It’s the last interview of the day. Juanes, who arrived just a few hours ago from Miami to a torrid Madrid besieged by the NATO summit, hides as best he can the jet lag entrenched in the basement of a luxury hotel and takes advantage of the break between interrogations with strangers who all asked him the same thing to have a snack. In the catering, first class, as befits a star of its brilliance, shines even more than him a ham of those of falling tears. His local team drinks the delicacy with enthusiasm. He doesn’t even touch it. Well, somewhere you have to start sinking your teeth into the piece.
Don’t tell me you’re vegan.
I was until a few years ago, but my body asked me for protein and I began to eat beef, but the animal was not recognized much. I know that Iberico ham is pure gold, but I don’t eat pork because in my house the pig was slaughtered, even the head was kept in the fridge, and it made me sick just to see it.
This is an interview for EL PAÍS. Do you know the newspaper?
I read it, I read it [muestra, cómplice, la aplicación en la pantalla del movil].
Do you think your teens will read this talk?
No idea: they don’t read newspapers, they get information from Twitter and TikTok.
Generational gap?
In that sense, yes. Her imaginary and mine are opposites. Mine, at their ages, was the house, the family, the Church, two television channels, two radio channels, and no one to tell you anything else. My children’s is huge. They have the world at their fingertips on the internet. I do not manage social networks nor do I particularly like them. I am in the process of understanding them.
Do your children like you?
As a parent I hope so. Musically, I don’t think they like all my songs, but they appreciate my music and I always ask them about my new songs, they are honest and tell me the truth. They are not my target audience. My daughter Paloma, for example, is 100% reggaeton. They are in another place, they are the ones who introduce me to other artists, and I like it that way.
His song ‘A Dios le pido’, from 20 years ago, is almost a sung prayer. Are you still so devoted?
No. I grew up in that family context of mass and praying the rosary, but today I have a totally different concept. Neither the Church nor the institution has anything to do with what God means to me, who can be the universe, energy, light, spirituality.
Do you pray in extreme situations?
Of course, it is impossible that I can separate myself from that sentimental education. When I get on a plane, when I think of my children, or my family, I say: ‘God, protect us’, but that is a form of meditation, like feeling that there is something greater than you, I don’t know how to explain it, but that’s how it is.
Do you sublimate that spirituality with your charitable foundations?
That social sensitivity has always been in me, it is my way of connecting with people. When I started playing in a group, at the age of 15, all the lyrics we did were social. No love or feelings: it was expressing anger and frustration at what was happening in my country and in my city. That brought me into contact with social organizations and, when I had funds and fame, I thought that I could contribute something to others.
How have you welcomed the triumph of the leftist Gustavo Petro in the Colombian elections?
With hope, and caution. I am optimistic, but that does not mean that I do not realize the reality. The country is polarized into two halves, which voted for two candidates. We have been exclusive with each other, we have not recognized who we are and, until we do recognize it, we cannot expect great changes. We don’t need more weapons, we don’t want them. We need help to build peace. Let the children learn music, let hunger end: this is a country where a few have a lot and many have nothing. I don’t know. I want to stay hopeful.
Tonight he performs in Madrid Sebastián Yatra, another global Colombian star. What does Colombia have to give so much idol to the masses?
Lots of concerns. The fact that we have been so close to violence and death, that there are so many things to tell, generates art. For me, at least, I was moved by the desire to improve, not to stay trapped in the depressive cycle of violence and anger that I felt for what I saw around me.
Talent is also needed.
Well, I feel that there is something in me that is natural with music and creativity. But also because music was cultivated in my house. I had an epiphany at a very young age, playing guitar and singing alone at home. I felt very well. It was as if my loneliness, and my sickly shyness, which almost prevented me from speaking, dissipated. When they called me to play something in a civic act I almost felt like a hero. Music was like my passport to people’s acceptance, to the relationship with them, because otherwise I had no relationship with anyone.
A great shy that fills stadiums. How do you eat that?
It is something very rare. It has not been easy for me to learn. At first I was panicking. I’ve been taming it, but even today, five minutes before leaving, I wonder why I’ve gotten in there.
How many ‘Juanes’ is Juanes?
Several. I could not tell you that I am spiritual or materialistic all the time, or even all day. Sometimes I feel angry, sometimes I am angry, other times I am calm. I always want to be optimistic.
Former President Obama declares himself his fan. Today Biden is in Madrid. Does she see Him dancing to her tune?
I don’t really see Biden dancing vallenato, but I was with him in the White House last year, and he’s a very well-liked guy. Americans find it a bit of work to dance the syncopation, but they appreciate Latin music and receive it with great affection
What do you give them, without singing in English, so that Give him so many Grammys, not just Latin?
I think my connection to that rock culture is the electric guitar. Even though it’s electric, I play it with a Latin flavor. As in the rifs of Black shirt. Many times I show them to American musicians and they don’t get them, just as I don’t get to play the blues like them.
His most romantic lyrics, so heartfelt, do they collide with the myth of the Latin macho?
I do not have any problem with that. Sometimes I think that I get too naked saying what I feel, that makes me vulnerable, or weak, but I have learned to love through my partners, my wife, my children, and it has been an incredible lesson in tolerance. It is true that the Latin culture is very macho. Fortunately, in recent years this is beginning to change and I notice it especially because of my children, when I say or do something that was normal before and now they scold me saying that it is not said or done. Everything is teaching, and it seems perfect to me.
You yourself have been a sex symbol at some point in your career, and you still have fans cheering on your physique. How are you doing?
I’ve always had that part super bad. I got in a bad temper when they told me there goes the sexy Latino. No bitch I ain’t no latin sex, I am a musician, I play the guitar. I was never able to exploit that part.
Do you understand, then, women who feel like an object because you have once felt that way?
I understand, of course. I think it’s cool who does it and exploits it, but, in my case, I’ve dedicated my whole life to trying to learn to sing and compose, it’s not what I like. I want people to remember me for that. I have many artist friends who do, they love it, and it comes out perfect, but that goes with the personality of each person. Everyone has to do what they like and make them feel comfortable.
In ‘I ask God’ he asked his mother not to die and his father to remember him. Does he have them tattooed so you don’t forget them?
My parents are my life. Here I take them, where I have the pulse [muestra el rostro de ambos, tatuado en la parte interna de los antebrazos]. Her faces are taken from a photo in which they both walked happily as young people through Medellín. My dad passed away seven years ago. My mom is still with us, and I learned everything I am and I owe it to them.
Now the patriarch is you. In August he turns 50. Crisis or opportunity?
I went through the crisis around the age of 40. I was saturated, without time for my children, I was left dry, without inspiration, I panicked that I would never compose again. But the magic came back and now, at 50, I feel mature, interesting, vital, very connected to who I am. I feel safe and I love it. I never thought that at this age I would feel like this, I would not want to go back to my 20s again. Here I am calm.
ALL THE JUANS OF JUANS
With 26 Grammys and 16 million records sold, Juan Esteban Arestizábal, Juanes (Medellín, Colombia, 50 years old), is the most awarded Latin soloist in the United States and one of the most famous artists of the very famous Colombian singers: from Shakira to Carlos Vives, including the acclaimed J Balvin and the brand new Sebastián Yatra. Married, father of three teenage children and prominent activist for peace in his country and in the world, the author of stadium hymns, festivals and karaokes such as Black shirt y I pray to God returns to the Spanish stages after the break due to the pandemic. Although he lives in Miami (USA), he still feels “more Colombian than an arepa.”
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