In 2020, Sara Schell was mapping out a traditional life trajectory. Having recently graduated from high school in Venezuela, she was preparing to pack her bags for London to pursue a formal education in business—a path she had long envisioned to secure a stable and professional career. Yet, like countless other aspiring young adults around the world that year, her plans were instantly upended by the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

This Thursday (Nov. 12), those postponed business plans feel like a lifetime away. At just 23 years old, Schell finds herself competing for two of Latin music’s most prestigious honors at the Latin Grammys: Songwriter of the Year and Best Pop Song, the latter earned as a co-writer on Kany García’s evocative track "A La Niña Que Fui."

What makes Schell’s nomination particularly striking is not just her youth, but her unprecedented positioning in the field. While she is not the only woman nominated in the fiercely competitive Songwriter of the Year category for 2026, she stands alone as its sole newcomer. Her name appears on the ballot alongside seasoned industry veterans who have built empires over decades: Edgar Barrera, who boasts an astonishing 82 Latin Grammy nominations and 29 wins, including sweeping the Songwriter of the Year category for the past three consecutive years; Yoel Henríquez, holding 23 nominations and three victories; and Iván Gómez and Jenni Mosello, each with four career nominations to their name.

The scope of Schell’s burgeoning catalog, as documented by the Latin Recording Academy, reveals an artist whose pen has already left a profound mark across Latin pop, regional Mexican, and global crossover hits. Her credits include García’s "A La Niña Que Fui," Fonseca’s "Ahí Estabas Tú" and "Barco de Papel," Rawayana’s infectious "Bendito," J Balvin and Jay Wheeler’s chart-topping "Si Te Vas"—which climbed to No. 1 on Billboard’s Latin Airplay chart—and Diego Torres and Manuel Carrasco’s emotional "Vas a Quedarte." Furthermore, her fingerprints are all over massive international hits, including KATSEYE’s "Gabriela," which peaked at No. 21 on the Billboard Hot 100; Becky G and Óscar Maydon’s "Mercedes," which seized the No. 1 spot on Regional Mexican Airplay; and Nicki Nicole’s "Ojos verdes," which topped the Billboard Argentina Hot 100.

From Barquisimeto to Digital Zoom Sessions

The journey of this young creator from Barquisimeto, Venezuela, to the upper echelons of the international music industry reads like a modern digital-age fairy tale, albeit one forged through isolation and creative resilience.

Reflecting on the pivot that changed her life, Schell recalls the uncertainty of the pandemic’s early days. "In 2020, I graduated high school and then the pandemic hit, so we decided to move to Mexico. When we arrived, I was supposed to go to London to study business because I had always said I wanted a career, but at that moment, all the universities were shut down, so we had to do what everyone else did: stay home and find something to do," Schell shares in an interview with Billboard Español from Spain, speaking during a brief pause in a demanding songwriting session. "I started posting covers and other things on Instagram, and that’s how I connected with several writers online, started doing Zoom sessions and writing together."

Schell’s deep-seated relationship with music, however, predates the pandemic by many years. Her formal training began at the remarkably tender age of four at the Vicente Emilio Sojo Conservatory, a venerable institution founded in 1936 in Barquisimeto, located in Venezuela’s Lara State. The conservatory maintains a close artistic relationship with Venezuela’s legendary National System of Youth and Children’s Orchestras and Choirs, widely known as El Sistema. Schell immersed herself in classical discipline, playing the cello until she was 14. She describes the tenure as a "super magical experience" that afforded her the rare opportunity to travel internationally, representing her homeland in both Peru and the United States, while concurrently mastering the piano and taking formal singing lessons.

At the age of 15, she penned her very first original composition, a deeply personal track titled "Sin Ti o Contigo." Though she initially uploaded the song to digital platforms—where it has since been removed—the memory of its creation remains vivid. "I remember I was falling asleep and a melody came to me, so I got up and went to the bathroom so I wouldn’t wake anyone up. What inspired me was that I was dating this guy, and we had broken up, so I started pouring it all out," she reflects. "Then my heart was broken, and that’s when you start writing—because, you know, everyone needs therapy."

Despite her innate creative inclinations, Schell initially lacked proximity to anyone in her immediate social or familial circle who made a sustainable living exclusively from songwriting. Consequently, she viewed a traditional university degree as an indispensable stepping stone to move forward in life.

It required the gentle, persuasive intervention of her father to alter her course. Remembering his own upbringing—where his parents actively discouraged his multidisciplinary talents in music and sports in favor of rigid academic paths—her father urged her to embrace her passion. "My dad played music, did sports, he was great at everything, and my grandfather would say: ‘No, you’re going to study this.’ So with me, he did the complete opposite," Schell notes, recalling his advice to "try what you’ve always loved" and give it a dedicated two-year window.

Finding Her Footing in Miami and the Interscope Connection

Schell’s pivotal industry breakthrough arrived in 2024, sparked by a brief, high-stakes trip to Miami. Armed with little more than a demo of her original compositions and a vague intention to track down an industry figure she had heard about but "only knew his name was Ben," she plunged headfirst into the city’s networking ecosystem. Maintaining an intense schedule of two to three songwriting sessions a day with various collaborators, her work quickly caught the attention of Nir Seroussi at Interscope, who initiated contact to explore her catalog.

