Few will have forgotten Rosa López’s candidacy in Eurovision 2002 with her Europe’s living a celebration and few also remain to be infected by Aitana’s new rhythms. But in these two decades of Operación Triunfo, a program whose twelfth edition begins this Monday, there were other names with less luck and who after their time on the talent show have fallen into oblivion. Nahuel Sachak and Sergio Rivero, for example, won their respective edition and now they don’t even have more than 5,000 followers on Instagram.
Sachak is still dedicated to music but the massive concerts are far away from the weddings, baptisms and communions where he now sings. Rivero also continues to make a living from music. He acknowledged for Canarias7 in 2020 that he was finding it increasingly difficult, “but as long as I enjoy it, I will continue doing it.” His last performance according to his social networks was in 2022 at the Morocco room in Madrid, but since 2018 he set up an audiovisual production company with which he creates videos and songs for other artists.
In Nahuel Sachak’s edition, Mario Jefferson came third, a triumph who knew how to recycle himself on social networks and who has gone viral on more than one occasion imitating other artists. Another who knew how to take advantage of his talent outside of traditional record companies is the winner of the seventh edition of talent, Mario Álvarez, who was nominated for Best Asturian presenter at the Gavá awards, held at the Teatro Campoamor, and is preparing the 2024 tour with the Panorama Orchestra, of which he has been a vocalist for some years.
If the curse of the OT winners says that the one who triumphs is really the second finalist and not the winner, we must also talk about the fate of the first expelled. In 2002, Mai Meneses was the first to be expelled from the edition and after self-releasing her first album, she had great success with the musical project Nena Daconte. The same thing happened to Mimi Doblas, who was the first to be expelled from the 2017 edition and she knew how to take advantage of the momentum of the edition. Her first hit single, Ya no Quiero Ná, remains to be remembered, as she is already on her third studio album and her third tour, the second international.
Of Mimi’s generation, those now with more discreet careers are Juan Antonio Cortés, Marina Jade or Mireya Bravo, although there were others with less luck in talent than them. Mario Ortiz did not make it past gala 0 of the edition, but this triumph knew how to reinvent himself and take advantage of his journalism studies. He worked for Sálvame for four years as an editor, then he went to Cuentos Chinos and now he tells us that he is starting a new stage in the De Friday program.
Virginia Maestro, a musical product of Risto Mejide’s time as a jury, released her last album in 2019, Del sur, and is still active, but the aforementioned curse was fulfilled, since the second finalist in that final was Pablo López. From the same edition, Noelia Cano continues to appear on stage in The Time Between Seams, the musical, and is a fundamental piece of various shows in Port Aventura.
Others have succumbed and are dedicated to something else. Like Ramón del Castillo, who represented Spain in Eurovision with the song To fill me with you in 2004, in 2010 he abandoned music and a decade later he has established himself in the hospitality industry with the Surkos restaurant. “In my case, one of the best decisions I made was to get into OT and another was to leave music. “I don’t see it as a failure, but as a change of course,” he said in an interview.
The winner of that edition, Ramón’s, was not him but Vicente Seguí. The Valencian released several albums but over time he fell into oblivion. In 2022 he said goodbye to his career temporarily due to illness and in January of this year he participated in the Mediafest Night Fever. He thanked this program for the recognition “for supporting music and for recovering in some way those singers who do not have the same opportunities as others.”
