No Crossing Over

If you don't speak Spanish, Juanes may be the biggest star you've never heard of — because he doesn't sing in English

By Joe Brown
Friday, May 2, 2008

There's an international superstar in town tonight. An ultramegastar, in fact. Juanes is as big as fellow first-name-basis global giants Bono, Sting, Madonna, Bruce. But if you don't speak Spanish, you may not have gotten the memo. When I recently told a music-literate friend I was interviewing Juanes, she said, "Who?". Time named him one of the world's 100 most influential people in 2005. The New York Post called him "El nuevo Boss." All without singing a word of English — since releasing his debut CD, "Fijate Bien," in 2000, Juanes has elected to sing only in his native Spanish, not even nodding toward crossing over for the huge and lucrative English-language market (hello, Shakira!). The idealistic guitarist/singer/songwriter/activist/hunk/dad performs tonight at the Mandalay Events Center. Which Juanes which? The 35-year-old rock star was born Juan Esteban Aristizabal Vasquez in Carolina del Principe, Antioquia, Colombia. "Juanes" is a nickname given to him by his father, a contraction of Juan Esteban. On this tour, he's traveling the United States with a company of 28 on three buses and five equipment trucks stocked with lighting and projection screens. "It's a rock show but it's not with a lot of effects," Juanes says, calling from Tucson en route to Fresno. "This tour is really oriented around music — we're just seven musicians and what happens is all the energy that we develop with the people." He's played Vegas many times in the past eight years. "The first time we played there was in a little, little cantina in front of 100 people, I remember." While he's here, Juanes says, he really wants to see Cirque du Soleil's "The Beatles LOVE."

Juanes never enough

He's got trophy cases of awards, including armloads of Grammys and France's highest cultural honor, l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. And he's topped charts in the entire Spanish-speaking world, and in Germany, where his single "La Camisa Negra" went to No. 1. All this happened in this new century — the century of Juanes. "I started in music since I was a child, like 8 years old. And now, 20 years after, it's like a dream." He says his music is "a combination of two different worlds." "My first approach to music was through folk music — I used to play acoustic guitar with nylon strings, folk songs from Latin America," he says. "And when I get to 13, I discovered Metallica and Slayer and Black Sabbath, and I get crazy about this kind of music and this kind of playing. It was maybe a way to express anger and sadness. I am from Medellin, you know, and the '80s was probably the most difficult time for us. It was a very violent city ... Years later, I realized something was missing in how I played. Now I always play with a Stratocaster guitar, and I combine elements, sometimes from rock, sometimes from folk, and that's actually what I do."

This Juanes for you

He's also a political advocate and activist — he established the Mi Sangre Foundation to help victims of land mines in Colombia, and in Medellin a recreational park for the rehabilitation of people with disabilities has been named "Parque Juanes de la Paz." Last month, Juanes organized a free concert on the Colombia-Venezuela border as a response to the recent diplomatic crisis among Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela. He was joined onstage by Miguel Bose from Panama, Alejandro Sanz from Spain, Juan Luis Guerra from the Dominican Republic, Ricardo Montaner from Venezuela, Juan Fernando Velasco from Ecuador and Carlos Vives from Colombia. "I always try to share with my audience in the concerts that the importance of being here in this life is to learn something," he says. "And probably the most important mission is to learn how to love people, how to love each other. Because that's something we just forgot completely. I use music to express all my feelings, to talk about my family, my love, my hopes. But also to talk about social issues, because those problems are affecting our lives every day."

Juanes better than none

Even though the potential profits would be huge, Juanes says his record company doesn't pressure him to sing in English. "They are all the time supporting my idea of singing in Spanish. But I have no problem with English language. I try to speak English," he says with a laugh. "So maybe someday I would like to do something (in English), but not to do the whole record. Because I feel really proud to be Colombian, to be Latino, and what I really want to do is share my music in the way it is natural, also with the Anglo people. So maybe someday I will do a couple of lines, but not to go crossover at all. It's different for us in America than in Europe. There, 70 percent of the audience are European people, but when we are here (in the United States), it's more difficult for us to cross over to the Americano people. It's maybe because the Latin community is so huge. I think it's really divided, with all the Latin media, Latin radio stations, Latin newspapers. When you go to Europe, there is not that kind of division, because the Latin community there is not as huge as here."

Juanes the loneliest number.

"La Vida... es un Ratico" is the title of Juanes' most recent album and the current tour. Translation? "In Spanish, this means this life is like a journey that can go really fast and — como se ... life is too short?" he says. "So you have to enjoy it a lot, you have to accept pain, you have to accept happiness and love and family, problems, and just try to keep going every day." The new songs, Juanes says, were based on "something that happened to me more than a year ago. I was passing through a really difficult situation with my wife. (Juanes reportedly separated from his wife, model Karen Martinez, and two daughters, Luna and Paloma; they have since reunited.) One day I was talking with my mother — she's 78 years old — and she told me, 'You know what? La vida es un ratico.' Which means, 'Hey, you have to be strong, optimistic, because there is something else waiting for you in the future.' Now after the darkness, I went back to my family. And once I get to the stage, I always thank God for the blessing. I'm really enjoying this moment."