Exclusive: Rising Star Alessia Cara Sits Down With a Big Fan -- Taylor Swift!

It’s safe to say that 19-year-old singer-songwriter Alessia Cara has taken the music world by storm right out of the gate. The young artist from Brampton, Ontario went viral within the first week of release with her breakthrough single “Here,” gaining both critical/industry and grassroots attention. Cara’s debut EP, Four Pink Walls, received a host of favorable reviews, followed by her debut album, Know-It-All, which released in stores on November 13. Cara picked up a slate of admirers along the way, including one particularly avid fan – none other than fellow singer-songwriter Taylor Swift.

Cara first attracted Swift’s attention back in July, when her powerful acoustic version of Swift’s “Bad Blood” caught the singer’s ear – and Twitter praise. The love didn’t stop there: At the beginning of last month, Swift included Cara’s “I’m Yours” in a handwritten playlist titled “New Songs That Will Make Your Life More Awesome (I Promise).”

"It was amazing that she even heard my music, let alone liked it enough to put it on a list,” Cara recently told Yahoo Music. “She’s such a big, influential artist, so the fact that she did this is really cool because she knows that a lot of people are going to listen to her and that means that she believes in it.”

Believe in Cara Swift definitely does, as her admiration culminated in inviting the up-and-coming singer onstage during her 1989 tour’s Halloween stop in Tampa, Fla.

Now, in an exclusive interview, the two artists sit down to discuss some of the elements of Cara’s career that make this particular rising star such a bright light to follow – and one that will likely appeal to Swift’s fans for some of the same reasons Swift herself has been such an enduring sensation. In part one of a two-part series, Cara shares with Swift the philosophy of her music, the underlying message of being yourself, and self-acceptance.

Stay tuned for part two of the interview, featured on November 19.