Ruth Lorenzo: "My best sex is singing"

”Only, chopped, with milk?”.

"Soybean, oatmeal, almond?"

As soon as she opens the door of a friend's stomp in Madrid, where she stays when she works in the capital, the artist Ruth Lorenzo offers coffee to the visitor, disappears into the back hallway and returns with a perfectly served cup of coffee on an impeccably arranged tray.

In addition to her kindness, such delicacy and diligence may have to do with her childhood as an illegal waitress in the United States, where she arrived with her mother from her native Murcia after the traumatic separation of her parents.

Up close, Lorenzo looks like a very self-

woman .

She wasn't always like this, she says.

The interview was carried out a couple of weeks ago, but that it is published today, Easter Sunday, she comes to her hair.

Queen

Well, I cut my hair at my last concert, the day I turned 40.

They wouldn't let me do it and that was my act of rebellion, to tell the world that, at 40, I am finally mine and I do what I want.

Realize: I felt it as an act of rebellion.

This is how women are mentally programmed.

Who wouldn't let him be his?

The industry, my record company.

They told me: “Don't talk at concerts, don't give yourself so much, dose yourself, don't go so head-on, you don't like them;

Not that dress, leave your hair long, it sweetens you”.

That day I said: "To take for sack."

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He has been singing for decades.

Has it taken so long to realize?

This comes from forever.

At first you are young and naive.

Over time, you begin to internalize that yes, perhaps you are as complicated as they paint you, you say: "I'm going to give in, let's see what happens", and you end up annulled, without being who you really are.

It seems to be describing the relationship with an abusive boyfriend.

Exactly.

It's just as toxic.

Imagine that a manager, or a record company, falls in love with you and wants to sign you, because he loves you and wants to develop you.

Okay, but then don't try to change me.

If you want a puppet, buy one.

Were you the puppet?

I never quite left myself.

Hence they punished me with silence.

Having my record in a drawer and not letting it develop.

What I'm doing now, alone, is tiny, but it's working.

In the end, it is the fear that they instill in us and that many of us have when we throw ourselves into the void, that "I can't do it alone."

On stage he excites the public.

Don't you feel powerful?

Look, I think I'm a better artist now than I was at 25. Especially in the phrasing.

When you

a song,

it with a different emotional baggage, from a place of truth.

You don't interpret it so much, but you feel it.

And that is transmitted.

I don't know what it is, but it's the beauty of art.

A vibration between you and the public that is not imposed, that is not made of plastic.

call it x

Exact.

Sometimes I get so excited myself that I lose my tune.

But better out of tune than perfect.

Our instrument is not a piece of wood, it is alive, it beats.

That is what caresses the public.

And did you stop feeling that heartbeat?

She would be short of breath.

I've always sung in the shower, and I didn't sing anymore.

The three minutes of the few performances I had on television seemed like a three-hour concert to me.

For me singing is something emotional and I realized that something was not right.

My body warned me, and I ignored it, until I lost my voice.

Cutting my hair that night was for the women of Iran, but above all for me.

Let us not forget that the ground we have gained is easy to lose and it is the responsibility of those of us who now have strength and resilience to respect what our mothers did, because one day someone can say: “Girls, up to here”, and take everything away from us.

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Is your mother your role model?

My mother is 80 years old and she is divine.

I hug her is my home.

She is here or in Cochinchina.

I admire her very much.

There is something that they do not teach our children.

We are selfish and think that our parents belong to us.

And not.

They are persons.

I began to understand my mother when she began to be responsible for myself.

I needed to leave her to find myself.

So instead of blaming her for everything, I realized that my mother is a woman.

Flirty, sensual, sexy, old, young.

Live.

How was that revelation?

One day, applying cream, I saw my mother in the mirror.

I was interested in knowing her story.

Not that of the mother who gave birth to me, but that of the woman who was left with her dreams unfulfilled.

That she separated in the Franco era.

That she had a husband who, due to circumstances in her life, ended up being an alcoholic and abusive.

That she struggled to get his children ahead, that he set up a business and lost everything to try to be free.

She is indeed my

.

Ruth Lorenzo, with her guitar, with which she composes her songs, photographed in a friend's apartment in Madrid.

bernardo perez

You have told that

Everything is related.

My biggest crises were when I tolerated a toxic relationship and didn't realize it.

So, I would binge and vomit.

From there it comes out.

It takes therapy and work, but it comes out.

I started to like it when I saw that my imperfection is natural, that I don't have to be perfect to please anyone.

My blindfold fell off and now I look like a real woman.

We are all real.

Look, no.

Deep down we all think that we have to pass a filter to be accepted.

And it's not until we realize it and remove that filter when we are aware of the reality that we carry inside.

Yesterday I went to a women's event at the US Embassy.

There were women of all types, styles, ages.

They were, we were, all so beautiful, each one in her own way.

They sang with me and I was very moved.

It was closing a circle.

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Did they invite you as a compatriot?

Is she a US citizen?

No, I was illegal.

I worked illegally in the United States, as a minor, at a neighbor's burger joint.

A few hours, to help at home.

It may sound like child labor, but they were known, and we really needed that money.

That's why I tell you that my rings have never fallen off.

And look, now they invite me to sing at their embassy.

Everything, deep down, is the legacy of my mother, who, at 80, still tells me: "Daughter, make love a lot."

And does he listen?

Ok I try.

But I already tell you that my best sex is singing.

That's what all the artists say.

I swear by my life.

For me the stage is a total ecstasy.

You say that because you yourself have declared that you have just broken up with your partner.

Well, you're also right.

I like to think that I start from scratch.

I'll tell you.

'THE QUEEN'

Ruth Lorenzo (Murcia, 40 years old) loves to practice freediving in the waters of her native Murcia.

A discipline that consists of going down to 25 meters deep with lungs, without air equipment, enjoying the trip and coming out unscathed.

"It is my way of meditating. It has been the last link in the chain of things that has helped me heal mentally. It requires great concentration, any mistake can end your life, you have to know how to listen to your body, be aware of yourself yourself, knowing your limits, knowing that you can't think about anything else or be in another place, that this is fleeting and that, when you leave, everything will return to its place, helps to control emotional states", she explains, with such passion that It seems that it leads you by the hand down the sea.

It seems a good metaphor for the career and personality of this artist who rose to fame in 2008, when she left the British public speechless with her voice on The

, and who, in Spain, however, and despite her undeniable talent that took her to Eurovision in 2014 (she was tenth), it has taken her years to make a place for herself.

Nothing is that simple, she explains.

Now, at just turned 40, she hosts the

contest on television and launches

, a four-song collection in which she declares herself free of pressure for the first time in her life.

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