was the way I fell in love with music when I was 16 years old.

Walk me through your songwriting process. How does it all happen?

When I was 16 years old, I wasn't thinking about releasing songs. And I was going through a long relationship. It was a 3-year relationship. Being black or Latino, it's really hard to express yourself when you are from the LGBT community. It's really hard to just live because life is hard sometimes and when you are a teen, it's even harder because you don't know how to feel or how to express yourself so I thought the best way to express myself was writing and I was going through this relationship that was really bad. I was like “okay, let me just write this like it's just a story”, so that's when I started writing. I was like maybe I can separate the story into three parts and I can choose some things from every part and that's how I completed my entire EP that I'm working on right now.

The songwriting process was crazy because I wasn't even thinking about what I was doing but it was really paying off. Right now, I have all this knowledge about music and I know how to use it.

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“Right now, I have all this knowledge about music and I know how to use it.”

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From start to finish, can you tell me about your most memorable show day where you performed live?

I haven't performed live, yet because I'm releasing my songs right and I'm just starting so I haven't had the opportunity to perform live but I can tell you that I've been to live shows. When I’m at the live shows I look for examples. For instance, from Beyonce, I'm going to see her this summer here in Barcelona. She's the greatest performer that we have right now. She's always coming with something new and setting the bar really high for every artist. I also saw Rosalia performing last year and she's new in the industry. The way that she performs and the work that she puts in is really amazing. You see people that have been in the game for years and how they work and it's really inspiring. That's really my mindset, like one day I'm going to be performing and doing performances like Rosalie and Beyonce. I’m trying to work on that now so in the future if I have the opportunity to go on tour, I can do my best to give people the show that they need.
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When you are not writing and singing, how do you spend your time, Wander?

I'm also a model. I'm working too because music is not free. It's expensive and you have to pay for it so I'm still working and I'm a model also. I'm modeling in a runaway show tomorrow. I also recording a song for that catwalk as well. I'm going to release it next week. I'm trying to mix the music with the modeling, fashion and stuff because I think it's really nice to experiment with that.

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How does the future look for you? What are your goals? Where do you see yourself 10 years from now?

That’s a really crazy question because you know what happened to me is that when I started thinking about making music, for example last year in December if I had the opportunity to talk to myself in the past, I wouldn't believe everything that has happened to me right now. I don't know what’s going to be happening for me in 10 years but I'm always positive.

I'm really working a lot right now. I just want to be successful. I'm feeling successful already just releasing songs.

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Do you come from a musical family? Do you have other people in your family that can sing?

I'm the first one to do it in my family but they are really proud of me. They know this is what I like. My sister just moved to Madrid with me one month ago and she's really proud of going through the process with me and listening to songs that I haven't released yet and listening to my ideas. I don't know where this part of art came from but I'm just grateful because I just know that this is my thing and I want to do this. I'm really happy making this stuff and showing the world what I have in my mind.

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I'm so glad that your family is supporting you. There are a lot of people out there who don't have the love and the support of their family.

Yeah, it's really hard and I'm really grateful. I moved to Madrid alone again when I was 18 years old and now, I'm 23 years old. I've been independent from my family since then. I know a lot of teens don't have the opportunity to go to another country. My parents are in the Dominican Republic right now. I haven't seen them in two years, for example because I've been working a lot. I know some people don't have the opportunity to have parents that let them be free and let them do what they want to do so I'm really grateful to my parents for letting me do what I want to do because they know I'm happy.

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I want all of our readers to know where they can get more of Wander Santos. How can they find you?

My name on Instagram is @IAmWNDR. I'm on Spotify, Instagram, TikTok and every social media platform. I'm releasing a song this Friday so they can hear my song. I'm also on YouTube as well.