"I'm just one musician out of thousands in Colombia. I belong to a group of musicians who, first of all, love music and, secondly, want to show a different view of the world."
These are the good times, the happy times. But the not-so-happy times, latristeza, color his life and his art. Not so long ago, as is evidenced by the bitterness of his first album, "Fijate Bien" (2001), that's all that he could see: sadness, anger, grief. He'd moved from Colombia to Los Angeles in 1998 and was struggling to make it, missing home and filled with rage over what was happening back there. And back there, anything could happen and often did: A close friend was gunned down in a nightclub. Rebels kidnapped his cousin, demanded money, took the ransom and executed him anyway. It is, Juanes says, an "all too common tale," just one more victim in Colombia's blood-soaked 40-year civil war.
"Music is a way of releasing whatever bothers you," says Juanes, now touring the U.S. "And even though I'm singing about . . . difficult things, there's always an optimism."
(Lucian Perkins -- The Washington Post)
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Still, Juanes says, "now there is a hope that things are going to change. And there is doubt that it will change."
And about that war: It figures prominently in Juanes's music, which marries rock with the rollicking rhythms found in Colombian cumbia and vallenato, along with the slinky romance of the tango and the melodic swoon of the Beatles. Even when he's pitching woo, it's woo for the world-weary. His heart doesn't just beat for love; it beats like a "cañón de metralla," a giant machine gun. He says he's apolitical (more on that later), but his lyrics are preoccupied with both guns and roses, from his earlier hit, "Fijate Bien" ("Watch Out"), a tune about the perils of land mines, to "Que Pasa" ("What's Going On?"), from his latest CD, "Mi Sangre" ("My Blood"). In "Que Pasa," like a Latin Marvin Gaye, he wonders, "Why must there be so much war? Why must there be so much pain?"
"My music is concerned with human relations, not only about lovers but about the world, everything that affects you everyday," says Juanes, speaking in Spanish, which he feels more comfortable with than English. "From the deep love that I have for my daughter, to the anger and despair that I feel over the situation. . . . Not only in my country, but everywhere else in the world.
"Music is a way of releasing whatever bothers you. And even though I'm singing about the most difficult things, there's always an optimism. There's always a light, there's always the spirit of hope."
"He loves his country and he's seen his country be destroyed for the last 20, 30, 40 years," says Jose Tillan, vice president of music and talent for MTV Latin America. "And it hurts him. Through his music, I think he wants to give back to the country that raised him."
Colombia has spawned its fair share of musical talent, from the crossover rock of the bilingual Shakira to the art house alt-rock stylings of Aterciopelados to former telenovela heartthrob/vallenato king Carlos Vives. But it is Juanes who is poised to capture the widest audience with strictly Spanish-language music. Says Tillan: "A lot of people in the industry make him a case study and say, 'I wish I had a Juanes on my label.' . . . He's a great balance of art and commerce."
Por los hijos de mis hijos y los hijos de tus hijos a Dios le pido
Que mi pueblo no derrame tanta sangre y se levante
mi gente a Dios le pido. . . .
(For the children of my children and the children of your children I ask God
that my people don't experience so much bloodshed and that they lift themselves up
I ask God.)
