Danae Boronat (Tarragona, 1985) has been the new presenter of Zona franca on TV3 for two weeks after the controversy that plagued the program with the dismissal of one of its collaborators and the subsequent departure of its presenter, Joel Díaz. The 38-year-old journalist from Tarragona, who was the first woman to narrate a La Liga match, claims her versatility, defines herself as a woman who likes challenges and invites the viewer to discover her most casual facet that until now was unknown publicly. but yes in his personal life.
From the outside it seems that agreeing to present the Free Zone was something like poisoned candy. What led you to accept the proposal?
Without a doubt, the possibility of growing professionally and taking on a new challenge because it implies doing something that I had never done before. For me it means personal growth and putting myself to the test to see if I am capable of changing the register. Although I come from soccer, which is also entertainment! I do not hide that for me it is a major challenge and that it supposes what my life has always been: challenging myself and showing that I can do more things than I have done up to now.
Were you surprised that they thought of you for a late night drive?
It was a very big surprise when I received the call, really. I thought that if they called me to do a test I could not say no because they had seen something in me, although I thought that they would be the ones who would tell me that I did not fit. It was clear to me that I was not going to be the one to limit myself or tell myself that I couldn’t do it.
It was not like that and they kept his profile. Did you think long and hard before giving the final yes, also taking into account the context of the departure of the previous presenter?
Doubts? One minute! Basically because she caught me off guard. I am not very interested in talking about what has happened, if I accepted the challenge it is because I feel like it and I think I can do it. I am a very positive person and I always think that things will go well. Things in my career have always come without looking for them, and they have always been for the better because they have allowed me to continue advancing and growing as a professional. There is nothing worse than saying no because of the fear of what they will say, the fear of what they will say has never stopped me, otherwise I would never have narrated football matches, presented programs only with men or done everything I have been able to do in a world so masculine Doubts disappear when what they propose motivates you, excites you and makes you smile.
TRUE. Examining her resume is something like the challenge woman…
It is so. And this one in particular had so many beautiful things that those few that could have caused me some doubts were left in the background.
How does it look after the first two weeks of the show?
I’m very happy. From what I have been told, what I like the most is that you can tell that I have a good time with the program. I have a great time! It is a space where I can interview, where they let me sing and dance, I am on a set with four women who make live music who are artists, with people who come to do humor, which is one of the most difficult things there is, a set with an audience where I feel at home. I’m very happy.
When his name came out, there were not a few who said that he did not have the profile of a late night…
When one is in front of a camera, there are personalities that cannot be seen, it depends on the register of the program. Until now, perhaps the most formal and serious Danae has been seen, but people who know me know that I am a fun, very open aunt, who really likes show business, the show and a clown. I’m not ashamed of anything and I’m always on stage at karaoke. When I was little I made music, I played the piano, I have danced modern jazz all my life. I am the queen of karaoke! (laughs). When I was little I always said that I wanted to be a singer and in the end I turned more to dance. In short, with this program it is me, there is nothing imposed or forced.
Sometimes you have to defend jokes that you didn’t write. How is your communication with your team?
Very direct, I am sitting at the table with them in the newsroom and it is a joint effort. I wouldn’t make any jokes or assume a script I didn’t feel comfortable with. I have a brutal team, they are great, and when it’s time I make my changes, my contributions or my nuances.
What do you think Danae will bring to the show?
A clear record change that goes with my way of being. More show, which is what I like, and a different look. It is a look from a woman who has always been in a world of men like sports, so it is still a feminist look from a feminism that is not at all faked, which is something that we are also being accused of lately. A fairly important change compared to what was done, but it is normal for it to be like this because Joel Díaz and I have nothing to do with it and that is what permeates the program. It’s logical, natural and I think it’s what it had to be.
Worried that one day you or someone on your team will be banned?
Anticipating what might happen doesn’t do me any good. Right now I am focused on getting to know my collaborators so that there is a connection with all of them, and that is what matters to me; improve day by day and that each program is better. In the end, censorship is everywhere and we ourselves are the first to censor ourselves every day in many things. Who has not stopped before writing a tweet with a criticism? Or post a photo on Instagram? I wish there were no censorship, that would be an idyllic world, but right now it’s too naive an idea.
How do you emotionally manage the hate you have been able to receive on social networks, or were you already used to it?
I’m not going to get used to that hate, it’s impossible to do it. What happens is that you learn to live with it, and I have spent many years in which I have been attacked for being a woman, for being blonde, for being Catalan, for being physically normative… What value are you going to give to a person that you don’t know if he is a rapist, an abuser or who he is? I manage to apply it to it but it is true that it is more difficult for your environment and they do suffer and worry.
Did it take your environment a little more than a minute to accept your challenge with Free Zone?
I have everything! My mother told me that she should think about it, we already know that mothers suffer, and on the other hand my partner is one of ‘with you to death’, and she has encouraged me from the first moment. Nor is it something that I consulted with a lot of people, in the end the decisions are my own and I knew what I was exposing myself to and the risks I was facing.
What would be your most fantasy interviewee in this new stage?
If we talk about show business Rosalía or Joaquín Sabina. Any of the footballers who are in conflict right now with the Spanish coach and I would like them to speak clearly and explain how they feel, once again underestimated by the Spanish Football Federation. I would very much like to interview its president, Luis Rubiales, or Javier Tebas, Joan Laporta, Florentino Pérez. These gentlemen from the world of football who live very well and who only give interviews to their friends.
Do you have the feeling that, after two weeks of the program, you have closed some mouths?
Honestly yes. I think many thought that he couldn’t do it and that he didn’t paint anything. We have shown that you can make an entertainment program at night from the perspective of a woman like me, 38 years old, feminist and openly. It is clear that it is different from what was there, but not worse. These days I have been surprised by the personalism in some headlines such as ‘Danae Boronat fails with the Free Zone’. As? Failure? Even if the program ended tomorrow, this is not a failure, quite the contrary. It is ridiculous and absurd to read and listen according to what things. Failing is staying at home for fear of what they will say or not try.
Has being in the Free Trade Zone canceled out other projects?
I made it a condition to be able to continue narrating women’s football on Catalunya Ràdio, what I have had to leave is L’Onze on Fridays to focus on the program from Monday to Thursday. I had a great time narrating games and it didn’t seem right to leave them in the lurch in the middle of the season. Soccer is my passion and narrating women’s soccer fills me a lot, I have a great time.
Do you feel like a pioneer after being the first woman to narrate a football match in La Liga?
A little yes, and it is something that I never considered and that came about by chance. In the end, the important thing is not who is the pioneer, but what is achieved. In this case, breaking a mental barrier that many women had because there were no references for women narrating and so they did not consider it. And if there wasn’t, it was because of the fear that we women had and because no hehe risked putting a woman in that role for fear that she wouldn’t do it well.
It gives the feeling that women’s football is beginning to wake up from lethargy and in the last year we have images of that Camp Nou full to the brim. Is there a lot of work to do despite that picture?
Very much. Barça is the exception, the Camp Nou thing is not the reality of women’s football at all. And now we see how there are many international players in countries that in theory bet on women’s soccer who have to resign from the national team because they do not receive fair treatment and the same as that of their male counterparts. We are a long way from achieving equal treatment in football between men and women. I think we are in the posturing phase, there is still no firm investment and a solid structure with a plan for the future. At Barça, everything is not as consolidated as it seems either, I am aware that there are people within the club who question the need to invest so much in the women’s team.
