Rigoberta Bandini: "Sometimes the character eats me"

The dubber, actress, theater director and screenwriter Paula Ribó González (Barcelona, ​​31 years old) is also Rigoberta Bandini.

One of the great protagonists of 2022 opens the door of her house in Barcelona and goes to a small table next to the window with two chairs.

In the living room, in addition to her son's toys, a book by Sally Rooney,

, which she is enthusiastically reading and an iconic photo of Julio Iglesias next to the television, as if he were a relative.

She dedicated a song to him directly entitled

("I'm a scoundrel, I'm a lady"), and about her figure she told the journalist Raquel Peláez in this newspaper: "It's very liberating to play Julio Iglesias, take possession of those values ​​that have always been considered masculine”.

His latest success

, turned upside down the Benidorm Fest created to elect the Spanish representative in Eurovision;

Rigoberta Bandini was, however, second behind Chanel, the winning artist who gave the surprise by beating Bandini and her other favourites, Tanxugueiras.

On April 7, she leaves

(Aguilar) street, her first book, about the crisis of her 30s and a sentimental disappointment that took her to Stockholm.

More information

The controversy of the Benidorm Fest sneaks into politics and reaches Congress

Ask.

What did you do the night before the final?

Answer.

We had a leisurely dinner at the Hotel Don Pancho.

The team, my son, his grandmothers.

Around us we had quite a few English.

Q.

Did it take you long to fall asleep?

R.

Yes, I was very nervous.

Before the semifinals it was already like my first time in space.

We had done a little rehearsal and when we saw the

of the others… Buah!

"Tomorrow I go out, you know?".

Q.

Does it also happen to you at concerts?

A.

No, if the power goes out at a concert, I have an hour to fix it.

This is

.

You have three minutes to conquer Spain and one bullet.

Q.

What did you do before leaving?

A.

We all hugged each other and, although I hadn't planned to say anything, I told them: "It's not that important."

He came out of my soul.

But it was necessary to think about it: “It's not that important, we have to enjoy it because if not, it's worth nothing”.

This makes sense as long as we have a good time.

So no: it's not that important at all.

We have loads of things on the way;

to begin with, an incredible tour this summer and surely many experiences.

This is one more.

Let's give it the weight it has.

P.

And not fail.

R.

You are going to fail for sure, something always fails.

In the semi-final, at the beginning of the song, I felt very out of tune.

I couldn't tune well.

Because of the nerves and because I was very serious, and I came from a very

sinusitis .

Q.

Was the performance seen afterwards?

A.

Yes, and I scratched myself.

But I took weight off her: well,

, I don't know, she was nervous.

I know I don't go out of tune at concerts, I know I can tune perfectly, but everything is new.

Q.

And in the final?

R.

In the final my

[earpiece] stopped.

Q.

In the middle of the performance?

R.

Yes, that was… Over there you listen to the musical base and the clapperboard to hear well, because in the end on stage you don't hear anything clearly.

And she stopped me just when she [sings]: “You tied up…” and I took it off.

I thought my panicked face would show, but I watched the performance afterwards and thought: “Damn, how well did I hide it”.

Q.

You appear on stage with a white veil and sunglasses.

R.

I told the designer Joan Ros [Garrofé] that I wanted a wardrobe that would overwhelm me.

Go from chastity to animality;

in the future I would have completely undressed at the end.

The idea for the sunglasses was given to me by Joan as a joke and I said: “I

.

Oysters, yes, yes, yes”.

These details are the key: they take weight out of the thing.

Q.

What do you mean?

R.

It also happens in the songs.

That the interesting thing about any speech is the contrast.

I'm telling you something very important for both of us, but I'm telling you with a sense of humor and I'm giving you a pathetic example.

That mixed sandwich is going to fit you much better, because if not everything is very intense, it's a pain in the ass and it doesn't go well.

The nonsense of the sunglasses, apart from an aesthetic thing, gives you the touch that the song is already starting and you say: “Okay, okay”.

I mean.

