/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/RHQBWY2IU5BG5DQDZ5G5YEMSOU.jpg)
He was born 31 years ago in a town, Corral de Almaguer (Toledo), without much tradition of cante jondo, but “flamenco goes inside”.
He started at seven, when his father would lift him out of bed to sing at house parties.
Today he is the cantaor of the moment, as evidenced by an extensive tour that will take him to Starlite Marbella on Friday night, and has stops at the Trocadero Flamenco Festival (Sotogrande, August 18) or the Flamenco on Fire (Pamplona, August 28) .
Question
.
He is on tour with his album
Amor.
Who taught you?
Answer
.
In our culture, for example, it is very important to take care of the elderly.
And in poverty there is always a lot of love because when you have little you share everything.
In my house there has always been a lot of affection.
And the closest thing to love is music, a refuge that never fails.
Q.
Tell me about Grandma Petra.
R. It
was the engine of flamenco and art in my house.
The one who raised me as a child and the artist who could never be, although she always was.
In her time it was not well seen that gypsy women were artists, but she was the one who sang the best.
Q.
If you were born a woman, would it have also been more difficult to dedicate yourself to flamenco?
A.
Not now.
The time has changed.
Q. You
left school at the age of 11, when you started earning money ...
A.
Yes, and before I was also little.
I used to sing when I was little, my mother took me to a program when I was 11 years old and that's where I started my career and left school.
Q.
Do you regret it?
R.
Not much less.
Q.
What do you remember about that talent show where you got your first award?
A.
It was very nice.
At first I was very nervous, but then I got used to it.
It was a program that Juan y Medio and Lolita presented.
The prize was a million pesetas, imagine.
My parents have always been very humble, they lived from day to day.
He was dedicated to olives and little else.
P
.
How has a family in which "there is always a reason to sing and dance" handled the danger of aerosols and confinement due to coronavirus?
R.
Wrong. I travel a lot and being locked up without being able to leave, without being able to visit family, sentimentally and at work was hard.
But I took the opportunity to compose.
Q.
Is flamenco studied or practiced?
Is it born or learned?
A.
The guitar can be learned, the cante cannot, it is from birth.
I have not studied flamenco.
I have a devotion to cante and I dedicate myself to researching, to listening.
And it is a way of life that manifests itself in everything, even in the way of sleeping.
We live at night.
"The guitar can be learned, not cante, it is from birth"
Q.
And in the eternal debate about purity and fusion, where do you stand?
For example, do you defend Rosalía?
A.
Yes, of course.
I will defend any partner who sings with heart and truth.
Each one does what he wants and experiences, he is respectable.
Q.
Do you consider Rosalía a flamenco companion?
A.
Totally.
Some are always criticizing, but the important thing is to enjoy the music.
Q.
Do you think that this type of artist and mixing serves to bring flamenco closer to more people?
A.
Yes, and that is the important thing.
P.
At first Camarón was also criticized by purists.
R.
Of course, but the purists have become old.
The truth counts more, to make people feel.
P.
Flamenco is a cultural heritage of humanity.
Is it noticeable or should it be more noticeable?
A. It
should be more noticeable.
Those with the power of culture should promote it more and show it off more.
It is the greatest thing we have.
Paco de Lucía is the Spanish Beethoven!
I would love for flamenco to be taught in schools.
“Paco de Lucía is the Spanish Beethoven!
I would love for flamenco to be taught in schools "
P.
Is the ear also educated?
R.
Totally, and as a child.
Q.
Who are your references?
R.
Many, because we have many teachers.
If I have to choose: Pastora Pavón,
La Niña de los Peines;
Camarón and Paco de Lucía.
I was captured by his personality, his way of feeling.
They are geniuses taken from the lamp.
Q.
What do you listen to when you don't listen to flamenco?
Tell me artists of other genres that you like.
R.
I listen to a bit of jazz, black music ... I really admire Michael Jackson, a well-rounded artist who did everything well: singing, dancing, very special.
And I really like the pianist Ludovico Einaudi, he is very sensitive.
Q.
A place where you would like to sing.
R.
For example in the City Center theater in New York.
I was there with Sara Baras and Carlos Saura but not only with my name.
P.
The best compliment they have given you.
R.
An olé in time.
"The best compliment?
An olé in time "
Q.
When the public is profane, does it interrupt?
A.
Totally.
Sometimes that olé is out of place, although it is always appreciated.
P.
You have said: "Flamenco is the best psychiatrist and the best therapy."
What do you think you would be doing if you hadn't been able to pursue that passion?
R.
Well, that question is very difficult because I don't know how to do anything else.
Cante is my life.
Discover the best stories of the summer in
V Magazine
.
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/HKKSQIIDAFAONC5GQGLEEICVO4.jpg)
