Álex Ubago premieres ‘A gritos de esperanza’, with Jesús Navarro, by Reik: My mother is guilty of much of my love for music

In 2001, a 20-year-old young man appeared on the music scene with an album in which he deposited his dreams, his hopes and his future. What do you want? was the album that opened all the doors to the Spanish Alejandro Martínez de Ubago Rodríguez, who became known worldwide as Alex Ubago, and who conquered with his deep and romantic lyrics a loyal fan base that has followed him since his beginnings.

Twenty years later, just as long as he has had a career, tours and concerts, the composer celebrates this time with more music, accompanied by the friends he has found along the way and with the affection of his audience, which is vital to him. From his studio, the 40-year-old artist connects with EL UNIVERSO newspaper to share details of the recent release of the new version of To cries of hope, one of his hits that he now performs together with Jesus Navarro, vocalist of the Mexican group Reik and what is part of the album that will premiere in 2022.

In addition, he shares the importance of his mother’s influence on his career and how she has dreamed of him during these two decades of work.

Celebrate two decades in music. What has been the most difficult and rewarding thing about your career at this time?

If I weigh the difficult or complicated moments and the good and rewarding moments, the good, the rewarding wins by a landslide. Perhaps the most difficult thing can be the fact of what this profession implies, spending a lot of time away and away from your home, especially when you are on tour, on promotion; and in my case, even more so, that I am lucky enough to take my music to many places and far away to my home as well, and especially to America.

That often implies being away from home for a long time, without seeing your family; now that I am a father, well, to my children, my wife, my parents, my friends. That’s the part that has been the hardest for me at times. Even on long tours there have been times when I could have made it harder. I think that would be the most difficult, because I don’t think there were any dark moments in my career. Like being on tour and getting sick or ill and maybe going out to give a concert, but nothing that generates bad memories. That’s the truth.

Rewarding moments, everyone. Hundreds, thousands of moments, concert nights, sharing with wonderful people, with fans, with followers from so many countries, from so many places, to meet friends in different places, to meet colleagues among artists, musicians, producers with whom I have been fortunate to be able to work. I have known places, I have lived adventures, wonderful experiences, I have lived experiences that not even in my best dreams I would have imagined.

At what stage did you realize that your dream came true and you were living it?

Those feelings began to occur, I think, from the first album, that I was very lucky that my first album connected a lot with people. The album was very successful, something that neither of my team nor I expected in those dimensions, because it was my debut album, of which 8,000 copies were released in Spain at first and suddenly that began to grow, to grow and became an album that sold a million and a half copies in the world. That changed my life, and with the first album, when that exploded in 2002, it was when I began to experience situations that were even a bit surreal for me.

I used to pinch myself all day because I couldn’t believe what was happening. From that moment until today, the truth is that I could not believe what was happening to me and until today.

Does it keep pinching?

Many times, and I pinch myself now to believe that I am not dreaming and I look back and see that 20 years have passed and I am still here, and I continue to live from this and I continue to do what I like the most and that there are still many people who continue listening to my music. I feel very lucky and grateful for it.

To cries of hope is one of the singles chosen for the new album, which on this occasion is performed together with the Mexican Jesús Navarro, from Reik. How did this collaboration come about and how has the recording process for this album been?

The truth is that working with Jesus has been wonderful. Jesús is an artist that for me could not be absent from this album, which is actually an album shared with friends. As you know, it is an album in which I have re-recorded my hits in collaboration with other artists. There are 18 songs, 18 collaborations, they are all friends, they are artists with whom I have a close relationship, whom I have been lucky enough to meet at some point in my career.

In the case of Jesús, he was one of the first colleagues I called to accompany the album and he was happy and willing to accompany me from minute one. The choice of the song came from conversations with him. He told me how important my first album and specifically this song had been for him, that is why we decided to re-record it together, and it is the first preview of this album, about which I can’t tell you much more, because, although I’m looking forward to it, I’ve had many months working on the project.

When did you start recording the album?

We recorded the album between January and June of this year 2021, but I had already been planning everything and preparing it in the repertoire, in the guests, in the producer and where we were going to record it.

Was it easy to choose the 18 songs on this album from the extensive repertoire of the 20 years?

Well, we set a limit. At first I was going to record 15 or 16 songs out of 18; We did not want to record more because they seemed sufficient. And the truth is that (…), when I started to decide and choose from my repertoire, there were 12 or 13 songs that could not be missed, which I think were mandatory, because they have been the singles most important of my career, who have connected the most with the people who enjoy my music.

And then, it is true that there was space for 4 or 5 more songs, that it took me a little longer to decide; Maybe I chose those songs a little more for a more personal matter with certain songs, also asking the opinion of people from my team, my producer and also taking into account the fansWe have put the songs that my followers like the most, that are heard and most asked for at concerts.

He recorded one of the songs on the album together with his mother (Antonia Rodríguez). What was it like to invite her and record with her in the studio? Does your mom sing too?

That’s right, yes, my mother sings very well and she likes to sing a lot, since always. Notice that when she was young, she dreamed, she also dreamed of dedicating herself to this and, somehow, later, due to life circumstances, then she could not make her dream come true, but she saw it come true in me. It’s a very nice story. At home we have always sung, she is guilty of much of my love for music and I had wanted to record something with her for a long time and finally it was possible to do so. We have recorded a very special song together and it has been really nice, to record with her and to finally be able to make that dream that we both had come true. (E)