It's a serious thing, we're talking about mothers, we can get emotional, but let's not forget to wink at the camera.

It is a game of complicity with the public: “Hey, you know?

We're going to laugh too."

The interesting thing about any speech is the contrast.

I tell you something very important, but a sense of humor and a pathetic example.

It fits you much better, because if not everything is very intense, it's a pain in the ass and it doesn't fit well

P.

The song

started seven years ago.

R.

The

was there and there was a very different pre-chorus.

There was no [singing] "Mom, mom, mom, let's stop the city," and the word Delacroix was missing.

Q.

And the beginning?

R.

[Laughs shyly] The principle was: "You who have taken my head out of your pussy."

Go figure.

At that time she was making much more punk songs.

When I got it back, the first thing I thought was: “If I do this, they won't select me for the Benidorm Fest”.

I also thought: “I'm in another moment.

I don't feel like starting a song like that;

I want it to be a universal song that children, mothers and grandmothers can listen to, and if the word

comes out at the beginning …”.

P.

How was it, if you may know?

R.

"You who have pulled my head out of your pussy / forgive me before I start for being rude."

P.

What do you think of your mother

A.

He didn't like the first model.

My mother always has a hard time at first.

From the third listening of each song, she tells me: “Now I do.

Now I'm going in."

But I understand that she didn't like it.

Me neither.

That's why I got to the final model.

Q.

Your mother is a music teacher.

Does it give you a cane?

R.

Yes, but it is not very hard.

When sometimes she doesn't like something, it's because she says she doesn't understand it.

Like, for example, the message from

.

Look for some layers of reading, some interpretations... "No, mommy, it's much easier."

It happens to me with more people and I begin to think that it is something generational.

"Here you mean that...".

“I mean what I am saying, nothing more.

If I say that I would like to be a bitch, it is because I would like to be a bitch, sleep, bark, eat, not a bitch who goes out on the street to do evil.

Q.

Does your mother feel challenged by the song?

A.

Totally.

For example, we're both pretty bad at cooking.

But the broth is something that my grandmother used to make a lot and that my mother always has in the fridge.

[”To you who always have broth in the fridge”, she sings in

].

P.

When the final of the Benidorm Fest ends, social networks explode with the result.

At what point are they aware that it is messing out?

R.

Seeing the one that was bundled inside.

It was very shocking to me and difficult to manage.

At the gala there were many

who, when Chanel won, began to chant “Rigoberta, Rigoberta”.

On the one hand I thought: "Wow, how strong, all those people are with me", but at the same time I felt very bad: it was very uncomfortable.

The clash of those two worlds was instantaneous;

Twitter was there, in person, so I thought: if these 500 people shout “Rigoberta”… And they would have shouted Tanxugueiras if they were second.

Because the

, which is a very powerful public, was very divided between Tanxugueiras and us.

Q.

What did you do?

R.

I thought that neither Chanel was guilty of this nor us.

It generated a very bittersweet thing for me, but when we left there we opened a bottle of champagne.

There was much to celebrate: the song had arrived, it had gradually become a kind of anthem.

Q.

Fame.

Had he thought of her?

R.

Never to these dimensions.

I always said: “I want to reach more people”.

And she thought so when he worked in the theater!

But, oysters, I did not imagine that we would be talking about so many people.

P.

Where do you leave Rigoberta Bandini when you are only Paula Ribó?

R.

It is difficult for me to reconnect with my surroundings.

There are friends I haven't seen for a long time who now only ask me about Rigoberta, which I understand perfectly.

Right now there is such a strong duality that I say to my own family: "Let's just talk about Paula today, okay?"

Sometimes at home we feel that Rigoberta is eating me.

And it's like, “Hey!

Rigoberta, you are wonderful, but I also exist”.

Rigoberta Bandini does not drink anything during the conversation hour.

Nico is not heard, the child that the artist had with her partner, the screenwriter and actor Esteban Navarro, a member of the comedy duo Venga Monjas ("I got pregnant six months after they started together. I had never imagined living at the same time a pregnancy and such a powerful crush on the person who got you pregnant. On a hormonal level it's wow! And it could have turned out badly because it could have been an asshole Esteban, but it turned out very nice [laughs]. nice").

