4/10/2023 0 Comments Ispeak colombia![]() ![]() Juanes speaks English but is more comfortable in his native language. "Music, to me, always reflects reality and my state of mind, and that's why the first album was so dark and more depressing," he said in Spanish at the hotel before the concert. Juanes said those first two albums evolved out of two very different periods in his life - the first, a painful time that saw a cousin killed by rebel kidnappers, a close friend shot in a bar and the death of his father from cancer. And its signature song, "A Dios le Pido" ("I Ask God"), became an international anthem for peace, spent 47 weeks on Billboard's Hot Latin Tracks charts and won a Latin Grammy for best rock song. It was in the Latin Top 10, Billboard statistics show, for 92 weeks, longer than any other Latin album in history. He added another six Latin Grammys after the release of "Un Dia Normal," which was more upbeat and became the No.1 Latin album of 2003, in sales and radio play, according to Billboard. It also left critics gushing at its wrenching lyrics and brooding style, with Billboard calling it "one of the most thought-provoking, exhilarating discs released this year." It garnered seven Latin Grammy nominations the next year and won three of the awards. Juanes's raw material was turned into "Fijate Bien," or "Watch Out," a deeply introspective album that refers to land mines and examines loss and violence. He went to work with Fernán Martínez, the manager who helped lead Enrique Iglesias to stardom, and Gustavo Santaolalla, widely known for producing new, cutting-edge Spanish rock. But by 1999, ready for a change and developing a new style, Juanes found his way to Los Angeles with a demo tape filled with riveting lyrics. ![]() "He's got a fantastic voice, and he's a great guitar player."īrought up in Medellín, a city known for both violence and creativity, Juan Esteban Aristizabal first found modest fame with a heavy metal band, Ekhymosis, which means bruise. "He has the perfect combination of artistry and mass appeal," said Jose Tillan, vice president of music and talent for MTV Networks Latin America. His persona - that of a shy, almost reluctant star, despite his smoldering good looks - doesn't hurt, either. Yet perhaps the most inventive music, propelled as it is by passionate lyrics rooted in Colombia's troubles, is by Juanes. In 2002-3, Juanes headlined a tour that visited nearly 50 American cities, singing in Spanish in some distinctly un-Latin places, like Minneapolis and Columbus, Ohio. "Un Dia Normal" sold nearly 900,000 copies in the United States out of two million sold worldwide. Influenced by sounds as varied as Metallica and Bono and playing a decidedly rock-inflected music, Juanes has strong potential crossover appeal, even though he has recorded only in Spanish thus far. The recipe for the 32-year-old singer's success consists of imaginative lyrics and a fresh musical style that mixes Juanes's rangy voice with his hard-driving guitar and a rich stew of Colombia's folkloric music. In the process he has won nine Latin Grammy Awards, including a record six for his second album, "Un Dia Normal" ("A Normal Day"). It is a ritual that has served Juanes well as he has skyrocketed in just four years from obscurity to the brink of superstardom. But once he starts to play before a crowd, he explained: "I close my eyes and disconnect. "I'm always scared," he said, taking a moment from practicing "Sueños," or "Dreams," a plaintive cry for peace from his newest album, "Mi Sangre" ("My Blood"). ![]() He may be Latin America's hottest singer-songwriter these days, a soulful poet with electric guitar whose politically charged lyrics have won acclaim for capturing the nihilism and outrage of Colombia's long civil conflict, but on a recent day he nervously strummed his guitar and paced the hallways as fans gathered outside. ![]() Two blocks away, in a colonial-style hotel, Juanes was on edge. 22 - Soldiers in wheelchairs, maimed by land mines, eagerly waited in Bogotá's wide central plaza, just the kind of fans whose pain the Colombian rocker Juanes sings about. ![]()
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