Lourdes Carhuas strengthens in “La Voz Senior”: “Cancer destroyed my throat, I could hardly make a sound”

Those who have seen her on the stage of The Senior Voice, the singing program for the elderly, could not suspect that the body of this woman that wastes energy, rhythm and an absolute mastery of harmonies and chords has suffered – and still suffers – the unspeakable. Lourdes carhuas belongs to that group of talented artists who do not seek recognition, but who continue to compose and sing simply because music is their best way of expressing themselves and feeling. This is the explanation that could summarize the participation of someone with a long career, such as this prolific composer and remembered second voice of Las Hermanas Carhuas, a duo that became known back in the seventies.

“It was not part of my plans”, Assures the artist about her appearance in the television contest. In recent years Carhuas has gone through moments that have tested his strength and faith. He says that after many months, after overcoming cancer and the operation that removed a tumor on his head, he felt the need to sing again. Doubts and fear overwhelmed her, but the music was stronger. “Now that I have decided to sing again there is no way to stop,” he confesses. And although his health is still delicate, his greatest desire is to continue sharing his musical legacy, which includes songs such as “La protagonista”, “Viento” and “Por Those Braids”, recorded by greats of Peruvian music. This is what he told us.

Beyond having fun and getting back on stage, as you have said, what was your motivation for participating in La Voz Senior?

I just want to sing. And that’s what I do in this contest. I asked one of my daughters, who is part of the choirs of the musical group of the program, if there was still time to participate because the truth is that at the beginning I did not even think about going. Because that’s how I felt. During the pandemic I have been in enormous silence. I told my daughter, one more day without singing and I think I’m dying. I couldn’t take it anymore. That’s why I went to La Voz Senior. When I got up, it was the last day, so I went that same afternoon. Everything was so fast that I had not even thought about the repertoire.

The four coaches turned when they heard her, did you have any doubt that this would happen?

That didn’t even bother me. I remember I told my daughter if nobody turns it doesn’t matter because I was already happy singing, I already breathed.

You have overcome very bad health problems like thyroid cancer and a tumor. How are you currently?

That cancer was very tough and aggressive. . Then I had a huge brain tumor, they had to open two lobes to remove it. And after a while I found out that I have another tumor. It is housed behind the eye, at the base of the brain. All my vital functions are there.

¿Es operable?

No, that’s why half of my face (right side) is practically numb. I have half my tongue also asleep, my throat the same, that tumor affects my eyes a lot. I have many things, but in spite of everything I want to sing. I have good days and bad days.

Under these circumstances, we could say that singing is a real challenge for you.

I knew it from the beginning. I also have bad lungs. On the left side there is almost a waste full of scars from so many pneumonia. Fortunately, my heart is strong, although I remember that a while ago I had to take 17 heart pills a day. It is that he gave me one thing after another, almost everything at the same time.

When do all these evils begin to unleash?

Since 2004 or so. Then came cancer, having that disease was that I participated in the Claro Festival. At that time my voice was very affected by so much pneumonia and what they took out of me. All of that made my throat sick.

How long did you have to stop singing?

There was a time when I lost my voice. Because the cancer literally destroyed my throat, I could hardly make a sound, it was horrible. It was after winning at the Claro Festival in 2009. I remember that after a while they invited me to come back as a jury, they asked me for a song that was “Cantaré” and well, as the name says, I had to sing. It was a whole story that would take me hours to tell.

Did you always have the confidence that you would return to the stage despite everything?

Yes, I was sorry. I was able to be strong again and to walk again, to play. . It affected me a lot and I still am. For example, now that we are talking, my face looks like I’m sucking on lemon, it contracts.

How have you taken the comments of the people who watch the show? Most of them are positive, but there are also some that are not so positive.

I understand them because life is like that, it is dual. Some of us like one thing and others something else. I have no problem with that, at my age I have received many blows, but also good things. As I have told my daughter, sometime they will surely throw a tomato on my head.

It is strange that despite having a wide musical career, first with his sister Lorena and later as a chorister of great Peruvian music, he has never dared to record his songs with his own voice.

I only recorded one song and it was with El Comercio, precisely. Mabela Martínez wanted a little waltz, but I hadn’t done one. So while they were preparing the devices for me to record one of my songs and give it to someone else to sing, they heard me sing “Viento”, a song that I dedicate to my dad. Mabela loved it and told me that I should record it myself. And so it was, it is the only thing I have recorded in my life.

The prize for winning “La Voz Senior” is precisely to record a song.

I didn’t know until recently. We, the participants, have discussed it, many of us do not really know what the prize is. But if I reach the final and for those things in life I win, it would be everything, and what more could I ask of life. It would be a dream come true. Although now notice that they are wanting to give me recordings and even wanting to take photos for the album. Things are happening to me that I never thought would happen. The truth is I’m not thinking of winning, although Tony (Succar) tells me that I can. What happens is that (laughs).

And why did you choose Succar over Eva Ayllón, who makes Peruvian music like you?

Because he is a musician like me and we speak the same language. I feel like he can understand me better and I can understand him. What would have happened to Eva? I think she already has a way of singing, a style and perhaps she would have wanted something of hers, like her phrasing, to have it as well. I’ve done choirs for her, but it’s not that I take hers, I don’t sing like her or like Cecilia (Bracamonte) or like other singers. Now I am doing things that I have never done on stage or that I have done very little, which is playing with melody and harmony.

Succar has said that you are a genius, musically speaking,

Look at me. I would like to be the best voice to complement myself better, but I think that with all the problems I have had, my voice is worth it. I am the alto, the deepest voice in all the women who participate, but I can even reach a baritone. And I think Tony likes that, that he walks me around different places.

Do you think that your musical contribution is not fully appreciated by the general public?

Definitely if I sang, for example, a bartender bolero, many would like it better. But This is done for example when jazz is played or sung, but how many people listen to jazz? That is why the songs that I have sung in La Voz Senior I have tried not to make them so different. Out there some little improvisation, not all because I know that most will not understand it. I know that what I do goes against what I like, but it is my risk, it is my way of feeling the music.

I understand that in this contest it will be the public who chooses the winner. Do you already have a strategy?

There are already colleagues who are doing this job of attracting the public. The truth in my life had entered the networks so my daughter and my granddaughters are helping me, passing bits of my presentations and my songs. . But as a composer they do know me more and for that I am very grateful. I started a little late. It was only at the end of the nineties that Cecilia Bracamonte, Eva Ayllón, among others, began to sing my songs.

What would you say has been your greatest learning at La Voz Senior?

I have confirmed again that music is my life, it is my breath. They are my complete senses, that is why I feel so lucky for this gift that God has given me. I promised my mother that I would become the best of the best and with this contest I feel that I am achieving it. If I don’t make it to the final, it doesn’t matter because I’m already happy. I have also met beautiful people, my age, who love music as much as I do.