Jorge Drexler: "Reggaeton will have deplorable things, but what musical style has not been misogynistic"

It is September 20 and from Las Vegas the nominations for the Latin Grammys are announced. Jorge Drexler (Montevideo, 1964) sleeps in a hotel room after a long night,...

Grammy Latinos Rosalía wins the Latin Grammy for the best album of 2022 on the great night of Jorge Drexler
Interview Jorge Drexler: "In the music industry I was the example of a complete failure"

It is September 20 and from Las Vegas the nominations for the Latin Grammys are announced.

Jorge Drexler

(Montevideo, 1964) sleeps in a hotel room after a long night, as if it could be otherwise, in Rio de Janeiro.

The academics propose him to win nine prizes, his press team has already started working and he continues for a few more hours oblivious to everything.

«I do not write thinking about prizes, I do not even know when they are delivered because I ask my team not to tell me.

I didn't remember what that day was, I didn't have it in mind

, "he admits now, leaning back in an armchair in Madrid, with seven of nine statuettes and with that leisurely cadence that serves him in life and in the songs of

Tinta y Tiempo

( sony).

What has changed so that in 2014 you didn't have a Latin Grammy and now you have 13? I don't see any reason for these albums to have awards and the previous ones not.

I want to believe that it is a process of accumulation and that there is a moment when people come into contact with your repertoire.

Of course nothing conscious happened, it's a record I made with the same dedication and frenzy as the previous ones.

It was one of the most complicated, but it was also the first one I did, 30 years ago.

Jorge Drexler has not yet found the explanation, but the reality is that he was the winner of the Latin Grammys, where the mixture of hedonism and origins of Bad Bunny and the indefinable whiplash of Rosalía seemed destined to reign.

In a hectic world, the break of the Uruguayan singer-songwriter triumphed, who in January will give his first concert at the WiZink in Madrid with a record that could not have been due to a blockage.

«He went because of the pandemic and for 30 years writing songs.

That wears off and finding motivation is very difficult.

I had a lot of pressure due to the change of team and I was very alone, I lacked my people

».

Where do you find that motivation? I look for it in opening new paths, for me it's very important to have the feeling that I'm uncomfortable from the beginning. With 30 years of music behind you, how do you get to those new paths? Listening to the present with curious and analytical eyes and not ruling out things that are not from your generation.

I am very interested in what happens with urban music as I was interested in bossa nova, folklore, electronic music... The present has some musical characteristics that make me curious.

If I have a few days off in Puerto Rico, I go to La Perla to see where reggaeton originates and understand the roll it has there as identity music of which they are very proud because it has had a global reach like no other in Spanish, except maybe the tango.'The blackout'

by Bad Bunny is a good example of identity music. We must not forget that the country has an identity conflict and this is a protest song, which asks that the Americans leave or criticizes the privatization of the electrical network.

Puerto Rico is a very punished country, but I feel admiration for its people because their vitality is enormous and they have known how to transform the conflict into very good things.

El Apagón

is a historic song to define that generation. Has that point been underestimated by presenting reggaeton only as party music, misogynist, for enjoyment...? I have never done it.

I try to analyze a little more before judging.

Citing Escohotado, reality is dense and ideals are flat.

People who don't know reggaeton and find it scary because they don't understand anything should get informed.

It will have very deplorable things, like all genders, but let the gender that has not been misogynistic throw the first stone.

Rock and roll, tango or cumbia have never been?

But the evolution occurred, luckily and he had to retract.

We see it in the women that Bad Bunny portrays in

Ella perrea sola

Marcela

They are strong, autonomous and very sexual, owning their sexuality. If they did not come from the street, would the critics be different?

Yes, but it is unsuccessful because it has already infiltrated all social strata. In an underground bar in Puerto Rico you see university students dogging other lower social sectors.

And here it is also dogged on all sides now, it has quickly become impregnated.

The most difficult barrier to overcome is that of age: that my generation understands that it fulfills the same role as cumbia 15 years ago, or rock 30 years ago, and they were also rejected by their parents. It is the usual fear of all generations to the new, right? I'm talking about neophobia: you start to mistrust the new and say the same thing about the music that those in their 20s dance to as what the old people said about punk.

The same thing that was said about punk 40 years ago is now said about reggaeton.

One of the few good things about getting older is seeing the cycles repeat themselves because if you have a bit of self-criticism and analytical vision, it's hard for you to repeat the phrase that music today is shit and the good music was before. That reasoning from a age and a wealthy place is not so easy. That chauvinism can be very serious when you get sick with xenophobia: thinking that you are the good part of humanity and the rest are bad.