Tania Libertad: her show with Eva Ayllón, what she thinks of Susana Baca, her advice to young people leaving the country and more

It is a concert that has been in the making for years. Since 2017, Tania Libertad (Chiclayo, 1952) and Eva Ayllon (Lima, 1956) have planned what will be “Eva con Libertad”, a show that has brought them together to perform their greatest songs and that on this occasion will take them, for the first time, to the Grand National Theater.

“I believe a lot in destiny. I believe that this collaboration of both of them occurs at the right time, at the moment of a wonderful maturity of both, when we have already done many projects as soloists, when we have achieved many things each on their own and when we already have this need to do something different“, Tania Libertad told El Comercio, via Zoom from Mexico, where she has lived for 44 years.

Libertad, who began her career at the age of seven, says that singing with friends, as in this case, produces “a very great satisfaction”. “This has been a race that, honestly, I can’t complain about. And sharing the stage with friends is a joy. (…) The truth is that it is a great show, which shows, apart from Peruvian music, also many fusions; many Mexican composers will be present in the repertoire; José Alfredo, Manzanero, Juan Gabriel; In short, the show is very beautiful, very emotional”he added. Regarding this concert, we talked with her about her friendship with Eva Ayllón, the legacy of Chabuca Granda and more.

―Tania, you are going to sing again with Eva Ayllón here in Peru. How did you meet Eva?

Many years ago when I was a presenter on television, in the program “Dances and songs of Peru”, I was lucky enough to present her as the voice of Los Quipus. I know her there; Later we met many times, but then I came to live here in Mexico, so it was more difficult to see each other because everyone was doing their own thing, me in a country more than 5000 kilometers away, she pursuing a career as a very successful soloist in Peru. . Later we also saw each other a few times in the United States and finally, after so many years of career, we decided to undertake this adventure of doing a concert together. And we start in 2017 [con la planificación].

―You are in a privileged position in the sense that you have sung with people from all over the world. What do the greatest artists have in common in your experience?

Generosity, which is a trait that is always present. Apart from that you have to be very generous to share your space; that’s easy, and then share friendship with someone and share advice. I will never forget the advice I received from Chabuca Granda or Alicia Maguiña, who took me, when I was very young, to my first singing classes. She told me “it’s not because you sing badly, you sing very beautifully; “What I want is for you to keep your voice for life.” I follow her advice until now, I still take singing classes. And from Chabuca, wonderful advice. Just seeing her on stage was an incredible experience, a tremendous example. Everything she advised me has served me a lot in life, as have the lessons of Plácido Domingo, who once told me something that stayed with me forever. I enjoy singing so much that where I am, if they say “sing” to me in a restaurant, I start singing. He saw that I was doing that and then he told me “Tania, you can’t do that. Before singing you have to save a whole day, not even talk on the phone. Remember that he notices that he leaves, he doesn’t come back.” Now I’m a little more careful in that sense.

-And what advice do you remember that Chabuca gave you?

A wonderful one. You see that always, and now more so, we are taking sides and fighting among ourselves, totally polarized, divided. Her, when we told her “Why are you friends with so-and-so, if she doesn’t think like we do?” First she told me that she was sinning when she was young, which is a wonderful thing, and then she told me “I don’t make my friends out of ideology, but out of affection.” And that is something that allowed me to sit many times at tables where many of the people who were there thought differently, but we could share a good friendship.

―Throughout your career you have revalued Chabuca Granda with your music. Do you think that people value it more now than, say, 40 years ago when you released your tribute album?

Yes, totally. His songs are advanced [a su época]. They have wonderful lyrics, harmonies and melodies that have not been repeated. In Peru she would bring the singers, the poets, the musicians together in her apartment in Miraflores and she would begin to compose in front of us and leave us with our mouths open. And she is the one who begins to make fusions with black music, she works with the landau, with the celebrations and with the sailors and begins to put incredible lyrics to them and also begins to ask the poets to make popular songs. But when she died in 1983, I remember with great sadness that when her coffin was carried to the Plaza de Acho, there were very few people to pay tribute to someone who was the greatest composer in Peru and Latin America.

―You have mentioned black music and to talk about black music we also have to talk about Susana Baca. You traveled with her to Spain, to the Pirineos Sur festival. What memories do you have with Susana from that time?

