It was 1991 when Shakira was still unknown and her uncle, who was looking for a representative in Spain, gave a promotional cassette of the Colombian singer to an entertainment agent in Barcelona. He said he doesn’t care about the artist, but he keeps this musical “gem”.
Back then, Jaume Estruch, now director of the Barcelona Animació artist agency, had his representative office in the Guinardó district of Barcelona, in the same building as Shakira’s uncle.
“One day my neighbor came to my office to tell me that his niece was a singer in Colombia and was looking for a representative in Spain. I kindly told him I wasn’t interested, but I kept the cassette,” EFE said.
The tape – branded TDK and featuring a cover that shows the artist leaning against a tree – features nine songs from the album Magia when she was 14, and includes songs she composed such as Sueños , “Cazador de amor”, “Dark glasses” or “I need you”.
Although she kept it for 30 years, during which the Colombian became a world star, she has now decided to sell the cassette on the Todocoleccion.net portal.
“I like Shakira, but I’m not a fan and I’m sure there is someone who might be interested,” explains Estruch. He set the price at 1,200 euros ($1,300).
He didn’t see the business clearly
This artistic exponent was 31 years old when he missed the opportunity to advance teenager Shakira’s career in Spain. “These are things that happen, an anecdote along the way,” he says, although he admits he’s thought at times that “he might as well be there” with her.
Estruch’s company is “known” in Barcelona, a city then “in full swing” ahead of the 1992 Olympics, but he believes the singer’s uncle was simply visiting him “up close”.
She “was very young and Colombian, I didn’t see anything clear (the business)”, the businessman explains.
He remembers that the year he took advantage of the hit song “Ojalá que llueva café” by the Dominican Juan Luis Guerra, he took with him to Spain a Cuban orchestra that toured for six months performing songs by this artist , alongside Panamanian Rubén Blades and Cuban Celia Cruz.
It was not commercially successful
Shakira’s uncle’s visit to his office came “at a time when Sony was releasing the album in Colombia and her parents were starting to put things off when they saw it wasn’t working,” says the artistic agent.
This debut album was “disastrous” as only a few units were sold; then “she wasn’t cooing,” which characterizes her, but the artist kept trying and “another manager told her to change the record,” she explains.
Estruch and his wife did not attach “any more meaning” to their neighbor’s visit, whom they vaguely remember, until after the years the artist began to become successful and they realized that the voice recorded on this almost forgotten cassette was Shakira’s himself was .
A few years after receiving the cassette, the singer from Barranquilla released her third album (“Pies descalzos”, 1996), which received great success throughout Latin America and marked the beginning of a successful musical career that continues to this day.
For his part, Estruch continues to be active as an artistic representative and organizer of shows; currently has offices in Barcelona and Andorra.