Diego Torres (Buenos Aires, 1971) presents his new album Better than Yesterday. Ten songs that captivate you from minute one. The author of Color Esperanza has a pending tour to reconnect with his Spanish audience. He received recognition at the Dial Awards in Tenerife and is now returning to Argentina, but will return in the summer. We talked about his new album, his life and football: about Messi, about Cholo, about the League, about the Champions…, even about Nadal and Alcaraz. A delicious conversation with an international and superlative artist.
-Has it been a long time since you came?
-I am happy to visit Spain, to receive a Dial award, to present the new album in Spain, to bring new sounds
-What do you take from Spain? Do you take work?
-I’ll take things with me, yes. I have reunited with old music friends. And things that one is imagining, thinking about collaborations. I got a lot of good moments. h
-I witnessed your infinite hug with Mal in Tenerife at the Dial awards.
-It had been years since I went to the awards and I hadn’t seen Malu. And I saw her there, it made me want to say hello, to hug her. We have had some super nice moments. And also with the Estopa, with Luis Fonsi. I saw a lot of colleagues I hadn’t seen in a while.
Enlarge
-Better than yesterday, new album. He is in the vein of Diego Torres, optimistic, happy. He is very Diego Torres.
-S. It is a very varied album. It has everything. It has a broad horizon and it is great that people discover it and feel it as they listen to it. The themes are very different. And the single Better Than Yesterday has been working phenomenally. He has captured people, but he captured me first. I felt something special in that song that talks about defeat, falling, getting up, loving, suffering, but ultimately fighting in life, right? So happy with the reception that the song and the album are having.
-I have already confessed to you that Better Than Yesterday could be the new Color of Hope…
-It’s one of those songs that come to stay forever. It is true that it has something special. Humbly, I spent the day I finished writing it with some colleagues in the studio and said: This song has something special that provokes you. And the song comes out and begins to walk, as if to have a life of its own. And people have already adopted it because they identified with what the lyrics say. If you take the lyrics and I sing it to you with the guitar, it can become a sad song. That’s the interesting thing about music, that it is like life, it has joys and sadness. It is according to how you dance the sorrows.
-I like to say that it is a song that does not expire.
-It seems that it is coming to stay. Many young boys have fallen in love with the song because of their parents. And from there they begin to discover. When a song provokes the synchronicity of what many are thinking and feeling, there it goes, it sneaks in, it gets in and accompanies the lives of many people Diego.
-I also really like your collaboration with Carlos Vives: Kapun.
-Yes, happy to sing with Carlos again, with whom I have a very good relationship. We had already done it in 2018 with a song called Un poco that also worked very well. And this song also has a message from someone who is lost, right? Of someone who is stunned by the intensity of his life and who looks in the mirror and cannot find himself, who has experienced glory, who has suffered hardships, but who is ultimately there facing what life brings him. And this thing that is very fashionable now, which is not a fashion, I think it is important that it comes to settle and stay, this thing of living our way. To respect each other in our differences, but to be able to live our way.
Enlarge
-And tell me, how did the idea of making a song with your nephews come about?
-It was a family afternoon when my nephew Benja came to visit me and showed us songs, he showed me an idea and I told him: I love this idea. He tells me, yes, I have it there. I told him: Wow, will you let me get to work with you on this song? Yes, I would love it, he told me. And I felt that that song, which has a hint of Spanish guitar, of current flamenco, within what pop is, with the respect that I have for the genre, but it is flamenco. It’s about talking about our family, about valuing things in time, about those who are no longer here. And that’s how it happened, singing with my nephews Benja and Ángela. A dream fulfilled.
-What are your plans?
-I think that this summer we will come to do concerts in Spain, visit as many cities as possible and meet friends. More with the public, with the people.
-Who would you like to collaborate with?
-In the end there are always names in my head that I would like, but I prefer not to announce them. It seems to me that things should not be announced before they happen. What I can tell you is that many collaborations are going to come. And this album will have a gift, a bonus track of a song with Luz Gaggi, a young singer from my country, from Argentina.
