First it was the mother, then the breasts, and now the baby. The circle of life. The boy’s name is Nico and he’s two years old. He is the son of Rigoberta Bandini, the author of Ay Mama, the song of female pride about breasts, broth in the fridge and courage that has become an anthem even sung by children in early childhood education. Paula Ribó (Barcelona, 32 years old, real name of Rigoberta Bandini) finally releases (October 7th) her first album. He’s been releasing individual songs for three years and now he’s packaging them. La emperatriz, as the work is called, contains four completely new songs and eight already known ones (including hits like Ay mama, Perra or Julio Iglesias). Of the unpublished ones, two are dedicated to his son. In one of them, Canciones de amor a ti, he sings: “May the people of this new world weep in peace”.
The artist explains it on Thursday afternoon in a Madrid hotel cafeteria: “I see my father’s generation, who is 70, a little self-conscious, who finds it difficult to express himself, because of this shit that is spread about what crying is from soft. It’s in the DNA of those of this generation. What I wish for my son is that he cries in peace, that he stops cheating on himself. His father [Esteban Navarro, 37 años, su mano derecha creativa]She is from a different generation and cries a lot. But it’s true that emotional openness is more associated with women. As a mom, I want my son to own this because it’s a lot healthier than the other. I say that because he was born with male genitals and when he finally is a man, because then he may not want to be a man.
I am now calling myself to protect myself [pija]. What comforts me is that people who really know me know that I’m pretty punky. I have a small cock. But yeah, sometimes they called me Dick… Well, there are worse things.”
Rigoberta Bandini has arrived in the capital for a several-hour trip to record a video with C. Tangana to promote The Empress. She came alone: without a representative or family. The artist has been a Spanish pop star for a little over a year. The actress, voice actress and author founded the Rigoberta Bandini project in 2019 and edited songs like Too Many Drugs or In Spain We Call It Soledad. Unbiased pop music, a good voice, brilliant and intelligent lyrics and a great ability to reach both passers-by and connoisseurs. Live, theatrical and fun. At the end of 2021 came Ay Mama, Benidorm Fest and all the others already known for those who lived in Spain last season. “I felt uncomfortable with what happened after the Benidorm Fest final [la gente enfrentó dos modelos: el suyo, feminista, y el de Chanel, supuestamente no tan feminista], because they have created an enmity that does not exist. Chanel and I aren’t best friends, although I could text her over a beer. She’s a person I respect and a professional like the top of a pine tree. We’re just different types of artists. But they used us because we are women. This politicization does not achieve much.”
The singer poses in Madrid. Louis Sevillano
The Catalan artist offers a fluid and varied conversation. She talks about her musical references (“Serrat, Silvio Rodríguez, Abba, Franco Battiato… and contemporary artists like Angèle from Belgium, C. Tangana or Rosalía”) as well as about a breast reduction operation she had when she was 20: “It’s normal now to put on the breast, but not to take it off. And there’s an interesting debate going on there. In my case it was because they grew when I was very small and the boobs quickly sexualized me. Inside she was a girl, but outside she was an object of desire. There I felt a very strong hatred for my own body, but that wasn’t my fault: it wasn’t the fault of the people who made me feel like my body was made to be eaten and that it belonged to them, not me. At that time it was very good for me to have an operation. Hopefully our bodies are ours and we don’t have to feel that pressure, especially us.”
She is shocked to hear the reporter’s news that several women have accused arcade fire singer Win Butler of sexual misconduct. He says he would not go to a concert by anyone suspected of doing so. In this regard, the singer Zahara recently commented on the Jenesaispop website: “The day Me Too exists in Spanish music, there will be no festival that can endure”. Bandini: “I haven’t had any unpleasant experiences, it caught me at a more mature age. But what Zahara says is strong. Subtle harassment is very normalized. And in all areas, not just in music. It’s true that I don’t know now, but looking back, my life is full of unpleasant micro-experiences. And the sum of these mics makes it problematic. And that’s bullshit.”
Questions. Do you mind being called Dick?
Answer. I already call it myself to protect myself. What comforts me is that people who really know me know that I’m pretty punky. I have a small cock. But yeah, sometimes I’ve been called an asshole… Well, there are worse things.
P I assume they mean that he comes from a wealthy family and that made everything easier for him.
