It has been more than a year and a half since Chanel stormed the Eurovision festival with Slomo, an impactful performance that earned her third place in the contest and ended up becoming one of the songs of that summer The sensual movements of the Catalan appeased the controversy that arose around her choice, facing Rigoberta Bandini and the Tanxugueiras, to open the doors to a musical career that now takes the big leap with the presentation of Agua, first and expected album from a veteran artist despite her youth.
It is not easy to hear a bad word from the mouth of this versatile 32-year-old artist, born in Havana in 1991 and raised in Olesa de Montserrat, who knows what it is to grind stone to the point of becoming the most sought after these days by press, radio and television. “Everything happened so quickly that I had no plans – she remembers – but I was clear that I didn’t want to become an empty doll inside, I wanted to do things right, in time.” A maturation that has borne fruit thanks to the patience gathered throughout his career: “I carry many things on my back that make me aware of priorities”.
Agua is a Cuban expression “similar to the Spanish olé” that Chanel has associated with her fans since she used it at the Benidorm festival, and at the same time embraces her Latin American roots. “Water adapts, it transforms,” ??says the artist, who emphasizes the importance of psychological help to endure fame, both in good times and in bad. “Preparing yourself psychologically is as important for the mind as the gym is for the body”, a lesson that was instilled in him by his parents. “They took me to therapy as a child, they are very aware of the importance of this facet”, as is she, who continues to work to manage the consequences of being a public face, especially “when everything happened to me that happened to me”, he explains, discreetly avoiding bad words to refer to the furious attacks he received and continues to receive.
The artist has had to learn a lot about music. “The studio was a new place for me, the way of singing, the repetitions, performing with the voice and not with the face”, he recalls, and emphasizes that the most complicated thing was “learning and creating at the same time, facing to something I didn’t know”. The result is 12 tracks that go from bachata to dance, the R
Her music is marked by the great divas of recent decades, Beyoncé, Jennifer López, Christina Aguilera, Madonna or Selena Quintanilla. Michael Jackson is the only male voice to sneak into a list of very female influences. Now that she’s playing in the big leagues, Chanel has learned to trivialize things, downplay decisions. “All my life it has been said that this industry is like a tyrant, but when you experience it as the main character, it looks different”, he comments. Good words for the record company and silence for those who have attacked it. “I am a super positive person, I learn from things and I think they will make me stronger and better”.
