• Music Karina talks about her financial problems: "They cut off the electricity for not paying the bills"

"I'm already my age: 74; in December, God willing, I'll be 75." She says it during the interview with LOC. And because she says so we have to believe her. But

María Isabel Llaudes

is full of vitality. And her beautiful eyes, those that luckily do not cover the obligatory masks, radiate the same light with which Karina conquered Europe in 1971. This coming April 3 marks exactly 50 years since her participation in the Eurovision Song Contest with the song En a new world. Although Séverine, the representative of Monaco, won the victory,

the second place of the Jaén tasted to glory

in a Spain still in black and white.

Half a century now, Karina ... Yes, and it seems like yesterday.

It flew past me.

Very happy to have participated in Eurovision.

It is a pride.

I have a very nice memory.

We were a month before doing promotion for almost all the countries that participated.

I recorded the song in six languages.

Very hard but I was very young, I was barely 24 years old, and I was very happy to feel a bit at the center of everything. You came to the contest being already very famous in Spain and Latin America ... Yes.

I started very young, when I was about 16 years old.

I needed my father's special permission to work, which couldn't be at night, I could only give evening or morning concerts (laughs).

It was another time.

And I already had to my credit The arrows of love, Romeo and Juliet.

And at Christmas 1970 we presented The Trunk of Memories ... What happened so that the first words of the song were not heard in your Eurovision performance?

A small mistake of mine, but look, it is an anecdote that has remained for the annals of history.

I entered the stage a bit late ... And then the sound technician who had the guidelines for the dress rehearsal thought I hadn't started singing yet ... The choirs [of the trio La, la, la] are heard but the voice is not hears.

Now, that I gave her a lot of desire, a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of strength. Her dress, with that iconic hole at the bottom, which someone baptized as the cat flap, is also unforgettable. Yes, it gave a lot to talk about.

Antonio Nieto did it to me.

It was the first time I sang in a long suit ... We talked about Eurovision.

But to get to Dublin ... You had to go through a

Passport

... Little opponents had in Passport to Dublin, the mythical TVE program in which she was selected.Nino Bravo, already a great record seller, a great colleague and a serious person, something so difficult to find in this world.

Junior, Conchita Márquez Piquer, the great Rocío Jurado ... Did any of you feel especially bad about not taking your passport? Yes (laughs).

I'm not going to give you names, but yes .. He mentioned the Jury.

I don't know if he had a close relationship with her and, allow me a jump to the present, if he knows her daughter Rocío Carrasco ... Rocío Jurado was a charming woman.

As an artist, she was the most diva, in a good way, a hard worker.

We weren't close friends, but there was a good relationship.

She always remembered that she had been Karina's showgirl (laughs).

Because when I released

the trunk of memories

in one of the galas

Passport

she was one of the artists who participated in

making the choirs, the

uuuuu

.

She was a kind and close woman.

I have treated your daughter little.

What do you want me to say?

Life is very hard.

There is still a point where if the woman says something, it is not believed.

You always have to show a lot ... Shouldn't the impact of Rocío Carrasco's docuseries open the debate about which television we have?

Because the same shows that now praise her are the ones that have lynched her for years.

I do not agree with that type of program.

I think it's very good that if you want to talk about your life;

but what you don't want, nobody has to force you.

There must be limits.

Not everything should count for the audience, it does a lot of damage.

We are people, we have feelings.

Those kinds of media immediately condemn you.

There are many lynchings.

And that cannot be. Have you felt mistreated by such programs? Not as much as mistreated, because the word is very harsh.

But not respected, yes.

What is happening in society?

We ignore each other, we screw each other in a gratuitous way.

I, who am a believer, believe that you have to have charity for your neighbor. Let's go back to 1971 and his participation in the Eurofestival.

Massiel and Salomé always remember that the Franco regime tried to make their victories patrimonial.

I don't know if something like this happened to you ... In my year what was said was that Spain did not want to win.

Many gave us as winners, but I heard that Spain, which had organized the festival so recently, did not want ... Although I was ready (laughs).

In those years there was a lot of censorship, yes, I admit that we were all corseted.

But I never had problems.

I made very simple music, I have always been a happy, positive woman ... She was very innocent, very dreamy.

I thought life was like

seven girlfriends for seven brothers

.

And at home, zero politics.

I do remember 78, of course, like the time to take off the corset, to breathe a little new ideas, to respect each other more ... Although I think, as my mother would say, that there are people who have taken their feet off the plate (laughs).

I remember with great affection the work of Adolfo Suárez.

And I can't forget 23-F, which was fatal for me (laughs). Why? I was caught on Spanish Television.

He had come to record the program 300 million.

I arrived around lunchtime ... I went to the dressing room, they put make-up on me ... We were going to record around five o'clock.

But the hours passed, six o'clock, seven o'clock.

And me, how strange that nobody calls me.

I look out into the corridor, I don't see anyone, and I, how strange, what happens here ... And at last there is a knock on the door and I say, what do we record?

They tell me: No, change, quickly, we will take you back home.

Go figure.

No television in the dressing room, no cell phones ... I get home and my mother says to me: but haven't you heard?

Mother of love when I see that I have been close to those soldiers, and I without knowing anything ... By the way, did they congratulate you from El Pardo for your Eurovision success?

We went before, when the candidacy was made official, because Mrs. Carmen wanted to congratulate us.

And they gave us an audience one morning and Tony Luz [co-author with Rafael Trabucchelli and then Karina's boyfriend] and I went.

We bring you a dedicated disk.

We went up to a very pretty but tiny room in El Pardo, where Dona Carmen was waiting for us.

We were standing.

Nobody invited us to sit down, they didn't even offer us water (laughs).

We were there like 10 minutes.

We shook hands with him.

He wished me the best of luck.

And just as we were leaving he said, "You know what?"

"No, tell me, ma'am."

"That Paco likes you a lot."

And I kept looking at Tony.

"Ah, thank you very much."

I didn't know who Paco was.

And already going down the stairs I say to Tony: "And who will Paco be?"

And he was very serious: "Maribel, sweetheart, who is it going to be, the Generalissimo?"

I was dead.

As we were used to the Generalissimo, I thought, well, Paco will be the gardener or what do I know ... Luckily I didn't tell him "and who is Paco?"

(laughs)

Going back to the present, I think the pandemic has had a very regular time ... I have had a bad time, yes.

I was almost 50 days without leaving home.

My daughters told me: you are a risk person ... I got tired of everything, reading, listening to music, tidying up the cupboards, the kitchen ... I didn't even know what to do.

And my oldest daughter, Azahara, was the one who convinced me to shoot the instagram videos.

Especially to encourage older people.

It suited me very well.

And I'm very happy, we have gained a lot of followers, a lot of young people, eh?

I recorded a song to make people aware of the use of the mask ... There are people who do not believe it, but I do.

And I take great care of myself, yes, the truth. What projects do you have in mind? I would like to do a kind of monologue for theaters, also with my songs, narrating my life.

There are many people who don't really know me, they see what they want to see, and I would like to open up there.

Hopefully I can get him on his feet. Will we ever win Eurovision again, Karina? Man, hope is the only thing lost.

Imagine that we won with Blas Cantó, who I like a lot, what an illusion.

And if not with the next, and so on;

what are we going to do.

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