Maria del Mar Dominguez
Malaga (Spain), 9 apr. It was 1991 when Shakira was still unknown and her uncle, who was looking for a representative in Spain, gave a promotional cassette of the Colombian singer to a Barcelona entertainment agent. He said that he was not interested in the artist, but he kept this musical “jewel”.
At that time, Jaume Estruch, today director of the Barcelona Animació artists’ agency, had his representative office in the Guinardó neighborhood of Barcelona, in the same building as Shakira’s uncle.
“One day my neighbor came down to see me in the office to tell me that his niece was a singer in Colombia and was looking for a representative in Spain. I politely told him that I was not interested, but I kept the cassette,” according to EFE.
The tape -of the TDK brand and a cover in which the artist appears leaning against a tree- contains nine songs from the album “Magia”, when she was 14 years old, and includes songs composed by her such as “Sueños”, “Cazador de amor “, “Dark glasses” or “I need you”.
Although she has kept it for 30 years, in which the Colombian has become a world star, she has now decided to sell the cassette on the Todocoleccion.net portal.
“I like Shakira, but I’m not a fan, and I’m sure there’s someone who might be interested,” explains Estruch. The price she has set for him is 1,200 euros (1,300 dollars).
HE DID NOT SEE THE BUSINESS CLEARLY
This artistic representative was 31 years old when he passed up the opportunity to promote the career of a teenager Shakira in Spain. “Things happen, an anecdote along the way,” he says, although he admits that sometimes he has thought that “he could still be there” with her.
Estruch’s company was “known” in Barcelona, a city that was at the time “in full swing” prior to the 1992 Olympic Games, but he believes that the singer’s uncle visited him simply “by proximity.”
She “was very young and Colombian, I didn’t see anything clear (the business),” justifies the businessman.
He remembers that that year, taking advantage of the pull of the song “Ojalá que llueva café”, by the Dominican Juan Luis Guerra, he did take a Cuban orchestra to Spain, which was on tour for six months interpreting songs by this artist, in addition to the Panamanian Rubén Blades and the Cuban Celia Cruz.
THAT RECORD WAS NOT COMMERCIALLY SUCCESSFUL
Shakira’s uncle’s visit to his office occurred at “a time when Sony released the album in Colombia and, seeing that it didn’t work, her parents began to move things around,” says the artistic agent.
That debut album was “disastrous”, as few units were sold; then she “didn’t coo” that characterizes her, but the artist kept trying and “another manager told her to change her record,” she explains.
Estruch and his wife did not give “more importance” to their neighbor’s visit, which they vaguely remember, until after the years the artist began to be successful and they realized that the voice recorded on that almost forgotten cassette was the from Shakira herself.
Several years after receiving the tape, the singer from Barranquilla released her third album (“Pies descalzos”, 1996), which performed well throughout Latin America and marked the beginning of a successful musical career that continues today.
Estruch, for his part, has continued to work as an artistic representative and organizer of shows; he currently has offices in Barcelona and Andorra. EFE
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