Asked in this regard about measures such as the election of the first black vice president in its history, Francia Márquez, the artist born Juan Esteban Aristizábal (Medellín, 1972) did not hesitate to point out to Efe that this is “a very strong message.”
“Colombia needs to get to know itself, who we really are, and that inclusion is essential so that many wounds and pain will finally pass. There have been many years of many social injustices and that is why what is happening now is important,” he said.
Juanes made these statements in an interview while passing through Spain, where this week he will begin a tour of Europe to present his most recent album, “Origen” (2021), in which the two musical worlds coexist that, according to him, defined him as an artist .
“I grew up in a family very involved in popular music, folklore, but at 13 I heard Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born in the USA’ album for the first time and, without understanding a word, I went crazy”, recalled this follower of other rock groups such as Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd or Metallica.
On this tour, the public will be able to hear how his greatest hits intertwine with those songs that helped him build himself as a musician, with pieces as diverse as “Volver” by Carlos Gardel and “Could you be loved” by Bob Marley & The Wailers.
Awarded the Grammy for the best Latin or alternative rock album of 2021, he did not hide the pride that this distinction represented for this “very careful” work. “Prizes like this mean a lot because it’s getting more and more difficult to get there, more so with an album like this that we work with in such detail, with so many musicians, all live…”, he indicated.
Yes, it sounds on this tour, although it was not in the repertoire of that album, his version of “Enter Sandman” by Metallica, which previously included the famous Californian band in the re-release that they recorded with artists from all over the world of the songs of his famous ” Black Album” (1991) on the 30th anniversary of its publication.
“But if it hadn’t been like that, I would have put it on this album without a problem because it’s a part of my life as well,” he said.
In his spirit of search, he even tried the Latin urban genre on his previous album of unreleased songs, “More future than past” (2019), an experience that he says “he does not regret” but that he probably will not repeat.
“That record was the limit of where I could experiment. It’s music that I really like. I have teenage kids who listen to this genre all day and I’ve met a lot of its artists, but my place is definitely somewhere else that has more to do with funk, with rock, with blues or with cumbia and vallenato, with the organic,” he argued.
The proof is his next album, 13 songs that he finished just a month ago and that, according to what he said, is the result of the hours of study invested during the pandemic in search of “new and fresh music, like an evolution” from his stamp.
“It’s a very organic album. It has a lot of rock, some pop and Latin music; for example, from the Caribbean, some vallenato and salsa in the percussion”, he anticipates about a job that will be released “this year or maybe the coming”, but from which “one hundred percent sure” “at least one song” will be heard after the summer.
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