"At that moment, I didn’t know who Nir was. I told him: ‘Yeah, sure, let’s meet.’ But I had no idea what I was walking into," she admits.

Upon meeting Seroussi, any initial intimidation evaporated. She recalls that he immediately made her feel "like family," and after listening to a couple of her tracks, he introduced her to Ben Tischker of Wide Eyed Entertainment—the exact "Ben" she had originally set out to find, who now serves as her manager. "It was incredible!" Schell enthuses. "Then Nir helped me place a couple of songs, including my first one, ‘PXTXS,’ for Fuerza Regida."

"PXTXS," featured on Fuerza Regida’s album Dolido Pero No Arrepentido, originated as a bolero. It tells a raw, unvarnished story of heartbreak, exploring the self-destructive coping mechanisms often deployed in the wake of a painful separation. "It was a song that got a lot of attention at the time because it was a bolero that wasn’t vulgar but very raw," Schell explains. "I remember they replicated what I was doing with my voice on a guitar, and then they made it more regional. It turned out very beautiful."

The momentum generated through Interscope soon unlocked doors to diverse musical landscapes, including the global pop phenomenon "Gabriela" by KATSEYE. "It was quite strange because it happened very fast. They needed me to write a bridge in Spanish, and I remember sending Nir two options. He said, ‘This one,’ sent it, and that was it," she recalls. "Normally songs take much longer to come out, but two months later the song was released and I started receiving tons of messages: ‘Congrats, congrats.’ I didn’t even know KATSEYE was such a big group. And well, obviously it came out, and with everything that happened with the song, I’m very grateful to be part of it."

Collaborative Magic and the Road to the Latin Grammys

Among her extensive list of collaborations, Schell holds a special fondness for Rawayana’s "Bendito," which she describes as "super fun to write, a blast," and Kany García’s "A La Niña Que Fui," highlighting the profound human connection forged during its creation.

In an August cover story interview with Billboard Español, García praised Schell as a "super-talented" writer, shedding light on how the Latin Grammy-nominated track—co-written alongside Rafa Arcaute, Nate Campany, and Richi López—came to life in the studio.

"I called her to write. I had melodies in my head, but nothing concrete… And she said to me—because it wasn’t me, it was her: ‘Hey, how about writing a song to your inner child?’" García recalled. "It gave me chills, because she didn’t know that the project was heading in that direction. And I told myself: ‘How beautiful it is that sometimes, as a songwriter, I think I have to do it all myself, that everything has to come from my head. But when you sit with creative people who are seeing the picture from outside, they see things that you don’t.’"

Reflecting on that synergy, Schell notes that capturing that intangible energy in the room is the secret to creating truly magical music. "Just meeting her, and how I grasped what she wanted without her telling me, sometimes there’s this energy in the room that’s the most important, where the most magical songs come from, and I feel like we walked in and captured it right away."

Despite stepping in front of the microphone occasionally over the past year for collaborative tracks with artists like Sistek, Gonza Silva, and LAGOS, Schell—who is signed to MPub and Wide Eyed Publishing—insists that her true professional calling lies firmly behind the scenes. She harbors no aspirations to launch a traditional solo career as a performing artist, preferring instead to channel her creative energy entirely into writing for others.

Daniela Méndez Varón, head of A&R at MPub, underscores the rare qualities that set Schell apart in a crowded marketplace. "From the moment we met Sara, we recognized an exceptional talent in her," Méndez Varón tells Billboard. "Her artistic sensitivity, versatility and vision as a songwriter set her apart, but it’s her human qualities that make her even more special."

That human touch was tested—and rewarded—on the morning the Latin Grammy nominations were announced. Exhausted from a grueling day of work, Schell had neglected to set an alarm, choosing to sleep without checking her notifications, though lingering nerves ensured she left her phone’s sound turned on.

She was jolted awake by a phone call from producer Héctor Mazzarri, one of her closest friends, who coincidentally is also a nominee this year. "Congratulations," he told her. Disoriented, she asked what had happened. When he broke the news that she was nominated for Songwriter of the Year, her immediate reaction was sheer disbelief: "Oh my God."

"I haven’t processed it yet," Schell confesses. "I don’t know if I’ll process it until the day I get there and it’s like, ‘Wow,’ you know? Because it’s always been a dream, and I feel super honored, but honestly, I didn’t see it coming."

Back home, her father’s reaction provides a heartwarming counterweight to her humility. "He’s so happy. I mean, of course he could believe it. So he’s like: ‘I knew it from the beginning.’ It’s very sweet."

Looking toward the future and the vast expanse of the Latin music landscape, Schell wastes no time when asked whose voice she hopes to write for next. Smiling warmly, she names a legendary figure from her childhood: "Franco De Vita. You know, being from Venezuela, I grew up listening to him, and it was the music I listened to most with my grandparents."