Video | Álvaro Urquijo's pious lie to Joaquín Sabina thanks to which 'On the boulevard of broken dreams' was born

Madrid, 1993. This is the story of how a pious “lie” ends up motivating one of the most iconic songs in our collective imagination.

It all starts with an old crumpled paper in a wallet inside Enrique Urquijo's pants pocket.

On it was written the finished lyrics to Down the Boulevard of Broken Dreams.

“Sabina had given it to my brother one night so that he could lend her a hand with the music, but Enrique had forgotten about it and had kept it there for four months.

I had no idea until, one morning, the phone rang in our house…” recalls Álvaro Urquijo in this new episode of the video section of EL PAÍS, History of a song.

Who was the person behind the receiver and what did he want?

Where did that paper end with the lyrics of this tribute song to Chavela Vargas?

Why did Álvaro Urquijo have to lie to Joaquín Sabina?

The leader of Los Secretos clarifies all these unknowns in the video of this interview.

“It is a story of goodness and nobility on the part of Joaquín Sabina and of effort and passion on mine,” explains the little Urquijo.

I will be grateful to him for life because removing your music, disarming your song, to put other music in, very few people do it.”