At the age of 12, an age roughly the same as the young contestants he mentored at La Voz Kids (Antena 3), Sebastián Yatra decided that he wanted to be a singer. From that moment on, he scrupulously prepared himself with his mother, María Adelaida Giraldo. The musician (Medellín, Colombia, 28 years old), the son of a prominent Colombian businessman, Aníbal Obando Agudelo, recognizes that she is the true author of his success. He talks about them from his dressing room at the Madrid Metropolitano Stadium, where he attended the OMG La Liga Music Experience last Friday, before taking to the stage across half of Spain this summer, from Barcelona and Marbella to Pontevedra and Valencia.
Questions: What do you want when you have everything?
Answer: Well, inner peace. Accept life as it comes. I’m learning to live in the present without worrying about the future of other moments in my life.
Q: Have you endured so much stress in exchange for success?
A: Everyone around you has different interests and expects different things from you. The record company, your team, your family, your friends, your partner… And in the midst of it all, you have to get on stage and bring joy to thousands of people.
Q: How far did you go to achieve it?
A: Before the pandemic, I was in such a whirlwind that I was like a robot on stage. I was thrilled to be the guy who did most of the shows; to inhumane things like four performances a night or 13 flights a week.
Q: Did the forced break make you think?
A: Suddenly, I was locked in my home for five months. And I was my brothers’ brother again and my parents’ son, not the famous singer who came to visit every now and then. I also changed the work team and made many interpersonal relationships.
Q: He says the therapy has helped him a lot.
A: Yes, my inner world hadn’t worked at all. Yoga and the connection to God that I have had since I was 12 have also helped me.
Q: So this religious connection coincided with the beginning of his musical career.
R: It gave me a lot of strength. It has helped me to develop more awareness and responsibility and to find meaning in all this music. that it was about more than money, fame, cars and women.
Q: Did you miss out on partying as a teenager?
A: At that time, he was doing vocal exercises daily to practice his falsetto. I didn’t drink at parties; I went to my car for a while to practice them. Music has helped me on a very healthy path. I’ve never tried a drug before. Because of my responsibilities, I didn’t have time to make stupid decisions.
Q: But the world of music certainly made him stumble upon it.
A: Yes, they are everywhere. But it’s such an energetic thing… If someone’s turned on, I don’t notice it. I feel like his personality is like that, and it happens to me a thousand times that people say, “Oh, how is this person…”.
DVD1165 (2023-06-15) Singer Sebastián Yatra poses at the Hilton Hotel in Madrid. ANDREA COMASAndrea Comas
Q: Would you have taken part in a show like “La Voz Kids”?
A: Yes. For these children, it is a way of understanding the consequences of engaging in music. When I was 14 I went to the American Idol auditions in Chicago. I got through to the next round but decided not to continue because I would have to sing in English by contract.
Q: He preferred not to be bound by the rules of the program.
A: It happened to me again when a producer told me that Univisión was creating the show La Banda with Simon Cowell. They looked for “One Direction” in Spanish, but I wanted to be a soloist and I also declined.
Q: Did your mother hold an executive position?
R: Never official, but it’s included in every conversation on my team. She’s one of those women who make things happen. My brother Andrés is a writer and my brother Juan has a pizzeria in Colombia and she also helped them start their business. It was also my father’s greatest support in his career.
Q: It’s a force of nature.
A: It’s like Clara, that character in Isabel Allende’s novel The House of Ghosts, who died without flowers in the house and everything fell apart.
Q: From Juanes to Karol G and J Balvin… Why are so many Medellín musicians successful around the world?
A: The drug trade has isolated us. No country has invested in Colombia. And the topography. It’s a city in the middle of the mountains, without much infrastructure. Everything was difficult for us and that gave us an important work culture. We are talented artists, but not with such undeniable child prodigies as Messi or Beyoncé. We had to develop our talent.
Q: Do you feel objectified when social network users comment on your sexual characteristics, which are evident in some of the videos and selfies you post?
A: If the comments are good, I’m happy (laughs).
Q: They are usually positive.
A: I’m happy with my body and I’m very exhibitionistic…
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