Juanes’ discipline is so intense that five hours before his second concert in Medellín this Sunday night, again with Morat, he went to the stadium to rehearse with his band, but in the meantime he was doing phrasing exercises. vowels.
In the car his voice could only be heard after his teacher’s instructions. From there to the stadium to polish some details with her band and then the return, to her mother’s house, who at 92 years old did not want to miss her son’s show at her house either. Doña Alicia would be in the front row again. Then a light dinner and let the show begin. This Sunday will be the last of the year.
On that journey, EL COLOMBIANO spoke with Juanes about what those two concerts in the city meant to say goodbye to his 2022.
There is a phrase that you repeat in these concerts: “Medellín is my beginning and my end”…
“Yes, because everything I am I owe to this city, the fact of being born here, raised here, that lives every day in my music, my words, in my letters, it is the education of my families, from my parents, all very connected from this place and for that I am deeply sorry, what I told the public is real ”.
There is a camera that follows him before going on stage and shows that image on the giant screen, he was seen nervous, anxious, excited before that concert at his house…
“Yes, a lot of nerves, the commitment is greater, I think. I am also very happy that the public here has responded in this way. When we started with this idea a few months ago, we discussed whether or not it was going to happen, what the reaction was going to be, and fortunately people have responded with a love that has left me speechless, what madness. I felt all this at that moment, the opportunity and the experience of being with Morat’s boys who really fascinate me, inspire me, I see myself reflected in them in some way and I love that so young they bet on music and the instruments, to play, to compose their songs, it seems incredible to me ”.
And touched the Earth with Morat live…
“It was very exciting to play that song with them. Morat’s story is very particular, they began to be popular in Spain and then through WhatsApp in Mexico they sent the music to each other, something very incredible what they have achieved. Being with them is a great privilege and I am very happy that Medellín has welcomed them in this way”.
We are in balance sheet times, how did it go in 2022?
“For me it was a spectacular year. We had the opportunity to return to the stage, touring Europe, the United States, Latin America, playing, meeting with the affection of the people, also that I finished my new album that comes out in the first half of next year and it is an album that I made with very calm after many years. That allowed me to make different songs. Amores prohibidos, which is the first song, does not necessarily represent what the album is, It is the spearhead, but what is coming has many other nuances”.
Sebastián Krys, producer of this new work, says that this album is 100% Juanes, but at the same time different…
“It is so. Sebastián, in fact, has been fundamental in the last 5 years of my career because he has helped me find my way and it’s not that I was lost, far from it, but eventually one sometimes thinks in which direction to take and with him we found that I had to return to the essence, to what my music is”.
There was also the covid, because he wrote it in a pandemic…
“That moment for me was important because that’s when I started composing the vast majority of these songs and I think they have a lot of weight for me. Writing in a pandemic was crazy because I had never been home for more than a week. I have been traveling since I was 15 years old and suddenly I was locked up, on the one hand it was very cool to be with my children, with my wife, on the other hand the anxiety of what is going to happen and this to where it is going. I went into the studio every day, I looked like a crazy man, every day for a year, a year and a half and in the end all that helped me a lot”:
With these concerts in Medellín your year is coming to an end, what are you going to do at Christmas?
“I am more excited than a boar because I am going to be at home for at least three days calmly, that is something strange. I love Christmas because I can come to Medellín, be with family, with friends and then I go to Cartagena, to my wife’s land, to the coast for a while and then on January 5 we return to work”.
Juanes has no omen for the 31st, if they make him choose between buñuelo and custard he stays with the first and can’t wait for the 24th to arrive because it is the day he likes the most of this season. For now, he will close his working year tonight with the last concert in Medellín, next to Morat, and will repeat, as many times as necessary, “I love you Medallo, because I’m never going to get tired of saying it.”