Soraya Arnelas has been on stage for almost two decades. A more than considerable milestone for someone who when he appeared in Operación Triunfo 18 years ago did not even know how to take a bus because he earned a living near the clouds, but not as inspiration to make his dreams come true, but because he worked as a flight attendant .
The artist has ahead of her a 2023 full of both professional and personal challenges. Next July, she marries her partner, the model Miguel Ãngel Herrero, with whom she has a relationship of more than a decade and two daughters in common: Manuela (6) and Olivia (1). A new vital step that is contextualized with the launch of her new work, La cita; the future theme for the summer that will be called La botella, and a concert tour that will begin in Madrid and in which it will be possible to see the evolution of an artist who has never lost her essence.
The quote is a vitalist hymn. Is one a post pandemic cry?
Many people believe that it is a message for people who are having a bad time, but I always say that it is a message that is directed to those people who are next to those who are having a bad time. Sometimes we try to force these people to be happy, and I think that this should not be the case. Those of us who are together with those who are not having a good time have to be empathetic, offer them a kind hand and invite them to gradually get out of their situation, but we can never force a person who is having a bad time to be happy. This song does not stop being a wake-up call for social relationships.
You, like everyone else, will have been in both emotional places…
Of course. This has been the consequence of being there and being outside. Right now, fortunately, I am in a good moment, but I have people around me who are not having a good time. And who doesn’t? We have to be empathetic and take care of our social relationships and pay more attention. There are many of those people who are having a hard time who are surely screaming inside and we don’t listen to them.
How does Soraya act in bad times? Is she one of those who asks for help or does she usually withdraw?
I am one of those who shut myself up when I am bad, I prefer not to talk, and sometimes it is difficult for me to let myself help and ask for help. This is why songs like La cita, so that we open our eyes. There are people who are braver or who are more capable of asking for help, but there are other people, who perhaps seem stronger and more capable of everything, and perhaps we are the ones who sometimes have it worse to ask for help.
He’s speaking in the first person now…
I know there is an image of a fighting and strong Soraya, and I have moments when I am very happy, but I also have moments when I am overwhelmed by stress, by worries and yes, it is difficult for me to ask for help.
What professional moment is Soraya Arnelas in right now?
Picking up what has been sown in these 18 years. I am at a time when very beautiful and authentic projects come to me, which allow me to show myself as I am, without so much marketing paraphernalia. I like to rely on my origins, on my family, and on what Soraya really is today.
His media impact with Operación Triunfo was forceful. I understand that they were years of imposition and learning based on shocks of reality…
I did not come from the music sector, as you know I was a flight attendant. The smartest thing I did at that time was to let myself be guided by those who were my presidents at that time, NarcÃs Rebollo and Ricardo Campoy, who will always be my godparents. It is true that we realized that I was a woman who had things clear, so at first it was an exchange between both parties where I let myself be guided a lot, but currently I am very clear about what my project is. I notice that people like that essence of me, with my traditions and my family character, so I try to appear as natural as possible. I always take part in everything I do, I even design my own clothes for the tour. I like advice, but I don’t always take the advice they give me (Smiles). The decision in the end is up to me!
You had no experience, you have a lot of merit…
I didn’t even know how to pick up a bus! I didn’t know anything about this world, I don’t have relatives who are involved in the artistic world, so I was the first in my family to be in this field. So what I did was let myself be guided, but always also having a word to decide or express my own opinion.
Was the OT tag ever a drag on your career?
When I left Operación Triunfo there were many colleagues from the industry and some radio stations that reneged on the program, but I think that today it is more than seen that the brand is quality and you only have to see which artists are on the top of the charts. of sales.
How would you define its essence at the current stage?
Soraya was always an electronic product and a woman who took risks with her looks and her aesthetics, and who liked to cross limits; but now she is a woman who has matured, with 40 years, and mother of two girls. Now I like to do pop, although in my concerts I continue with the most danceable songs, and when it comes to building my project I care a lot about the message of the songs, making aesthetic and careful clips, and expressing a lot the reality of what I am living. I like my projects to age in parallel with what I personally feel and live. The people who follow my career see how I have matured and adapted my music to my personal project.
He has been as an independent artist for years…
12 years! I have gone through the best record companies in this country, but there came a time when I was very clear about my project, I had a work team and my clients, so I decided to become an entrepreneur and create my record label. I created Valentia records, also with the idea of ​​being able to help some artists tomorrow. I wish I could do that in the not too distant future
Mother of two little girls. Are you finding it easy to reconcile her family with her career?
It’s very complicated! (Sighs). I am lucky that my partner teleworks and has been able to help me at home when I am not there. We don’t have help at home: no caregiver, no relatives around who can lend us a hand, since my family is in Extremadura and yours is in Seville. I’m not going to lie to you: I haven’t gone on vacation for six years, dedicating myself completely to my work and my family. I am a woman of my house: I cook, clean and dedicate myself to my family. The truth is that there are very stressful moments and I don’t get to everything. Now we are considering professional help at home because it is very difficult.
It has also ended up being a character in the heart press. Does she feel comfortable?
Yes because I have chosen it. I like to normalize things and I think that if the press also pays attention to that personal part, nothing happens. What’s more, I am proud that they look at the way I educate my daughters or my way of expressing an opinion on certain aspects of society. You can choose to be a pure artist who dedicates himself exclusively to music, or you decide to participate in other aspects. And I do it in all those in which I feel comfortable. If you are a public figure, you are with all the consequences.
