He doesn’t wait in his seat, but goes out into the lobby to greet the press. He is in top form, jovial, curious, he asks about the devices with which they record the interview, about the journalist’s accent. “You are from Barcelona”. He is right and says that the ear of the musicians… It is Raphael (Linares, 1943), a legend who is close to 80 years old, who will be next May, but who has just toured the United States and Mexico for two months. And he presents a new album, Victoria, for which he went to find the singer-songwriter Pablo López and asked him not for a song, but for a record. “Whole”, he remarks, amused. On the 24th he will begin his tour of Spain in Seville.
“You escaped small and singing victory,” he sings on the song that gives the album its name. What victories did she dream of? And why sing victory today?
In those times? All kinds of victory. And I keep dreaming of her. Many people will think that the Victoria of the title of this album is the name of a woman, but it is the story of my life. My relationships with my parents, with my siblings, friends, with the school, when I was not the boss of the school but the one with the first voice, and I was like that for ten years. The word victory for me means many things. And I have been getting them one by one. When I explained to Pablo, I didn’t say “make me a song”, which is how you usually start, let’s see how we manage, if we get along well. I told him: “I want you to make me a whole record.” “Whole?”. The authors are terrified of “whole”. “But do you trust me that much?” He told me. “You do it”. And second thing, I told her: “You have to be called Victoria.” And with those two things he has done this marvel for me.
How do you get those victories?
They have been one by one, but sometimes it is true that your nose is covered in honey and more come in a row. Suddenly there is a winning streak. The same as there are streaks of “what’s wrong with me that I don’t give a single one”. But I’ve had honey in my mouth for many years now.
Have there been losses? Which?
Yes, but they are very forgotten, they have never been important, I have not had anything so fat that I burst into tears and say “for God’s sake.” Things have always gone well for me, perhaps because I am a hard worker and a perfectionist and that helps a lot. I’m one of the people who lock themselves in the hotel and don’t go out so they don’t have to talk, to have a good voice when it’s time to sing. When I show up to do a competition, for example in Benidorm, when I won the festival, all those who participated, when they got there, went to the beach. They were all speechless the next day. I, like a rose. Sacrifices that were not sacrifices for me, all of this has helped me a lot in life.
Does it seem impossible all the way from the Benidorm festival until today?
It has cost me a lot of work. Things cost, and it’s good that they cost. Because you give it another importance. And in front of your children you feel overvalued if it has cost you work. It is true that without the undeniable help of the public I would have been nobody, the public has pushed me at tremendous speed.
What has made you connect so many decades with the public, what is the Raphael recipe?
I do not know. I know how to face things because they have gone well for me and then I have noticed that I have known how to do it. Once I went to sing at a certain place and an artist there who adored me came to tell me. “Why have you come here?” “Because they have sent me.” “People here are not going to value you.” It scared me so much that I went out and there was an attempt to “go home and to your things”, but I continued as I continue, which is forward and singing, and after three seconds nobody said anything. And at the end: “Bravo!”. It is the way in which I have won over people, ignoring bad luck and looking for the real public, because there is one. Among all those people who were picking on me were two dozen people who said I was wonderful, and they didn’t understand why they were picking on me.
You who sang I am the one, are you still the one you were?
In many things, yes, in others I have improved a lot, I know very well what I am doing, how I am doing it and when I have to do it. Before, he was more spontaneous and screwed up more. As for faculties, I am not 16 years old anymore, but I have gained so much experience, in knowing how to sell things, that they take it out of my hands. I have learned a lot.
Another title of his great songs: What does nobody know. Do we know the real Raphael?
Yes, it’s very easy, he’s a very open boy, totally open, and it’s very easy to let him convince you because he’s telling you the truth.
He was talking about his powers. Has she ever thought about retiring?
Let’s see, I haven’t thought about it, but it will have to be some day (he laughs). But it is not the time, we are still far away. I can still do many important things. But the day I have to do it, I’m going to be as sober as possible, something that has never worried me about being sober (laughs), as sober as possible, and get it done. This has no discussion and period. Because if not, it’s going to be a third-rate burial. I can’t do a farewell tour because I would go from city to city all over the world crying. It seems too much to me.
He has important things left to do, he says. At what point does she feel herself?
A wonderful time and I still have things to do. That I have an obligation to do because I do know how to do them. Like when I did Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, at the beginning, when they offered it to me, I said to myself: they are crazy. I was the ideal, but, since it was not in my thoughts, I did not believe that I could play that role. And I went to Germany to see it. And when I came out, I thought: “I do this with the tip of my foot.”
But we won’t see him in another musical.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde there has been no other. The musicals these of now, that neither chicha nor limoná, are very soft. I like action, and Dr. Jekyll had it.
Why did you ask Pablo López for the entire album?
I came from America and I sat down to watch television to find out what was going on. And he was singing. I didn’t know who he was, I did know that he had written me a song for an album by various composers that I made, and I said to my son: “Why don’t you make a meeting of all these composers that are out there now who are afraid of me because they don’t am i your friend? I would like to be in the gang, I am one more. But don’t give me a pod in a restaurant, let’s go to a tavern, to do what they do”.
My son told me: “Dad, but you are not like that. You are not from a tavern”. “That I’m not like that? You who know how I am. Leave me alone, everything has its steps”. And in a popular neighborhood in Madrid, in a tavern, I brought together a large number of composers, among whom were Pablo or Vanessa Martín, the people of today, who are all my friends, and very good ones. I told him: “I want to talk to you, you are very tall, but good.” And he came out very defending his place and told me: “Very well, if you want to see me, come home.” “Oh, I’m delighted. Where do you live?” I went to his house and said: “I want this and this.” And since then we haven’t been apart.
Why did you decide to include your theme My shoes know?
I had to do it. It is one of the best songs ever written. And I, who did not know her, went to see her at the Rialto Theater in Madrid and fell in love. I went into the dressing room and told him: “Hey, don’t forget to tell you that the first song I’m going to record is this one”. “But I’ve already sung that one”, he answered me. “Y…?”.
Returning for the last time to his songs. Scandal. How about a scandal today?
Many things that happen that did not happen then. Before, it was all about sex scandals, petty thieves. Now we have a very strong scandal level. You already know what’s going on. Which side of the scandal do you want? Every day there is. Either you swallow with him, or you get used to him, or you’re going to have a terrible time. This is like the Moon. He knows that I don’t think they went to the Moon. I was in Vegas when they went, I sang there. I always told people: “If it’s a lie.” And I still think the same. If now that they are going to send a mission they send all dolls… (laughs heartily).
