More than six decades on stage and an overwhelming personality These are some of the characteristics that we can attribute to the second protagonist of the new season of ‘Blood Ties’: Raphael. An artist with capital letters who has achieved something practically impossible: to be admired by all types of audiences. Up to five generations have enjoyed his music and can say that his songs form an essential part of the soundtrack of their lives and memories.
The man from Linares can boast of having conquered the world both on the stages of the five continents and on the big screen. A path of effort and improvement to become number 1 where he met a tough rival: Julio Iglesias.
His media confrontation Julio Iglesias
The rivalry between Raphael and Julio Iglesias began to take shape in the media in the 1980s. In 1983, Mercedes Milá was in charge of interviewing him on the program ‘Buenas noche’, asking him for an assessment of the phenomenon of her Madrid contemporary. On this occasion, Raphael answered: “Julio has a lot of merit because he is a person who works very differently from me, We have nothing to do with each other. Not in the way we sing, but in the way we lead our career.“.
However, it would take five years to see the first evidence of this rivalry on paper. One to which Raphael himself set a start date during his presence on the program ‘In the morning’: “When they told me that if CBS could fit him and I, I answered and said: ‘man, we’re not that fat, we can both fit’. Well, that’s where things started and undoubtedly I said some nasty things about him, which I am extremely sorry for.“.
The situation to which Raphael was referring took place during the month of March 1988, when he was in Venezuela presenting his first album for CBS after having left the Hispavox record company. Looks are deceiving. After his performance, in an improvised press conference with CBS executives and some journalists, the Andalusian harshly criticized Julio Iglesias with statements that were later reported by Black and Whitethe Sunday supplement of ABC: “Fifteen years ago Julio Iglesias carried my suitcases and called me teacher“.
Weeks later, Julio Iglesias responded in the same publication with the following headline: “Raphael should only open his mouth to sing“. A confrontation that Raphael ended with a public apology during his same intervention in ‘In the morning’: “It doesn’t occur to me to comment on his last sentence, but because I know that not even he said it, because it would be a compliment too nice for me: that is, saying not to open your mouth except to sing is saying ‘how well you sing!’. I know he hasn’t even spoken, anyway. He has my apologies and my respect because I am a 28-year-old professional and I know how to perfectly value his work, what he has done for him and for his country, which is Spain.“.
More details about the confrontation between the two great music stars of our country in the second program of ‘Lazos de sangre’, now available on RTVE PLAY.
