In 1988, a 10-year-old girl introduced as Pili Sánchez released a sevillanas album called Thank you mother. Her voice had strength, her presence too, but her name not so much, at least for producer Luis Sanz, discoverer of artists like Rocío Jurado, Lola Flores or Rocío Dúrcal. When she discovered Pili Sánchez at an audition in 1994, she decided to keep only the initials of her name and that girl was renamed Pastora Soler to the public. “One drinks from the other and they both have to be there, loving each other,” recognizes today the Sevillian singer (from Coria del Río, 45 years old), who three decades later still has not completely merged them. In these 30 years of musical career he has released 13 studio albums ―not counting that of little Pili―, he has performed on stages throughout Spain ―and part of abroad― and he has received all kinds of awards, from the Medal of Andalusia to Arts in 2019 until the special Dial Award for lifetime achievement, this 2024. Even so, he says that he still feels “in the middle” of his career. “I have another 30 years left,” she predicts with a broad smile.
For now, this Friday, June 14, he has released a new song, 30 times, dedicated to the followers who have supported her throughout her journey. A road full of Roses and thorns ―”fortunately there have been more of the first”―, which is the name he has chosen for the tour that will start next September on the occasion of this thirtieth anniversary. “It is a kind of live documentary musical that will be accompanied by my repertoire, but in which I want to transmit my personal experience, starting as a child, going through my adolescence, through complicated years, falling in love, falling out of love, getting married, having children… “I want to tell people my experience and try to help manage emotions, mental health, tell everything I have been through through song, but also directly, that is why the entire first part is theater concerts.” , he explains in the interview with EL PAÍS. He will perform, for example, at the Circo Price in Madrid (October 25), the Gran Teatro del Liceo in Barcelona (February 17), the Gran Teatro Falla in Cádiz (March 22) or the López de Ayala Theater in Badajoz ( May 16). He is also going to release a compilation album, 30, which will be released at the end of 2024 and will contain its best-known hits along with new surprises. “It’s a way of saying, ‘Hey, it’s been 30 years, thanks. We are still here. “We are all fine,” she considers.
It’s a simple, but important message for his fans. Especially after in 2014 he announced that she was retiring from the stage due to stage fright. First, she fainted at a concert in Seville. Then, she lost her voice in another performance in Malaga. “I can only thank you for your love and understanding and tell you that I no longer have the strength to continue. I had to make the decision to put a stop to my career a few months ago, but my desire to fight pushed me to continue. Today I announce to you the decision to leave my activity,” she ended up writing on her Facebook profile. The break lasted two years in which she refused to talk about what happened, but there is even an entry from the Fundéu that describes the term Become a Pastora Soler, after Joaquín Sabina coined it when he experienced a similar episode on stage. “I realized that he had done many more things for Pastora than for Pilar,” she summarizes now that the perspective of the 10 years that have passed allows her to remember it without problem. “There has to be a balance between the two. And a coexistence. Now my personal part wins a little more than the artistic part,” she confesses.
Pastora Soler’s biography on her Instagram profile, where she has 497,000 followers, summarizes her order of preferences well: “Woman, mother, singer…”. The artist has been married since 2009 to Francis Viñolo (50 years old), choreographer and artistic director of programs such as The voice and artists such as Vanesa Martín, India Martínez, Alejandro Sanz and, of course, Pastora herself. They have two daughters in common, Estrella, 8, and Vega, 3, who have changed everything. “I’m not saying it won’t happen to me again. [sufrir miedo escénico], but I think that being a mother helped me understand that the priority right now is not my profession, it is something else. The profession has now become my enjoyment. It’s leaving the house and saying: ‘I’m going to work,’ she admits.
In addition to on stage, the Andalusian artist has also left her mark on television during her time as a jury for He Number 1 and The Senior Voiceor as a participant in mask singer and Your face is familiar to me, where she appeared as a guest to imitate Céline Dion in 2013 and Lady Gaga this season – she herself has also been imitated several times on the program. Currently, she works as a jury in the Canal Sur contest Land of talent, presented by comedian Manu Sánchez. But if she is known for something to the general public, it is for being the representative of Spain in Eurovision in 2012. The song Stay with me It took her to tenth position in the rankings, a position that has since only been surpassed by Chanel, who came third in 2022 – and equaled by Ruth Lorenzo, who also came tenth in 2014. “It was one of the most important moments of my career, which until then was about working little by little and suddenly I put myself in the spotlight. Singing at Eurovision is something highly analyzed, highly criticized, but for me it was important because from then on I was heard as I had wanted to be heard for many years, without pigeonholing myself into styles, and people lived that moment with a lot of passion. From there they loved me a little more.”
One of his new rules is that when he organizes a tour he does not want more than three concerts in a row: “It makes me anxious to get to the third one.” Another mandatory rule is not to spend more than four days without seeing your little ones. He tries to prevent them from accompanying her in her performances because acting as her “absorbs a lot of energy,” but he recognizes that her eldest, Estrella, already shows signs that her name suits him like a charm. finger. “He likes dancing, like her father,” she says, “but what I don’t want is for their artistic streak to come out because we are both dedicated to this. If they have the call and the vocation, as happened to me, of course I will support them, but I will try not to,” confirms more Pili than Pastora with a laugh.
The music industry has changed radically since its beginnings, starting with promotion itself. “This is an intense day and that’s it, it’s not like before when you pulled promo three months,” he comments during the interview. Her imperturbable smile and her enormous blue-gray eyes give off an overwhelming – and studied – confidence during all the television connections to which she lends herself on this day of promo, and he relaxes a little more when he sits on a sofa to attend EL PAÍS, without cameras pointing at him. “We all have moments of weakness and insecurity and I think that being able to speak about it clearly and openly is an advantage, right?” he says to himself. “As a mother, it worries me, but my daughter is already talking to me about the psychologist at her school, so now it is something much more normal and thank God I think that is going to help a lot,” she confides.
The singer attended the presentation of the celebration of her 30 years of career completely dressed in blue, probably to stand out in front of the endless red roses that adorn the space and that attendees received as gifts. They are roses without thorns, perhaps also as a metaphor for what Pastora Soler hopes to find from now on in the long road that she still has to travel.