-Who is she?
-Sings phenomenal. He has a very powerful bozarrón and in a song that is half soul, funky, which is very interesting. So I am very excited that people will listen to this song and listen to Luz, who sings divinely.
-I’m sure that many singers would have wanted to write Color Esperanza, what song would you have liked to write?
-Some by Nino Bravo. Song like America. Yes, I have it clear about Nino Bravo.
-How do you feel about being an international artist being as normal as you are?
-I live life normally and that is the education I received. I believe that my job is like any other job and that is what I pass on to my daughter. Dad is not a rockstar, Dad drives you, brings you to school, cooks for you, takes out the trash and does everyday chores, I tell him. I have values and emotions. Sometimes you don’t imagine that you accompany people’s lives in good times and bad times too.
-How many people have approached you and said, make me a song? Or tell my love story
-Sometimes I get letters or people identify with the stories. The same thing happens to all of us. And that’s why explaining the songs loses the magic. People have to make the songs their own and make them their own.
-As a good Argentine, you are a soccer fan.
-Yes, I follow sports in general. I really like football, I played a lot and I have friends and acquaintances who have been players, who are coaches or who are now playing too. I like tennis, rugby, I watch sports all the time. It is very normal that he is at my house and, suddenly, he is watching a game and he is grabbing the guitar and writing, playing something, always with the little green grass there in the background.
-Football moves emotions and so does music. They are closer than we say, right?
-The songs end up there being sung in the stadiums too, so there is a direct relationship.
-Your great football moment
-I was lucky to experience the three World Cups. As a little boy, the one from ’78; that of ’86, of living everything that was that time of Maradona and that glory and, well, having a relationship with Diego and now enjoying Leo. I think that all of us who love football wanted Argentina to be champions, especially because of Leo. He is a great player and a great person. He has been a demonstration of these kids, no one thought they would be able to achieve it. Scaloni had been questioned a lot and they really took us to the top with a calm profile and that is very important.
-You told me that you had seen him in Miami and he was calm. To my liking, his expression has changed.
-I think Leo took off a lot of pressure after becoming world champion. Especially coming from a country where they put such great pressure on you. For me, Leo is unquestionable, he was unfair to a tremendous player and such an authentic person, so simple, so normal. Yes, it is very difficult to maintain normality with Messi being the number one in football, on the football planet, right? I think that he has made a life choice so that his children have an interesting transition in their life, that they have Hispanicity, but that they can also learn another language, that they can make their way and it is a good decision. And you have to continue enjoying it as much as you can on the court.
Leo Messi is unquestionable, it was unfair to a tremendous player
-What song of yours would you play for Leo?
-I would call Leo Better than Yesterday, without a doubt. I’m sure he has it there. I’m sure she’s on one of her playlists.
-Are you very fond of the Spanish League?
-I like to watch all the leagues and I pay attention to the teams, the players. I like Atlético de Madrid here, because I know Cholo and I know how passionate he is. My friends, the Carmonas, took me many years ago to the stadium, the Vicente Calderón. Afterwards I have a relationship with Enrique Cerezo, who always treats me divinely. I call him and he tells me when I want to go to the stadium. I really enjoy watching football and having a good time.
-As a soccer fan that you are, who do you think can hit it?
-It’s difficult, I would like Atlético de Madrid to win. I would love it, but hey, there are great teams. Real is historic and is a winner of this competition. Now he is with Manchester City. Whoever comes out of that tie will surely be a finalist. And Barcelona meets Paris Saint-Germain, who I also think has possibilities. It’s interesting.
I would like Atlético de Madrid to win. I would love it, but hey, there are great teams
-Tennis also throws you after Nadal, we are sure that Alcaraz is
-I think so, after having loved Rafa, because he is a warrior, he is a gladiator. I have had opportunities to go see some of his matches and he really is a titan: how he carries out the matches, his knee ailments. He is really a daily lesson and he seems like a very calm, very normal guy. Alcaraz is a young talent, tremendous as he plays tennis and has everything ahead of him