R I come from a middle class, maybe upper middle class family. My parents worked all their lives. My mother is a music teacher at a school and is still there; my father worked in my grandfather’s company, which later closed… I did not experience the feeling that “my life is solved”. Absolutely. I’ve been dubbing films since I was six and I’ve never asked my parents for a dollar. I have always taken care of. I haven’t lived in uncertainty, that’s true, and I thank you for that. But no marquise from then on either.
P How do you position yourself socially?
R Progressive. I like the social policy of progress, progress. In a conversation, Manuela Carmena told me: “You always have to move forward with an anchor in the past.” In other words, you can’t go crazy. There are things in the tradition that aren’t bad, and that’s a lesson I’ve learned as I’ve matured. As a kid I was more punk. You must have an anchor to keep something from the past, but with a step that always moves forward, towards equality and love. Coexist without hate.
Rigoberta Bandini at a concert at the Palau de la Música on February 23. Massimiliano Minocri
P Tell me about some advances you’re having a hard time digesting.
R [Lo piensa varios segundos] I’ll still say sassy, but with this new technology and social media, we’re in a universe where I’m conservative. I don’t realize that we have to go forward and forward. Let’s set an anchor that reminds us that we are human and take action. For example, and I’m improvising: children are only allowed to have a mobile phone at 15, that you have to go to social networks with face recognition … It’s just that it’s a jungle now. I think you have to be careful when opening up new land because the trial/error system can cause a lot of damage to some people.
P There is a rumor about you: that you are from Opus Dei.
R [Risas] I think it’s great that you’re asking me this question. No, I’m not from Opus: I stick my breasts out at all the concerts! I’m very religious in my own way. For me, God and faith have a lot to do with vastness, with limitlessness. And not the other way around: censorship, punishment and corsets. I claim the figure of God from the left. It makes me very angry that the right wing has appropriated it. For God is love and equality.
P And the church?
R The truth is that I like Pope Francis very much. I follow him on Twitter. But the church is a unit that doesn’t represent me.
Give your opinion on the controversy created by the Ay Mama video: women who participated and showed their breasts spoke of censorship because these images did not come out in the end. These feminists denounced that the decision was made by a man, the director of the video. She intervenes: “A lot of things have been cut, including a girlfriend giving birth naturally. It was an artistic decision because not everything worked out. It was my decision and that of the director. I think it’s a pity that some women felt hurt and I apologize publicly because I’ve already asked personally. But I don’t feel like I’ve done anything non-feminist. These images didn’t work artistically, they didn’t fit the atmosphere of the video.” She continues to reflect on this topic: “I see feminism as an ongoing learning. Damn, we should get that tattooed. We have to stop judging each other. I consider myself a feminist and sometimes a macho comment escapes me. We end up peeling off a skin that we cannot expect ourselves to be perfect. Let’s stop this witch hunt. We’re in the same boat.”
Cover of Rigoberta Bandini’s first album “La emperatriz” which was released on October 7th.
She speaks again about music that Joaquín Sabina had a fever in his youth because she was “fascinated by the images he created”. “But I stopped connecting, which didn’t happen to me with Serrat, I still listen to him a lot.” She starts singing a song by Maluma, Felices los 4, which she was “addicted” to . He comments on the controversy surrounding the new song by the Catalan Alizzz, Que pasa nen, in which the Charnego of the periphery is defended against the Catalan cultural elite. Lluís Llach replied: “You will create the Catalan culture if you use the Catalan language”. Bandini: “I think Alizzz is a very cool song. I think there should be issues like this. Alizzz was born in Catalonia and her art is Catalan although she does it in Spanish. If not, it’s like they’re expatriating you. I feel super Catalan and I sing in Spanish. I can’t say that I’m only Spanish because I also feel like a Catalan.”
Bandini will end this year’s tour with his two biggest sell-outs as a solo artist (outside of festivals: October 14 at the WiZink Center in Madrid and 24 Cities) and will be axed from stages in 2023. “I feel like sitting on the frequency of creation. Immerse yourself in my movements, see what comes out of it. No time limit. The same in May I climb the walls and I have to do something. I don’t want to be a slave to my words either, but now the idea is to dedicate the year 2023 to creating from within,” she emphasizes.
The interview is over, the recorder is switched off and the singer grabs his cell phone in a flash. The journalist asks something, but she only has concentration for the screen. News from Nico, his son. He responds after a few seconds: “Excuse me, did you ask me something?”
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