Joan Sánchez, photographer for EL PAÍS, finds a corner of the house where Rigoberta Bandini poses for the images of this interview.

The artist picks up a guitar and sings, very softly, the first verses of

.

"I played the song on the keyboard, it's the first time I played it with the guitar," she says.

The light of a sunny February day in Barcelona filters through the window.

Paula Ribó's father is Pepe Ribó, president of the Federation of Supporters Clubs of Catalonia.

But Paula did not see the PSG-Real Madrid match in the Champions League round of 16 the day before.

“I don't really have much interest in football.

When Madrid wins I'm happy for my father.

And in a Madrid-Barça I will go with Madrid.

Why?

Because if Madrid wins my father will be a very happy man, and I want my parents to be happy”.

P.

If being a madridista in Barcelona makes a difference, being the president of the supporters clubs must be something...

R.

It bothers him a lot that they have brought it to light, and I tell him: "Dad, if you were corrupt I would be ashamed, but you are a Madridista, my son...".

Since everything is so politicized, even football, I guess he'll be afraid that they put me in the middle.

It's a soccer team.

It's like telling me you liked macaroni or spaghetti.

I don't know, guys, it doesn't matter.

It doesn't affect me at all, and the people who are affected by it are going to sweat my pussy.

There are friends I haven't seen for a long time who only ask me about Rigoberta.

To my own family I say: "Let's just talk about Paula today, okay?".

Sometimes at home we feel that Rigoberta is eating me.

Q.

Believe in God.

R.

I believe in God because I believe in many things that connect me with something bigger.

It bothers me that there are people, especially on the right, who want to appropriate the most powerful thing in the world, which is God, and that for me has a lot to do with freedom and expression and truth and not at all with castration, judgment and repression.

I say: “No, you are not going to stay with God”.

God is ours.

God belongs to the people he shares, that he loves, that he creates.

Q.

Regarding your theme

, you have spoken on occasion of the spiritual closeness with God that you experienced through drug use.

He assumes he is referring to LSD.

A.

Yes.

P.

And is it with that relationship with drugs when you start to believe in God?

R.

No [laughs].

Q.

How does it start?

R.

My relationship with God is very curious.

I went to a religious school.

And I was very obsessed with the figure of Jesus [one of Bandini's songs is

and he sings: "I want Christ to come down to teach me to pray / to accompany me on this semi-annual trip / get us a ticket to the Bahamas together"] .

I felt very connected to him.

There was something I discovered at that time that interested me, but I wasn't aware of it.

In adolescence my rejection of all that was absolute.

But there was something that was left there half placed...

Q.

What happened?

R.

Already in adulthood, when writing I felt that I connected with something.

Every time I started a creative process —whether it was a play, a few poems, or a song— I felt that it already existed and that I was only transforming it into something else, like a kind of interconnection between us and another universal artery. great that through art made me understand it.

I haven't had many experiences with acid, but one I did have was very revealing.

I connected with very important things, even after that

I changed.

I mean, I'm someone else.

Q.

When did you leave the

or during?

R.

When I left.

It was like understanding everything.

It connected me with something so powerful and so

that if we were on that screen, nothing would make sense.

Oysters, as a tool once in a lifetime, or twice, seems very powerful to me.

I speak from my experience.

There are people with different ones, and worse.

I make no apology for this.

I tell what happened to me.

Q.

How long did the effect of that acid last?

A.

12 hours.

Q.

Where did you take it?

R.

In a house in the mountains, here in Catalonia.

I put a lot of music, a lot of Beatles, for example.

It was with a friend.

The two there in the garden.

Sometimes we talked, sometimes we didn't... We traveled all the time.

I like to do it as a ritual, I would never do acid in a club.

I think that there you can go crazy.

Paula Ribó, artistically known as Rigoberta Bandini, on February 16.joan sánchez

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