Between Natalia Lafourcade and Leiva there is a relationship of “love in the distance”; a torrent of mutual admiration that had not led to a stage so far, with the concert that both will offer tomorrow in the framework of the International Book Fair (FIL) of Guadalajara.
“We always wanted to meet,” he said today at a press conference Leiva, who will participate tomorrow with the Mexican in one of the shows that brings to the FIL Forum the delegation of Madrid, guest of honor at the 31st edition of the editorial event.
The singers had already gathered their voices in the song “Slowly”, in tribute to Luis Eduardo Aute, but the work was remote, explained the Madrid native, who was “very excited to share the stage with her”.
For the former member of the group Pereza this is his first time in Guadalajara, since he has only presented his live show in Mexico just one year ago. He said that it is a “luxury” to be in FIL representing Madrid, where “very good writers” such as Ray Loriga and Almudena Grandes have arrived in this edition.
Questioned about his Mexican influences, Leiva said that he has always been in contact with the music of the Latin American country because thanks to a friend he came to groups like Café Tacvba.
He pointed out that the Mexican trace will be seen on his next album, because he is now living in Mexico and can get material from the things he sees on the streets. “If he had written about Mexico before, he would be a fraud,” he said.
Leiva and Lafourcade were accompanied at the conference by the Mexican Miguel Peña and the Argentinean Juan Carlos Allende, Los Macorinos, with whom the artist collaborated to make her most recent album, “Musas”.
The album, which includes versions of classics by Violeta Parra or Agustín Lara, among other artists, has taught the Mexican to sing “with great humility”, which was “the most beautiful challenge” of the recording.
Lafourcade considers that his is a “flirt with folklore”, with the surface of it: “I’ve noticed that every time I feel more proud of being who I am, of being Mexican, of my roots, I’m strengthening an identity”.
While the singer and Los Macorinos, who accompanied Chavela Vargas from 2006 until his death, exchanged praises and anecdotes about the generational exchange, Leiva commented on his relationship with Joaquín Sabina, with whom he has participated in songwriting.
“I understand that we will continue making music together, what we are going to continue being friends, but we do not have any deal, that’s what our friendship is based on,” said the singer.
In this edition of the FIL, every night a concert will be offered in which there will always be a Spanish or a Mexican artist or group.
Until next December 3, the day on which the editorial meeting will end, couples like Amaral and León Benavente, Dani Martín and Carla Morrison and De la Puríssima and Sonido Gallo Negro will go on stage.
