Alejandro Fernández, el Potrillo, the son of the last king of the mariachi, the voice of Mexico, returns to the Spanish stage after five years.
The tour, which begins on June 17 at the WiZink Center in Madrid, also passes through Fuengirola (Málaga), Almería, Seville, Barcelona, Torrelavega (Cantabria) and ends on July 1 in Santa Cruz de Tenerife (it is organized by Planet Events, a company owned by Grupo Prisa, publisher of EL PAÍS).
Tickets have already gone on sale and the Mexican singer says that he is "eager" to return to Spain.
“I am happy to return.
The Spanish public is very special, very warm, very affectionate and above all very faithful," he says by video call from Argentina, where he has given one of his last concerts, "when I leave [from Mexico], people are more effusive because they are not its regional music,
The Spanish route is part of a long chain of concerts with which Fernández (Guadalajara, Mexico, 51 years old) will tour the United States and almost a dozen Latin American countries.
One of his most recent appointments, at the Viña del Mar festival in Chile, ended in controversy.
Dressed in a charro suit, with a hat, boots and a button-down jacket, the Mexican artist gave a 90-minute recital, for which he won the Gold and Silver Gaviota, awarded by the jury.
One of the songs in that repertoire was
Mátalas
.
The lyrics of the theme, which says in one of its stanzas "get a gun if you want or buy a dagger if you prefer and become a murderer of women", caused outrage in Chile, where even a former minister came out to protest the election.
After the controversy, the composer of the song, Manuel Eduardo Toscano, told this newspaper that he had decided to change a part of the lyrics (which would remain as "if you want to enjoy his pleasures, try to please him in his desires, try to give him everything you want and become a murderer of women") and that he had already sent it to Fernández updated.
Asked by EL PAÍS, he stated that he was going to continue singing it: “I have to defend my songs because they are like my children.
I think there's nothing wrong with the song.
What strikes us is the word [kill them].
I say, well yes, but then you take away the mischief, you take away all the joke from the song.
I don't know, we're working on it, let's see… It's one of the biggest hits I've had in my career, curiously, one of the songs that the public chants the most.
There are many mixed opinions."
The Mexican singer Alejandro Fernández, during a concert.LIVENATION
After 30 years on stage, El Potrillo is used to navigating controversy.
He has become one of the most successful musical figures in Latin America despite the scandals that have accompanied him for years.
Son of the singer Vicente Fernández, he was born with the spotlights pointed at him.
He was five years old the first time he sang in front of 15,000 people.
He froze under a giant hat and behind the scenes his father appeared like a brave bull to rescue his little boy with the letter.
At the age of 18, he had to decide whether or not he wanted to follow in the King's footsteps.
He hesitated for a while, in which he studied architecture, but successes were chained to him.
Of his first album, in 1992, entitled
Alejandro Fernández
, they bought the same number of copies that his father had at that time.
Since then he has sold more than 35 million records, has won two Latin Grammys, has his star of fame in Hollywood and a day of his own in Las Vegas, where September 15 was declared Alejandro Fernández day.
He never went to class, he learned by watching his father, who passed away in 2021. He imitated everything from him —the pose, the placement of the voice, the breathing— to later be able to distance himself and create his own brand, further away from the rancheras and closer to pop.
It was always Alejandro in the shadow of Vicente.
"Bastard, why do you want me to be a copy of you?" He told his father on one occasion.
—How heavy has it been to carry the Fernández surname?
"It's heavy, it's heavy.
But as the saying goes: if life gives you lemons, make lemonade.
Get the good out of the bad.
For me it was very heavy because his eyes were on me, they looked at me with a magnifying glass at everything I did, I was always in the eye of the hurricane, but, at the same time, since he had all those eyes on me, he tried to give the 200 % and do my best work so that the public sees that I was doing it out of love and affection for this career, and not for some other interest.
The voice of Alejandro Fernández has stuck to the history of music in Mexico.
Three decades have passed and the author of
Como quien lo perdera una estrella
continues to fill all arenas.
“My father told me that he always did things with a lot of transparency and loyalty, I think that's all in life.
As long as you do things with love and professionalism, people will open their arms to you.
Then it is giving us feedback, I applaud him and the audience for my songs, ”he says.
His last song,
Inexperienced in forgetting you
, is the announcement of a new album, with which there will already be 25.
Now, Fernández has changed his role to become a father.
This year he has been seen in many squares accompanied by his 29-year-old son Álex, who wants to become the third generation of the Fernández family.
“I feel like I have an obligation.
Just as my father taught me, I cannot fail my son and I have to do the same.
My father gave his life for me.
I will do the same.
I will support him until the end and I do it because I know that he is talented ”.
At the moment, he says, it is not thought that he will also go to Spain: “He will be accompanying me in the presentations that I make in the most important palenques in Mexico.
But for Spain there are still no plans, we can talk about it.
It wouldn't be bad, I would be very interested if it were, what better
spotlight
than a presentation together with me to open a market as important as the Spanish one”.
Looking back, the artist explains that he feels like someone who has come to rest after climbing a hard flight of stairs: “I am at a privileged moment, at a point of incredible maturity, I feel very good physically, I have concentrated a lot to resume exercise, start eating in a balanced way, quitting bad habits and resuming good ones, sleeping my hours, resting well”.
And he confesses: "That is something that I have to thank God for, who has allowed me to reach my 50 years just as I am right now, full, but I feel that I am on a platform, where I am grabbing a breath to boost and climb the other floor".
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