Pozoblanco, 1994. The roots of flamenco are safeguarded in the young voice of

María José Llergo

, who has shared the limelight with

Lola Flores herself

in the latest

Cruzcampo

commercial, one of this season's commercials.

How did you end up in this campaign?

I loved being in a project like this in which things are claimed that go far beyond marketing. It is putting financial resources at the service of something that makes us better. I mean, everyone has an accent, wherever they are from. Cool. Well, talking to Lola Flores is really cool.

What do you think that Cruzcampo is sometimes the object of ridicule?

I like everything good. I associate it a lot with Andalusia. I recorded part of my album in Seville. And I think of Seville, in the heat of summer, and a Cruzcampo automatically comes to mind.

How important is Lola Flores to you?

There are people who never die and Lola is one of them.

It has always been in our life.

And I speak of "ours" because it is mine and that of my family: in the field I used to sing 'Oh grief, grief, grief!'

with my grandfather, I learned it with him.

And just last year, before I knew if I was going to shoot this ad, I did a cover of that song.

It was the same week that I was asked to be here.

And I felt like everything was aligned, because I was also turning 25 years old.

It was a continuous "yes".

What do you think is left of her today?

Lola is eternal, because she was visionary.

And he has a discourse that does not expire: diversity, accepting others as they are, how he talked about 'trans' people or drugs, which were taboo at that time, the 80s, when Spanish society, and more specifically flamenco, suffered a lot from the impact of drugs ... And yet she spoke it with naturalness and self-confidence.


And what else?

Also about natural beauty: he said that the brightness of the eyes is not operated.

And now I, who am 26 years old, I look at the aesthetic references of my time and I see the Kardashians, the cult of plastic surgery ... And yet, I see Lola and I tell myself that if she did it in her time, why am I not going to be able to live my artistic life with that dignity, with that strength.

Any other phrase from her that has left a mark on you?

The one of "who has not had a pipe with a good friend?".

Why do you sing Lola Flores?

I sing Lola Flores because it makes sense to me, because I consider her an important reference in my day to day, in my daily life and far beyond music.

So that gives you an imaginary that makes sense with your actuality.

I like to sing flamenco from my point of view, without judging the old lyrics, many of which are macho, because I like to look back at the time of my grandfather and I can understand them better when they tell me about their youth or how marriages were before or how they knew each other and began to talk.

The key is to give it meaning, a meaning that goes far beyond the music, that goes to the person.

Is having to 'make up' the accent racism?

Yes, it is racism.

And what do you think happened in Canal Sur?

It is very strong that our regional 'TV' have the more naturalized neutral Castilian than Andalusian in all its variants.

Have you ever had to 'dress up' your accent?

I was studying in Barcelona and at the University of Barcelona I had a personal experience with a professor, who was not even my professor: he proposed to moderate my accent.

Logically, I never gave in.

It bothered me a lot because it is something that I interpret as self-censoring or self-restraining.

And I don't want that.

My accent is the maximum expression of me and my people and my land and the history of Andalusia.

There is no reason to see it as something negative, wherever the accent comes from.

On the contrary, it must be seen as an enormous wealth.

And I believe that only the one who ignores it despises it.

Whoever knows it and knows where it comes from automatically wants it.

What do you think of the imitation of the Andalusian accent by certain comedians?

Nothing is cool when it is done from superiority or from contempt.

But it can be fine if it is done from a respectful game and in a context that is not a gratuitous imitation to be funny at the expense of the southern neighbors.

Is this a political question?

Everything is politics.

At the moment that I refuse to neutralize my accent, I am doing politics, because I am demanding dignity for the Andalusian people.

I am saying that I am not anyone's buffoon, that this is my personality and that it cannot be restrained.

Because then you would be meeting a mannequin, not a person.

It would be dead, it would not have life, it would not have that freshness that difference has.


What do you like about Andalusia?

I really like Antonio Manuel, the writer, author of 'The Moorish Footprint' and of 'Arqueología de lo jondo'.

And it gives meaning to many things that I sing, that gain strength and also empower me.

It is a knowledge that goes beyond.

For example, when you as a child you used to sing "Where are the keys? Matarile, rile, rile. Where are the keys? Matarile, rile, ron. Debalo del agua, matarile, rile, rile. Under the water, matarile, rile" , rum, chimpon ", that song comes from when in the Reconquest they persecuted the Muslims and they wore the keys of Al-Andalus in their clothes and gave them to kill him in the Mediterranean Sea.

And where are the keys?

Under the water, kill him, rile, rum.

Oh, I had no idea.

That gives you an awareness of your past that allows you to move towards a better future.

And to think that what happened in the Mediterranean then continues to happen today, that nothing is new, that the only thing we can change is our present in order to prevent this from continuing over time.

The Caliphates 3/4, who also appear in the ad, defend that Andalusianism is anti-supremacist and that it embraces all the disinherited in the world.

It's more inclusive, I don't see that superiority.

It is that hatred cannot be extinguished with hatred, rejection cannot be extinguished with rejection.

If you have felt rejected, for example, in the accent, you cannot reject others in their difference as well, because then you are doing the same.

I believe that hatred and rejection have to be paid for with love and knowledge.

How would you define your relationship with your voice?

The important thing is not so much how a voice sounds, but what it contains.

When a person owns their voice, it shows.

And I think that in this world what is missing is that, our power.

That we are aware that we have power, that what we say then becomes facts and an extension of what we think.

And it is very important to have conscious individuals, able to choose their words.

And then his songs.

That is the most important thing for me as a singer who writes his own songs.

What do you think about being compared to Rosalía?

It doesn't bother me at all.

Look, I'm fine with being compared to another successful woman.

That's because it exists.

So I hope there are many more women succeeding in music and in everything, and we can talk much more about us.

And not in a rivalry mode, but as an institution.

There is a theory that says that the most beautiful women in Spain are on the Cordoba-Seville axis.

What do you think of her?

I believe that all the women of Spain are beautiful.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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