When Cecilia Carrizo approached Pablo Codevilla, in the preview of what the cycle would be Tell me which, which, what is your nameafter moving away from television Nicolas Repettoshowed him the character he had planned to shine on the small screen.
Although she was part of the program’s tribune, he was encouraged to show her a creation called ET – I hear sadnesswhich referred to the work that he had done for many years Luisa Delfino on radio and television. However, his interlocutor immediately put an end to the proposal and made it clear that she did not like him. So Cecilia had to discard the idea and think of another one, until she appeared Candythe cool teacher who finally stood out on television, and then continued a path that she had not even dreamed of.
At 17 years old, Cecilia began working in the industry. She was part of advertisements and series like Friends and The Machos and it was only when he showed up for the casting for the new program Nicolas Repetto that his life changed completely.
The tribune of Nico first and the dand Tell me which one, which one, what’s your name after –both on Telefe-, They were the foundations on which the actress was formed. Due to the success that her character had with the little ones, the doors were opened for a shipment aimed at children, the one that she had always loved but that she never thought she would achieve. For this, she needed a stroke of luck.
“Many girls dressed up as Caramelito, with gym teacher clothes and a cap on the back,” Cecilia recalled in an interview in The Mammons. “Once, my godfather had rented a house for the weekend and there were some girls who came up to greet me, to ask for photos. One of them was the granddaughter of the then vice president of Sony Music, Hugo Piombi. When the girl explains who I am, He came to tell me that I had to do a children’s program.
Cecilia felt that paths were crossing. In 1997, she came to the screen Candy bar, the cycle in which she was able to play at being herself. Thus, she strengthened her genuine bond with the children and she took charge not only of the songs of the program but also of everything related to the production. If there was one thing she was clear about, it was that she was not going to leave any cables in the hands of others.
The success was as immediate as it was unexpected. “It was very strong to fill the Astral theater in two daily performances, the curtain opened and I was filled with emotion. That happened to me at every show, and then I had to travel around the country and the same thing happened to me. I enjoyed it to the fullest, I couldn’t believe it and I was grateful, it felt like a gift,” she recalled about that time in a chat with Daniel Dátola, in Behind the success.
The program was on at 7 p.m. on the Channel 13 screen. With all her charisma, Cecilia received famous guests with whom she had a snack, in addition to presenting the songs and choreographies with part of the body of “the bar” that accompanied the host. Among them, there were artists who later developed a career in acting in the country and abroad, such as Dani Martins, Noelia Castaño, Natalia Lalli, Ulises Celestino, Hernán Gayoso, Ariana Pardo, Lucas Castaño and Cynthia Silberstein.
The series also had a soap opera with all the members of the staff, a segment where celebrities faced the game of hangman and mobile phones at the school doors, where the kids detailed what bothered them about their parents or pointed out the “sour candy” of the course. There were also no shortage of contestsin which participants could win bicycles or trips to the United States by simply sending a letter with various slogans, ranging from a drawing to a toothpaste case.
In this way, between 1997 and 1998, Cecilia confirmed that the love she had always felt for the little ones could also be expressed on the screen, in the constant tours and in the still thriving record market. His first CD, “Caramelito en Barra”, sold more than 200 thousand copies and never stopped playing at every children’s party.. The next step was a major challenge: to overcome or, at least, match the boom generated after her emergence as a child host, and to do so she allied herself with someone who until then was an icon in her field.
Queen Reech and Cecilia Carrizo joined forces to launch Caramelito and youthe new children’s proposal on Channel 13, which began broadcasting at 6:00 p.m. on January 1, 1998. The official presentation of the shipment took place at the Art school de Reina, located in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Belgrano. This event marked the beginning of a promising artistic society. The project found Reech taking on the role of general producer and creator, while Carrizo was the face in front of the camera.
The program, which was approved by Channel 13 after the recording of a pilot produced by Martin Kweller and Raul Naya, was a mix of entertainment and education, where topics including ecology were addressed. With the aim of catching both children and adolescents, and cwith confidence that even adults would find the content engagingboth trusted from the beginning that this new format would become a benchmark for healthy and constructive children’s entertainment.
In this new stage, “the bar” that accompanied her in her first television foray, was replaced by a group of friends, among which were rapper Hugo, who danced and told different stories to a rap rhythm; also Coco the monkeyacrobat, tightrope walker and a total romantic; Valeria Viola, an electric guitar with big eyelashes and long platinum hair that spoke about what he knew most: music. Of course, there was no shortage of choreographies that entertained everyone. Also, another notable segment was “The questions of the questioner”which resolved the doubts of even the most curious.
The audience also had the opportunity to see the most outstanding green spaces in Buenos Aires thanks to the contribution of Super Ecologicalthe “interstellar sister” of the driver, who led the program’s environmental newscast. There were also activities that invited active participation and the development of artistic skills. The “Monomanias” section, for example, introduced children to the art of puppet theater, using gloves instead of traditional dolls. On the other hand, “When I grow up I want to be…” opened a space for professionals from various areas to share with children what their work consisted of, promoting education and vocational guidance from an early age.
But without a doubt the section that remained in everyone’s memory was “Today I look like…” in which the boys imitated their favorite singers. Thus, young people from all over the country paraded on the screen in search of fulfilling their dreams, imitating figures of the stature of Gloria Estefan, Thalía, Fey, Gilda or even one’s own Candy. And it was there where a young woman Mariana Esposito She would make her debut on television, and years later she would begin to become known under the nickname Lali to reach the point where he conquered the world.
In an old chat with street dogsa cycle at that time still broadcast by Radio Metro, Lali referred to her debut: “In ’98 was my first television appearance, in Caramelito and you. I was a Reina fan, bad. bI heard a song Natalia Oreiro“Change pain”, I painted my mole, everything. And I had bad feelings with Caramelito, who asked me where he came from, and I never answered him, he looked straight ahead and I didn’t even look at her. Between shy and bad vibes, she painted me like this, I was like ‘don’t fuck with me, I came to dance’, and they played play to the topic and smile and started. I won a toy kitchen that I had for many years”, he recalled in great detail.
Lali added that she had not had contact with Carrizo: “I never met her, I have told the anecdote, I assume she heard it.” Then, Andy Kusnetzoff asked his production to communicate with the entertainer, while the artist continued remembering that initiation day. “He gave me the spot on his show, my whole family was watching, of course, I was 6 years old. And when I show up, everyone starts laughing and Uncle Tata, my grandmother’s cousin, a very renowned tango dancer, who was in fact a teacher, stands up offended and says ‘don’t laugh, this girl is going to be a star’”.
Finally, they managed to communicate with Caramelito: “I know he came to the program because they sent me a photo with Mono Coco, and now she is an international superstar and it gave me so much tenderness to see a little girl there, the truth is that it is divine,” the entertainer said on the radio. “It is very exciting that people like her, what Reina or Cris (Morena) have done since the production, it is very real that you encourage a kid to be artistic,” Lali returned. “I watched her from my house and my dream was to be her, play her disco and dance in front of the mirror. It is part of the engine that makes you go for that dream a little bit,” she continued.
Finally, Carrizo highlighted the dedication she put into each program. “At that time, when I did it, I was always aware that what happened to me was important, always referring to the bond with the boys. For me it was not the same, a ‘let the next person pass’ and today I understand that I was lucky with that record, with that attention, because it is like sometimes one enters into a maelstrom at work and, however, it is something that has a dimension in each person’s life and sometimes we slow it down and we fail to register that it is something like very power that can mark you forever.”