Well, look, we were both on tour, so we didn’t even have time to sit down for lunch or dinner, because she came from one side and I from another. What I remember with her is hugging in a dressing room at this festival. But with Susana there are many more memories. We coincide in Cuba and in Lima too; I have very nice photos with her. When I went to Lima, parties were organized and she would go there and then we would catch up on everything there. We were both very party-goers. I love Susana very much, she seems to me to be a woman who has done a great job in spreading Peruvian black music.

―What was it like to party with Susana Baca?

How was it? Well, you see that she laughed at everything; she laughs at everything [risas]. So I, who laugh easily too, saw her laughing and I also died laughing. What was it like to go out partying with Susana? It was that. Laughing at everything whenever we wanted, singing… those were the times when Andrés Soto, Kiri Escobar, ‘Chino’ Chávez would also get together. All the musicians who were part of the Lima night, the era of the peñas in Barranco.

― Susana Baca is in poor health; We know she is recovering, but it is still too early to say more. But I wanted to ask you: How would you describe it musically?

Like a crystal. Susana is a singer with such a transparent voice and magic on stage that I don’t think any of us have. I am praying for her health every day, because she has to recover and we have to continue enjoying it. She is someone very different on stage, very different from all of us. So it is something that we need, for her to continue being within this Peruvian musical spectrum so that she continues to represent Peru in the world, as she has done so far with great success.

― Reviewing the diary archive, I see that in 1987 you said: “I don’t have a genre or interpretive rhythm, my music is a lifestyle, I try to sing what is happening around me, reality no matter how hard it may be.” Is that still your motto?

Not anymore [risas]. Because I’m not a composer. That is, to the extent that the minstrels continued to exist, the composers who recounted the events of their time. At this moment there is no one who is telling what is happening, that I know of, because we are going through difficult times, not only in Peru and Mexico; Worldwide. Let’s say that the composers’ attention is on making songs of a different type. In the best cases of love and heartbreak, and in the most difficult cases of explicit sex. I’m now trying to sing songs by other composers. I listen to a lot of music on Spotify and YouTube and I try to meet composers from other countries, hear proposals from other places. At the time I sang songs that spoke effectively about what was happening around me. I like to sing songs that talk about realities, I don’t like to sing fiction songs. So I’m at the expense of songs made by other composers. And I haven’t found anything that talks about what’s happening now. But you also have to think that I have been singing for more than 60 years.

― What is your most recent musical discovery?

Well, there are many; I’m pointing them out. I have my notebook on my phone full of artists, of voices. A long time ago when I discovered Dua Lipa, for example, it seemed sensational to me. And I keep listening to it. And I am discovering, for example, many Spaniards: Vanesa Martín, Pablo López; They are very good composers who do very beautiful things. I have always been [así]. Of course I will never leave Nina Simone, nor Kate Bush, who was my great discovery at one time. I keep hearing all that, but I keep adding young talent that does beautiful things that excite me.

―And Peruvian artists that you have recently discovered?

Well, that’s what I’m doing. [risas] because I have been involved in other projects and other things. I haven’t been listening to much music lately. [peruana]. I was at the tribute to Eva and there I had the opportunity to hear the work of Daniela Darcourt, of many people who were there and who now I am listening to soak up a little of what young people are doing in Peru. I was very close to Damaris, she did a very nice job with Andean music, but my usual companions are Cecilia Bracamonte, Cecilia Barraza, Julie Freundt. I follow their work too, but yes, I also have to listen to a little of what they are doing right now in Peru.

―You have been in Mexico since 1980, and that country still continues to be a destination for Peruvian artists seeking to go international. It is still a very competitive market. What would you say to all the Peruvians who continue to go to Mexico to seek fame and fortune?

It seems good to me that they come out. I claimed at some point that Peruvians did not leave Peru, that they had to take a little more risk and take that route. At this moment here in Mexico it is not so much what it was before. Here remember that they were made [famosos] In another era Raphael, Julio Iglesias, Luis Miguel. I had a good time, but it took me a long time, like seven years to be recognized. Well, with all this stuff about platforms, I don’t know if it’s a good idea to go live in another country, because you can already do everything from yours. That is, you can do your work from your country without having a record label and you upload it to the platforms, of which there are many, and you yourself can upload your music and we are living in the era of independent labels and musicians, which I think is great. . Now technology helps, but it is also difficult to impose yourself with a song among so many others. It is difficult, and permanence is difficult; You have to know how to manage one’s career so that it lasts, because if you have a single success it will last three months even if it goes well, because the next day another one is coming out; Reggaeton was already well positioned when the corridos tumbados began [en la década pasada] and people like Featherweight or I don’t know come out.