The star of the romantic ballad is still not thinking about retiring and is concentrating on his next album, which contains eleven songs, one of which will premiere when he receives the Artistic Career award next week in Miami.
The first public performance of the single “De tanta gente” on the stage of the Billboard Latin Music Awards will be a gift to his audience and to those who have decided to reward Raphael for his successful and long career in music.
In a telephone interview from Madrid, the artist, with 79 years of life and 60 years of experience on stage and in recording studios, is grateful for the many awards received, but above all excited about Victoria, an album he recorded between Madrid and London which will be published next November preceded by two singles.
“I deserved a great album like this,” he says without sparing praise for his compatriot Pablo López, a composer in his thirties and new to his career, to whom he made “a lapidary commission” after having followed in his footsteps for several years and gave him the ” yes” without hesitation.
“I asked him for a whole album, not a song, and let’s see how we go,” stressed this artist who has sold more than 70 million records and is in the small group of holders of a uranium record (more than 50 million sold), alongside Queen, AC/DC and Michael Jackson.
In recent times it hasn’t been “so easy to find a great repertoire,” Raphael underlines. of many of his greatest hits.
When asked if the quality of composers has decreased, the one who was known in his early days as the “child of Linares” does not fall into criticism, but rather attributes it to the fact that it is difficult to please someone like him, so perfectionist and at the same time with a very marked style.
“These are other times”, “everything changes”, is his answer to questions that imply that any past time was better.
He does emphasize that the current trend of publishing a large number of singles in “little pills” before the album does not go with him. “I think it’s taking things too lightly, and I’m more forceful,” he says. Victoria will only release two songs previously. The first, “Of so many people”, in about two weeks.
Before the release of the single, on September 29, he will go on stage at the Watsco Center in Coral Gables (Miami-Dade) to receive an award that Andrea Bocelli, Armando Manzanero, Carlos Santana, Emmanuel, José José, Juan Luis Guerra, Los Lobos, Maná, Marco Antonio Solís, Miguel Bosé, Paquita la del Barrio, Ricardo Arjona and Roberto Carlos, among others.
As an artist who prides himself on “being in good health” and active in his profession, Raphael will also step on stage to sing at the gala that will be broadcast on Telemundo and thousands of people will see the hitherto unpublished “Of So Many People” and some of his greatest hits, among which are “Yo soy qué”, “En carne viva” and “Mi gran noche”.
At 79 years old, the Spanish artist is full of plans and also some mysteries. His next tour with the album Victoria will begin in April, about four months after it ends in December, in Madrid, the current one, called Raphael 6.0 as the record of his 60-year career.
Born in Linares (Spain) in 1943, Miguel Rafael Martos Sánchez, universally known as Raphael, has been a pioneer of the romantic ballad in Spanish who, with his voice and his unique interpretive style, has transcended cultural and geographical borders.
The Billboard organization and the Hispanic channel Telemundo, when they announced the award for Raphael last September 1, said that “he will be honored for his exceptional professional career and his artistic and personal contributions that have influenced the development of Latin music worldwide.” .
When asked about his victories in reference to the title of his album, the singer says he has “many”: his family, his friends, getting along with his fellow artists, the affection of the public and a “wonderful career of 60 years”.
“I don’t know about other artists, but for me it’s true when I say I don’t want to retire. One day I’ll get up and say ‘this far’, but it’s a long way off,” he says. In addition to his presentations and releases, the singer has a project that he only mentions is similar to the “so beautiful” documentary they made of him.
No Comment