Pasión Vega: "I don't think Torrente likes good copla"

Pasión Vega has transformed her new album into a movie theater. But also vice versa. She has turned the screen into music. And for the movie she has put together, she sought the most prestigious and international director of Spanish cinema, Pedro Almodóvar. From this fusion, an album full of cinephilia has emerged, with which she plans to fill three days—from June 25 to 27—at the Teatro del Soho Caixabank. "Antonio Banderas's theater, as we Malagueños call it," notes the singer, who will play the role of an Almodóvar girl on the stage of the most recognizable Almodóvar boy. Classics like 'La bien pagá', 'Volver', 'A tu vera', 'Piensa en mí', 'Un año de amor', 'Puro teatro', 'En el último trago', or 'Cucurrucucú paloma' will sound as always, but also different, with Pasión de Vega. In this interview, the singer reveals her most cinephile side, recalls the scenes of the man from La Mancha that have marked her, confesses her weakness for the cinema of Rodrigo Sorogoyen, and, on the contrary, that she does not see herself singing for the inimitable Torrente.

-Why the album 'Pasión Almodóvar'?

-Because his work is inspiring, especially the way Pedro has used music in his films, giving it so much importance, so much weight, and making it part of very important scenes in each film. They are songs that are also very close to me, to my musical culture, to what I have listened to since I was a child; it's the music I grew up with and with which I have evolved, and it seemed like a very interesting project to mix all those passionate stories with my own.

-But the original project was not an album.

-Originally it was two concerts. Joan Antón Rechi commissioned it and I thought it was a wonderful idea from the beginning. Then came the second step, turning it into a tour with a quartet along with Moisés Sánchez and adapting the scenography planned for just two nights. Little by little, the project grew until it shaped the current repertoire.

-Has Almodóvar already met you?

-He knows about the project and gave us permission to use his name. Wonderful people from his office came to the premiere concert and I hope he can soon come to see the show, and if it were here, at the Teatro del Soho in Málaga, that would be fantastic. The concert is a tribute to those songs and to those great women who perform them, but above all to Pedro as the creator. Of course, I will be very nervous the day he comes and I would very much like to know his opinion. We have already sent him the album.

"The scenes from Almodóvar in which each of those songs appear become little masterpieces"

Pasión Vega

Singer

-You are not a newcomer, but it also takes courage to revisit icons of music.

-If you think about it in retrospect, it's true that they are references and the performers of these songs are very great. I have done it from admiration and when things are done with respect, fears are not valid. Love and putting your own personality, the best version of yourself, so that those versions are worthwhile, matters more.

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-Listening to the 'playlist', one realizes that without the copla and the bolero, Almodóvar's work cannot be understood.

-Indeed. When I started to outline the first list of songs, I realized that it is a journey through Latin American music, through music in Spanish, basically; popular music, ranchera, copla... And it's super interesting how that musical culture that we Spaniards have is united in his films. The scenes in which each of those songs appear become little masterpieces. It's very curious how the songs connect us with his characters. Of course, they are also from composers like José Alfredo Jiménez, Manuel Alejandro, Agustín Lara, Rafael de León, and these songs are still modern, renewed, current, and always with us.

-You propose to fill three consecutive days at Antonio Banderas's Teatro del Soho. Another essential from Almodóvar's cinema, does everything stay in the family?

-Yes, he was very excited that we are bringing this project to the Soho. They are three days and for me, it is very beautiful because I can spend more time in Málaga, share it with more audience, and do it in Antonio's theater, Antonio Banderas's, as we Malagueños say. I hope he can also enjoy it with us, because it will bring him very good memories as a lover of music, culture of Málaga, and art. It is really appreciated that he has his theater so available and open to all audiences, all ages, and everyone who wants to come and play there.

"Málaga is where I get the most nervous when I have to sing"

Pasión Vega

Singer

-Do you feel like a prophet in your own land?

-Very much. Málaga has seen me grow as an artist and, at the beginning of each project, I always try to come and share it with the people. For me, it is important, because it is my city, they are my countrymen, and among that audience, there are many friends who move me. Málaga is where I get the most nervous when I have to sing.

-An Almodóvar film?

-I really like 'High Heels'. There are two very important songs in that movie, 'Piensa en mí' and 'Un año de amor', and being still young, it was one of the first times I saw a trans figure in a movie, and also with such naturalness. A man who is also a woman. That caught my attention. And then the presence of Marisa Paredes, who is always imposing. That movie impacted me, but also the first one I saw from Almodóvar, 'Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown'. I would be almost a child and I wondered how my parents were letting me watch that movie so out of the ordinary, so different, so crazy, so original.

"Of course, I feel like an Almodóvar girl, because I also reincarnate his spirit at different moments of the concert"

Pasión Vega

Singer

-The promotional photos of the album adopt the style of the filmmaker. Do you feel like an Almodóvar girl?

-It's very curious because we really haven't used the typography, but just by the colorfulness, you already identify it to see the power that Pedro's cinema has. And of course, I feel like an Almodóvar girl, because I also reincarnate his spirit at different moments of the concert and in those lyrics in which it tells from scorn to passionate love or toxic love, as a way to denounce patriarchy through the films. That way we Spaniards and Spanish women from decades ago understood love as something sacrificial. And his films criticize that mismatch that existed in love, in passion, while his women come out afloat in the end, fulfilling their destiny, their dream, although sometimes in a drastic way and suffering a lot. But his films have helped me a lot to be able to interpret these songs.

-And what is the Passion in your name?

-Passion is what you can't stop doing, what drives you, what gives you wings, what excites you. For me, that is passion and I have it in my work, in my art. It gives me life, it gives me freedom. And in loves, I have it in my daughter, who is also something fundamental, and my family.

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-At this point, you must be one of the best connoisseurs of Almodóvar's cinema. What character would you have liked to play?

-Wow, what a great question. Well, the role of Agrado, just for that monologue, for that moment, would have been very worthwhile. I love it. And then there are many scenes that I keep, like those featuring Carmen Maura; the great Verónica Forqué, who always had a special grace, or the 'playback' of 'Volver' that Penélope Cruz did with that sparkle in her eye.

"I really like Rodrigo Sorogoyen and he introduces wonderful music in his films. I am discovering his filmography"

Pasión Vega

Singer

-Have you seen the recently released 'Bitter Christmas'?

-I haven't had the time, I'm looking forward to it. As soon as the album promo ends, I hope to escape to the cinema before Holy Week starts. I'm very eager.

-The latest 'Torrente' has also just been released. Would you put music to it?

-That's more complicated for me, because I identify much less with that story. I know it's a hit in the cinema, but I've only seen one 'Torrente' movie.

-Knowing the character, he must like copla...

-I don't think so. I don't think good copla would appeal to Torrente.

-And with which other filmmaker would you like to work?

-Well, Rodrigo Sorogoyen, for example, I really like him and he introduces wonderful music in his films. I am discovering his filmography and the last thing I saw was 'The New Years' and I loved it. He seems like a very interesting director.