The secrets of “What a price is heaven”: find out who inspired Marc Anthony’s hit, and it wasn’t Jennifer Lopez

In 2005, during a tour as a singer-songwriter and after signing with the multinational Sony Music, Matheus Diez met María Teresa, a love who entered his life without asking. A woman he loved without restraints and to whom he gave everything even though nothing seemed to be enough.

“As he went back and forth from Miami to Caracas, the relationship began to grow. We both came from marriages that did not work out, love and inspiration came immediately. When I started writing the first part of the song, I was wondering: ‘What is the greatest gift a man can give a woman? Initially I thought of handbags, shoes, jewelry, diamonds, trips… but while I was driving through Caracas, I saw an advertisement for an airline. It said: ‘We give you the sky’. I thought: ‘How do I if I want to buy it? How much is it worth?’”narrates the Venezuelan composer.

The love in the couple grew disproportionately and without reservations. Only seven months after the relationship began, they were married in Galipán, a town famous for its flower crops and a wide variety of restaurants located on the northern slope of El Ávila hill, in Venezuela. From that place you can see the clouds and caress the wind.

“I dedicated the song to María Teresa on our wedding day, in front of our guests, who were around 70 or 80. It was a special night, very beautiful, it inspired the missing part of the song”, details Matheus after clarifying that some years then the relationship ended. “We got divorced four years ago, but we get along well, we have two daughters, one 16 and one 13, both are the love of my life”, he highlights.

Tonight I’ll give you / Now everything I have / And I can’t get enough of imagining / That I’ll invent a world for you

And from here you can see / The clouds and the winds / That’s why I brought you here / Because, for now, it’s all I have

Until that moment, Matheus did not contemplate the possibility of publishing, singing or giving the song to another artist because it was very personal and he preferred to keep it in his memories; but fate conspired so that it reached the hands of Marc Anthony and ended up becoming a musical hit.

The proposal

At the beginning of 2016, El Flaco de Oro began the search for an unpublished song that would capture his romance with Jennifer López. He summoned the most important composers in the field, but none of the more than 600 proposals he received satisfied him, until he turned to American record producer Sergio George.

“George, who I’ve been working with for 20 years, called me to tell me that Marc was looking for an unreleased song to launch his new album. So, we got together and wrote ‘I can’t with her’, a beautiful song. The next day, we had to send it and I asked George if it was okay for me to send two songs: the one we had created and one of mine, very particular and personal. After asking me if it was any good, he gave me Marc’s email to send. Two weeks later we were told that she had been chosen ‘What a price heaven has’”, he remembers with emotion.

Recording

In addition to being the author of Marc Anthony’s musical success, Alfredo Matheus was the sound engineer and recorded the introduction of the song with his guitar.

“To record the song we all went to Los Angeles because Marc was shooting the movie ‘El Cantante’ in that city. It was recorded in a huge studio with the best musicians, the most recognized. The funny thing was that after several round trips looking for the ideal introduction to the song, Marc asked me to go into the booth to record it exactly the same as the song I sent him. So, I grabbed the guitar, the microphone and put on the headphones, but I couldn’t do anything, my hands were frozen with nerves.”, recalls Matheus Diez.

“I had several years of experience, but I had never had Marc, George and so many great musicians looking at me while I was recording. Only when they left, at my request, was I able to record the piece (laughs). What happened to me was incredible, I have fond memories of that song”, he stresses.

“What Price Has Heaven” is part of “I’m still me”, the tMarc Anthony’s third compilation album. It was released under the Sony BMG Norte record label on July 11, 2006.

In 2009, Matheus Diez recorded “Qué price el cielo” in a pop version. The song is part of his album “So I felt”.

Your most personal project

This November 4, Alfredo Matheus Diez, who is in Peru, will present “99 Poems to Fall in Love”, a book in tribute to his deceased father.

“This post is an expression, it is a dream come true, it is dedicated to my father, who passed away from Covid-19, in the middle of this project. It brings together the poems I wrote for several years, I don’t consider myself a poet, I don’t compete with anyone, I just want to share feelings that arose at some point in my life. I’m launching it with Amazon this November 4th and uploading it digitally on Kindle. The first physical copies were made in Peru”, he emphasizes.