Latin pop star getting US raves
Alejandro Sanz wasn't worried about keeping up with Beyonce's dance moves and hair tosses. By the time the Spanish singer-songwriter performed "Quisiera Ser" with Destiny's Child at the Grammys two years ago, he was actually relieved. "I had to walk down the red carpet earlier in the evening, and I was just really nervous about that," he says in Spanish from Miami, where he owns a home, in addition to one in Madrid.
It's surprising to learn that something like this could fluster Spain's biggest pop star, a man who has sold more than 19 million albums worldwide and who addressed students at a Harvard lecture yesterday (the first Spanish musician to do so, no less). He has won a Grammy and seven Latin Grammys for his literate pop music, which is often imbued with his own poetic songwriting. He also played the tres (a Cuban guitar) on flamenco maestro Paco de Lucia's most recent album.
Was he truly jittery before the show? "Really, I was," he says. "But then I looked out in the crowd and saw Bono sitting out there, and everything was fine. I thought Destiny's Child did a really good job. They work hard, and it comes together for them."
The same could be said of Sanz, who plays at the Orpheum Theatre tonight during what will probably be the largest Spanish-language tour of the year in the United States. Sanz, 35, has been making lush pop-rock since 1991, and yet he's just now coming to the attention of many mainstream US audiences. His appearance with Destiny's Child upped his profile, but it's still difficult to break into a US market dominated by hip-hop and garage rock. Latin pop went south two years ago, with the wind that swept Ricky Martin and Shakira away.
Sanz's tour takes its name from his latest album, "No es lo Mismo." Translated to English, the title means "It's Not the Same," and it's a commentary on where his career is heading. Latin music fans know Sanz mostly from his soft-rock hits such as "Amiga Mia" and the acoustic lo-fi of his "MTV Unplugged" album. On "No es lo Mismo," the focus is on a more varied sonic framework. It's still smooth, to be sure, but it also blends flamenco rhythms from southern Spain with flourishes from jazz and Latin pop.
Even his refined image has taken a detour. Once sly with a puckish smile, now he resembles a roughed-up Robbie Williams with mussed hair. Like Williams, he may look tough, but it's a disguise. Sanz's voice is still raspy and romantic, and his songs are a slice of sophisticated pop.
He says he doesn't differentiate between Latin and Spanish influences in his music. "To me, my music is an amalgam of many styles and feelings. It says a lot of things," he says. But most important, his music takes a stand on current issues. The album cover features Sanz with a tattoo of a bull's head on his left arm. It's an image straight out of Pablo Picasso's "Guernica," which is known for its strong antiwar sentiment. Sanz has said his tattoo is a sign of his opposition to the war in Iraq. Elsewhere on the album, "Sandy a Orilla do Mundo" is cushioned in orchestral layers that nearly mask the message about a coastline contaminated by an oil spill.
This is heavy stuff from a Latin-pop singer with such wide appeal and popularity. You're not likely to hear such songs from Enrique Iglesias or Mexican crooner Luis Miguel. And that's where Sanz distinguishes himself. Yes, he's a pop singer, and yes, his latest album has a song with an English title and a guest rapper, GQ ("Try to Save Your S'ong"). But one doesn't get the feeling that he's shooting for crass crossover success.
"I don't have the impression that he feels he needs to crack the [US] market in that sense," says Marya Meyer, the Latin Recording Academy's vice president of Latin corporate and external affairs. "I think he does his own thing with his music. He remembers his Spanish roots and honors them, but he's also a man of today."
He certainly has won over the Latin Recording Academy, the organization responsible for the Latin Grammys ceremony. Meyer saw the opening gig of his US tour last weekend in Miami, and two days later she was still raving about it.
"I have never seen anything like it," she says. "His show is almost transporting. You know when you go to a concert and the music is so beautiful and poetic that it inspires you to do something beautiful and poetic? That's what his music does. It takes you to that place."
Whether he's a poet, crooner, or a pop idol, Sanz knows that winning over new fans may be tough in the era of OutKast. And he's ready: "I know it'll be a challenge, but I like a good challenge. Little by little you go about building your own dreams and goals, and then make them happen."
