Alice Wonder, a diamond in a media whirlwind: "I have gone into the lion's den"

Three weeks ago Alice Wonder suffered a serious accident.

It was 11 at night and she was cycling through the center of Madrid, on her way to her house.

She slung over her shoulder a cloth bag with her laptop.

The swing of her bag caused her to block the front spokes of the bike.

She braked suddenly, lost control and shot until she landed, hitting her face with the asphalt.

She was not wearing a helmet.

She lost consciousness.

Pain, blood, Samur, injections, neck brace, police, shivering… In the ambulance, the doctors implored him: “What's your name, what do you do?

Talk to me talk to me…".

She managed to say two words: “Benidorm Fest”.

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Sitting in a cafeteria near the area where the accident took place, Alicia Climent (her real name, Madrid, 24 years old) laughs when telling it "because it has already happened."

“They thought she had a stroke and I was in the ER all night.

They did a lot of tests on me.

My whole body hurt.

At first I thought she was dreaming.

I said about 'Benidorm Fest' because I noticed that I had split my lip, it was hanging: they had to give me six stitches to put it together, and I wanted to tell them that I had to sing, to be careful with my mouth.

See what things are thought at that moment.”

Indeed, Alice Wonder (name inspired by

is one of the participants in Benidorm Fest (semifinals on January 31 and February 2, and final on February 4), from which the Spanish representative will emerge in the next edition of Eurovision.

It is the most atypical proposal, a diamond surrounded by songs with little desire to take risks.

She, on the other hand, does, for a long time.

Singer Alice Wonder, on January 19.

JOHN BARBOSA

Starting with his captivating voice, with a deep tone that misleads many: he's a boy, right?

She does what she wants with her vocal cords: that gravity sometimes turns into a falsetto and, above all, brings a unique requisite that arises spontaneously and that the singer assumes is linked to her adolescent traumas.

“I felt like a boy.

He looked at me in the mirror and did not understand anything;

I saw a boy, but he was a woman.

It was a contradictory situation and it caused me dissatisfaction.

When I sing now, I express that anguish, which pretty much represents what I had then.

He is rage mixed with light.

It's like saying: I'm anguished, but I'm going to get out of here”.

The wild version of this sensation was given by a follower who went to see a concert of his in Malaga from Vigo by car (930 kilometers) and told him: "There are people who sing with their hearts, others with their heads, and others with the pussy

You sing with your pussy”.

Alicia suffered "gender dysphoria", something that she explains as "dissatisfaction because you feel the opposite gender to what you are".

“I considered myself a boy, but a gay boy.

She was very inside, quiet.

She had very much assumed that she was never going to be a person that someone fell in love with, that he was going to be a weirdo.

It was when I was 14 years old when my cousin painted my lips and I said: 'Damn, I have good lips'.

I have reached the point where my face and body are harmonious.

And I have also worked on it: mental and physical work ”.

He lived with those contrasts.

She later says that she felt like a woman;

she then began dating girls, although she ended up in love with an older man and they were together for two years.

"Now I'm more androgynous and people think I'm a boy, and I feel like nothing."

And she adds a definition she feels comfortable with: “Sometimes girl,

Alice Wonder performed on January 12 at La Riviera, Madrid.

ALDARA ZARRAOA (Redferns)

Speak slowly and warmly.

People her age would say that she gives off

The word "patience" is tattooed on her arm.

She had it done two years ago and reminds him that everything will come.

It's coming.

She has a

in that lip that fell apart after the accident;

curly and tousled hair.

She is tall (1.77 meters) and slim.

Upstage she gives off a powerful image: mysterious when she sits down at the piano and rocking when she stands up and slings an electric guitar.

Her music can plunge into the drama of intense heartbreak stories, smooth electronica, and even rock or

riot .

All these genres strung together by her voice and lyrics that draw a universe as sweet as it is twisted.

Alicia comes from a family of musicians.

Her mother, Marta Barriuso, was the singer of Magenta, an eighties techno-pop band with only one album,

produced by Nacho Cano (yes, the one from Mecano and

His father is Vicente Climent, a drummer with stripes of Spanish music: he has played with Miguel Ríos, Santiago Auserón, Aute, Calamaro, Ismael Serrano... In recent years he has not separated from Serrat, including the farewell tour that ended in December .

“I was 15 years old when they broke up and it didn't affect me much.

I was looking forward to it.

They are two very passionate people.

A lot of passion and therefore a lot of drama.”

She stayed to live with her mother and her sister;

He had a period of estrangement with her father, now over.

He plays the drums on some of her songs.

In 2016 he began uploading versions performed on guitar and voice to Instagram.

It included everything: Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, James Blake, Fleetwood Mac, Bad Bunny... The style didn't matter so much as his interpretation, pure, truly, that reaches and moves.

A music representation and production company fell into her social network and signed her.

A first album in English

2018) and another in Spanish, much more her,

(2022).

In between, two essential events in his career: his work as an opening act on the last tour of Vetusta Morla (the members of the group are fans) and that overwhelming interpretation of

by Antonio Vega, in tribute to the victims of the covid 19.

That was in a ceremonious environment in the courtyard of the Royal Palace, before relatives of the victims and various authorities headed by the Kings.

Many of those present wept when remembering their loved ones while Alice's voice stirred their insides almost as much as the ill-fated Antonio Vega did.

After the performance he chatted with Queen Letizia, a music fan.

"But where did you come from...", Alice says that she commented to him, amazed by what she had seen and heard.

“It was a nice and relaxed talk.

We agree that we love Radiohead, for example.

And she told me: 'I'm going to play your music for my daughters, because they don't like reggaeton.'

On January 12, Alice Wonder offered the most important concert of her career, in Madrid's Riviera, with 2,000 sold out locations.

When she went to interpret

the vehement ballad that she presents for Eurovision, she said: "Many people ask me that it doesn't suit me to be at Benidorm Fest, and that is precisely why I am there."

The audience, in their twenties and thirties, with many couples of girls, greeted the comment with cheers.

A week later, in this interview with EL PAÍS, she adds details: “It would never have occurred to me to introduce myself.

I have done it at the deep insistence of my team.

I didn't see it at all, because it's a

of television with dramatic traces, and I don't associate my music with that type of show.

But then I turned it around: what kept me from Benidorm Fest were my prejudices.

And suddenly, from being a rejection, it began to be a challenge.

And I got into the lion's den, clearly [laughs].

I feel a bit like an eagle, watching.

I'm there like: 'Oops, I slipped in.'

Alice Wonder became independent a year ago and now shares a flat in Madrid with some friends.

She has lived modestly for four years from music and has lofty ambitions: “I would like to have a musical career, but also a film career: directing, scriptwriting and photography.

I would like to sing and tell stories.

Make big and creative teams, and give jobs to people”.

At the moment he has to pass the Benidorm Fest test and sift through the 60 new songs he has, choose 12 and edit a new album.

She says it just before finishing the interview to walk away... until she manages to get over the scare of the accident and pick up a bicycle again.