“That they continue to recognize you is a blessing”… With humility but sure of who he is and what he has achieved in these 30 years making music, coming from a Mexican dynasty, Pepe Aguilar is ready to receive the lifetime achievement award, the Legacy Award at the Latin AMAs 2023. But first, we talked to him about the music of the famous phrase ‘being Latino is in fashion’.
Award for career, for what you leave, for what you are leaving to this world. How do you feel?
Pepe Aguilar: I feel very happy to be in this artistic festival, In this place where I am for the first time at a Latin American Music Awards, I am going to present myself. Very happy with the award, but happier to continue in the Latin American artistic festival, after so many years. They are going to do 3 decades of career, and that they continue to take you into account, that they continue to nominate you, that they continue to recognize you, because it is a blessing.
-Being successful is something that is longed for to be close to the public, but it is also a responsibility to reinvent yourself and fall in love generation after generation. How is it done?
Pepe Aguilar: I think it depends on each individual, I don’t think there is a formula, because If there was a formula, all artists would be Michael Jackson.… How they take the blows of life, how you see life’s lessons, how they are channeled, how they prepare, how passionate, how passionate they are about their career, about what they do… That mixed and together will help you take you where it has to take you, apart from your stubbornness and your insistence, which is also very important.
There has to be a fairly strong degree of stubbornness in the artist, because in people you literally have thousands of options.so reinvention is part of the game… If you want to be in this business, I tell young people who are starting out, It depends on what they want, maybe they want a fleeting adventure through the artistic environment and become a millionaire and then byeoh The best is something that goes further and that is like a lifestyle, and that is a commitment that does not end.. You have to be constantly reinventing to be able to continue to be current, and for you to feel relevantand for you to feel that you are, and continue to contribute.
I was just talking about it with my wife a little while ago, I’m making the new album and suddenly I said: “Oh, this sounds like 2005 to me, no, nothing to do with it, I have to do it differently”, and I started moving it here and moving it there, and then I said, “Oh wow, very good”… And just like that, it’s like a survival instinct, the one that makes you reinvent yourself.
-What do you enjoy the most in this reinvention?
Pepe Aguilar: Well, that challenge, I saw a documentary by Diego Armando Maradona, who said that The best version of Diego Armando Maradona was when he had impossible challenges, insurmountable challenges in front of him, tremendous obstaclesIt was when I played the best, it was when I went out the most… And I think that I have that part of Maradonanothing more, I don’t have his fame, nor his money, nor his talent, but I do have that part, when suddenly everyone says: “No, this is over”, it’s like, or when you see the difficult things, it is a great encouragement for me, and In this business, things are difficult all the time, the competition is fierce all the time, and there are a lot of people who don’t want to see you succeed and so, I live my life completely stimulated..
-Pepe, there is a phrase in recent times that has become worldwide, ‘being Latino is fashionable’, how do you feel when you hear the phrase?
Pepe Aguilar: Musically, that this is my world, I can tell you that Never, in my life and what I know of history, has happened what is happening right now globally. Of course It has to do with connectivity, now the whole world is connected, with one click we can be on the other side of the world showing them our music… But it also has to do with evolution, with the evolution and reinvention of Latin music. Now there are many more genres, there are many more expressions, like he got out of that picture from where we had it before, and that evolution, thanks to connectivity, in my humble opinion, it has done, whatthat now Latin music becomes in the top 3 of world music, and right now it is in number 1.
An artist on many of the important platforms is world number 1, called Featherweight, a 23-year-old boy who started 3 or 4 years ago more or less 2… See how history changed, the way people communicate now, and the situations that can happen. I think there’s so much to talk about right now, in the art world, and thanks to technology I think we’re only seeing the beginning.
WATCH THE INTERVIEW HERE ON VIDEO:
DON’T MISS THESE OTHER STORIES:
-Clarissa Molina ready to fulfill her dream of leading a prize with Latin AMAs 2023: “I am celebrating because one works so much”
-Chiquis reveals what we will see in the Latin AMAs: “I want to show another side, more feminine, more elegant”
-Prince Royce breaks the silence after being hospitalized: “I still have a little bit of itching”