He must have had his internal debates I imagine…
Absolutely. I have wondered if this openness that I am telling you about could harm my family, but I have realized that we all participate in a natural way; it benefits us economically and does not harm us at the level of lifestyle. We are comfortable…
In the clip of La cita there is a special collaboration, that of his daughter Manuela. Did it also arise naturally?
Yes of course. If I go to some awards and it falls within the schedule, she comes. She is now six years old. People have to understand that for me, my priority is family, so where I go, my family comes. It is something that I try to naturalize; I don’t force them to do anything, but if they want to participate I don’t see why they can’t.
Is Manuela aware of her mother’s public relevance?
Manuela asks me why people take photos with me and what I answer is that there are many people who admire Mama’s music. I’m not trying to sell you my profession as if it’s something different from what other people can do: Mom sings and people like music. She gives me the feeling that she doesn’t see it as a profession. She often tells me why I don’t give up singing and I go to a doctor. She goes to ballet, she says that she also sings, and she sees it as an extracurricular activity. The doctor thing is so that she doesn’t move me so much (Laughs). When she was younger, she had a hard time when I left, also around the pandemic because we were together for a long time, but now she has everything very internalized.
How did it turn out to record with her?
We play with her. She really likes to be combed or put on makeup, like all children. The day of the clip we went to the place and began to play in the ballet area, and since she has been doing it for three years, she seemed very normal. We put music on and recorded it for her while she was having fun, so it didn’t seem like a day at work to her, but a day at play. When she comes to a concert and she coincides with my dancers, she starts dancing with them, and she is like very into everything.
Your partner has nothing to do with this world…
No. He works in fashion, but now he only does a few occasional clients. He did a master’s degree and is now working in marketing. I met him in Barcelona on a television set where he came to meet me.
Wedding is coming in a few months! Is there a lot of stress?
In July, yes! The truth is that I am not stressing at all because I have a wedding planner who is one of my friends and she knows me very well. I am dedicating myself exclusively to the dress, to the alliances, makeup and hairdressing, in addition to the food that is already chosen. They are things that I like and amuse me, so for the moment no stress.
Is it going to be an intimate ceremony?
I am not going to get married in the church, I will do it civilly in the town hall of the town where I live on the outskirts of Madrid. Then we will have a party with friends and very close people, it will not be a mass event. My family, my work team and my friends will be there. Chenoa will come because we are very close friends, or colleagues from the Bombai group, who are people with whom I have a lot of contact. I am not a woman to invite for the sake of inviting. For example, all the duets I’ve done in music are premeditated and those people have meaning in my life.
She is growing her hair long…
Yes, because that day I want to make a nice bow, but in the second dress change I’m going to leave it loose. There are two dresses, it will be a night ceremony and very elegant. It is a very important personal year because I hope to get married only this once. They are 11 years of relationship, two daughters…
He told me that he hasn’t taken a vacation in six years. Tell me it will be a good honeymoon!
(laughs). Not for the moment. Five days before the wedding and five days after I have a concert on my tour. We plan to make the trip at the end of the year, but I have to continue working to pay for the wedding (Smiles). We would like to go somewhere in Asia, as far away as possible and if possible…alone! (laughs).
There is one thing that I admire and it must be very difficult for people in your sector and it is that need to always be in good shape in front of your public and public work…
I have a philosophy of life and it is that very rarely, if ever, have I sat on a set or shared negative aspects of my life with my followers. I believe that what one projects is what attracts. We all go through good times and bad times, but there’s already enough bad news out there for me to come up with it, so there are aspects of my life that I don’t share. There are things that have to stay at home. I like that in my social networks the environment is healthy, pleasant and natural.
Eurovision begins in a week, a festival that you know well thanks to your participation in 2009. Do you still have a bittersweet feeling?
Not at all. And I’ll tell you more: the more time passes, the better. When I left Operación Triunfo I became a warrior, I wanted to find my place and be grateful for that opportunity. When I entered the contest I wanted to bring victory to Spain, for me the only thing was to be first. It could not be. I came here with a lot of anger, but over the years I have transformed that anger because I have realized that the best thing that could have happened to me is to stay in that penultimate position to reflect on what I wanted and what I did not want. in my career and rethink my project to make me a stronger shell. And so it has been.
At the time, she was very critical of the choreography…
My choreography was the worst of the whole project. He would never have done that choreography, but something easier, especially because of the vocal difficulty he had. In the end, it was what I did, I defended it, I feel that I complied with what was asked of me, but it could not be.
Would I do it again?
Never.
blunt…
My body and my age no longer give me so much stress. Another thing is to be able to make a composition for an artist who goes to the Benidorm Fest… As an artist I will tell you that there were many colleagues who before did not want to appear at Eurovision and now it is the opposite, and that is because they know that a career comes from there.
How do you see Blanca Paloma?
Wonderful. I’ll be honest with you and I’ll tell you that initially she wasn’t my favorite, but she has won us because she has a power, an art and conviction of her brutal design. Also, she is so charismatic that I will tell you that I think we are going to win this year. I think we are going to surprise and I think that in recent years Europe has been looking at Spain.
Chanel was very close…
Chanel has set a precedent in the history of Eurovision with Spain. Europe has once again set its sights on our country and the artists we have.