The Argentine doctor and musician will offer two tribute concerts in Ecuador, this December 9 and 10 in Guayaquil, at the Centro de Arte theater, and in Quito.
Before Dr. Queen and to take over the stage of the Theater art center next Thursday, December 9, the platense Jorge Busetto he was a medical student. It was at this time, when he turned 20, in July 1991, when he heard Queen for the first time. He was “like crazy”, he remembers.
Unfortunately it was the same year, only four months before, that the lead singer of this band died of bronchopneumonia, due to AIDS. The world mourned the death of Freddie Mercury On a November day like today, 30 years ago.
But that short time was more than enough for him to be eternally fascinated by the talent of the British singer. “A friend gave me a cassette compiled with Queen songs. I stayed ‘What is this, this is crazy, it’s horloge, how did they do this!’”, He still expresses with that same tone of astonishment used by the natives of the pampas country. I didn’t even listen rock, he confesses, he was more adept at pop, at music to dance in the boliches (discotheques).
“When I heard Queen I was fascinated, in love; I think it happened to me like many young people who went to see the movie (Bohemian Rapshody, with Rami Malek), who automatically fell in love with his music … From that moment I began to learn music, from rock, and I learned what the good music”.
His admiration was the drums to put himself in Mercury’s shoes, for a kind of fun and nostalgia at the same time. “I wasn’t a musician, I just started singing like any other fan. I closed my eyes and imagined that there were people around me, but I was like any fan who wants to feel like his idol ”, reveals the now Argentine cardiologist.
The transformation
Little by little the idea of take his tributes to stages in his hometown, La Plata. As happens to some in the history of the show, someone in the audience discovered the potential of their performances, so they were summoned to a show charity of 6,000 people. Your first massive event.
What was most striking about Busetto’s concerts is that he sang accompanied by a group of musicians who were at the same time doctors, like him. Thanks to the charity gala and to this particularity, they became known in the media inside and outside Argentina.
His name began to be published in nations he had never set foot on. “The first big note they made us was for the magazine Soho, 12 pages, in Colombia. And I had never left the country! ”, Evokes the artist. The interview was developed by none other than the journalist and writer Leila Warrior.
Around 23 years later, more than 900 tributes have been delivered Jorge Busetto as Dr. Queen in Latin America and in multiple cities in Spain. “All expectations were exceeded; At first we just wanted to play in theaters, and then we ended up in a stadium in Bolivia, playing with Scorpions (2010)”.
Doctor Busetto
Thanks to Freddy he learned his passion for music, a passion that evolved into his second job. “For me, as this was passion, I didn’t think of it as something that could give me money,” explains the artist and doctor. In each presentation, he met producers and promoters who recommended that he professionalize this hobby.
“They taught me that, by making money doing this, I could invest more time in my passion, otherwise I had to work 24 hours a day to pay for it. By making it fruitful, I could dedicate more hours (to rehearsing or for presentations), because it replaced other hours of work ”.
Thus, he says, he was able to stop working as a doctor in a dependency relationship, in hospitals. “Music allowed me to become independent, to offer a more humane service in my office: I take an hourly shift to interview the patient, and I have all the equipment in case it is necessary to do tests,” the cardiologist shares. “And I like to study, I did five courses this year and a postgraduate degree, to practice medicine as I like it, as my father taught me, who is also a doctor and as I have idealized it.”
For this reason, he acknowledges, he “breaks in two” to please these two facets from Monday to Friday. “I enjoy it a lot, but it was possible because of the music, it gave me the peace of mind of being able to do both.” In fact, he completed this interview via Zoom from his office, which will be closed for fifteen days while he makes this tour in Ecuador and Colombia.
Emotion and tribute
Busetto also confesses autodidact. On his own he not only learned from rockbut to sing, to play the guitar and even, he says, to play the piano on the phone, when the keyboardist of his shows had to be absent on one occasion.
His musical vocation seems to have arisen from the same drive that made him a doctor, to learn to heal, learn to solve, learn everything. “I am good at everything. If music or medicine doesn’t work for me later, I’m going to work on something and I’m not going to starve ”, he jokes.
Part of its scenic display is a characteristic red velvet cape and a crown, similar to those that Freddie Mercury wore at a concert in 1986, as the British singer had a slight fixation for royalty (hence the name of the band Queen, ‘queen’ in English).
He himself has sewn that outfit, at least this version is the one that Ecuador will appreciate in the tribute he has prepared, because the one he usually takes to concerts he left in Spain and his couturier was unable to make a new one for him.
As for the repertoire, he adds, there will be no shortage of classics We are the champions, Bohemian Rapshody, We will rock you. It will be a show with a lot of “polenta”, a lot of strength, because it mixes all the musical stages of the group that was born in the 70s in the United Kingdom.
“We will go for the melodic, for the fun, even for the rock and the heaviest, with parts of the album Barcelona and Mercury’s solo work. We want to involve all the feelings of the attendees, that’s why we like to play in theaters, because people of all ages go, there will be rock for all.”
The presentation, called Freddie mercury forever, also promises a play of light, costume changes, a LED screen and, above all, an eighties scenography to promote an encounter between memory and contemporary. On Guayaquil, at the Centro de Arte Theater, on Thursday, December 9 at 8:30 p.m.; and in Quito, on Friday, December 10, at the Agora Theater of the House of Culture. Tickets are available on the website of Ticketshow.
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
