Juanes: The Man And The Myth Exclusive - page 2

06-05-2006 09:45

You did a concert in London recently and it sold out in one hour. Even some of the world’s English speaking stars can’t do that

. I know. It was amazing. When my record company told me I couldn’t believe it. To play somewhere where, as you say, nobody really knows you, if anyone turns up it’s a good thing, but to sell out in an hour and have the place full was just amazing. Actually, amazing doesn’t even start to describe it.

Do you mind that the audience was mainly Spanish speaking fans and not English speaking fans taking a chance on you?

Not at all. When I started in the United States or even in Spain, the Latin community would always come out and see my shows. I don’t mind that because then they would take what I do on my CD’s or on stage and push it outside the concert venues, into their everyday lives and introduce people who never have heard my music. That’s the way we’ve started to get people listening to my material. It happened the same way in Germany. We started playing to a mostly Latino crowd but then by the end of the tour there were hundreds of non-Spanish speaking people out there in the crowd really enjoying themselves. But without the Spanish speaking fans I wouldn’t have anything. They’re a big part of me and what I do.

Do you find that people over here have expected you to be another Enrique or Ricky Martin or a male J. Lo?

It’s kind of hard because most of the people in Europe do think of Latin music as one thing without any differentiation between acts. We are coming from the same place but we are all different. I just sing in Spanish because that’s my language but my background is in rock music, but the stuff that I sing now is softer, more like a kind of pop folk music. So they will say I am like Ricky Martin or Shakira or Mark Anthony or whatever but they are wrong and have probably never heard my music. I don’t take it personally.

Has there ever been on pressure on you to just make music that will be a hit rather than the music that you want to make?

No. Definitely not. I have been into making music since I was a small child and even when I started playing in a rock band my roots were always in traditional Columbian music, so if I started recording a song like ‘Living La Vida Loca’, I wouldn’t be making my music, I’d be playing some other persons song. So for me I have to make my music and luckily the record company. I like all types of music and can play all types of music but it has to be from me otherwise it’s not real. It’s all about identity.

So it’s very important for your music to have the personal touch.

Absolutely because when I was in a rock band we were always trying to sound like someone else and we realised that we needed to find ourselves and out own sound. That’s the hardest part of being a musician; trying not to sound like another band, being different. It’s what makes music unique.

Would you ever make an English language album like other Latin singers?

I will never make an English album because it’s not my language. It’s really important to me to sing en espanol because it’s my roots. Coming from Colombia I don’t see why I have to change. That’s the way that’s natural for me. I still dream in Spanish, I still think in Spanish. I don’t want to be thinking about the pronunciation of words or what it means. In Latin America we listen to music in English and don’t expect those artists to sing in our language so why should Latin stars have to sing in English? When you listen to the songs you can still love the music but not understand the lyrics - you can still connect to the rhythm and the melodies. That’s what it’s really all about.

What about people who expect your songs to be all about sex and making love or romance? People kind of expect that from Latin stars, especially men.

That is true. People also think that Latin music is all about summer hits, Latin lovers or macho men but that’s not true. We sing en espanol because that’s our language not because we’re trying to sexy or clever. It’s a misconception. I like to sing about reality and things that matter to me like family, love, war, peace and things that have happened to my country. You have to know love but you don’t have to sing about sex all the time to be sexy or a man who loves.

You have some impressive celebrity fan including Bono from U2 and Paul McCartney, but is there one person that’s turned out to be a fan, that’s really blown you away when you found out?

It’s amazing to have the support of people like that. It’s a real honour. I grew up listening to them and now they’re listening to me. I never think about who might hear my music when I make a CD or write a song, but to find out that people that inspired me are inspired by me is amazing. It’s like when I found that Quincy Jones heard my music. It was about three years ago when a friend rang me and said that Quincy was listening to one of my albums on his iPod and said, ‘Who the hell is this guy Juanes? What is he saying? What is he singing about? I want to hear more’. Then we met and now we are friends. For me, that the most amazing thing. Quincy Jones likes my music and now he’s my friend. That’s like, wow!