“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.