When Pablo Rodríguez (San Sebastián, 1978) is asked about his successes, he usually says that he is "nobody's discoverer". But the reality is that he was the first to sign an editorial contract with C. Tangana (today a mass phenomenon) and also the impulsive Chanel, the winner of last year's Benidorm Fest, who achieved the heights of a political phenomenon.
Today he worked together with Nacho Cano as executive director of the musical 'Malinche', the most important that has existed in Spain. Former general director of the BMG company, not of Warner, Sony... and it can be decided that there is a radar set to detect the authenticity of an artist. With the truth, what happens to him is that he has no objection to telling it.
Delighted to be a fundamental piece of 'Malinche', he seems somewhat annoyed with the way the musical is being treated by a certain media sector. Especially since Cano shows his affinity with Isabel Díaz Ayuso. “Nacho is a very talented and valuable man. He has his own personality and it seems that not everyone likes that ». But the musical, and that's the important thing, he says, "is enchanting the public."
When questioned about the dust and controversy that Chanel raised just a year ago, he assures that the festival was surrounded by irregularities and political interests that were not fully known. "Tanxugueiras were politically supported candidates and when Chanel won, we fell for everything."
The Galician candidates, in the image, would have had the support of a political group to reach Eurovision ABC
He also confirmed to this newspaper that on the day of the final of the contest from which the name of the person who would represent Spain in Eurovision came out, TVE had established a very specific order of performance for the contestants. Given the imposed order, the team that accompanied Chanel -among which was Rodríguez-, had to demand from the chain that a raffle be made so as not to systematically harm some artists and reward others.
But finally, TVE agreed to leave it in the hands of chance and “the order and the winners were what they were. We achieved the best result that Spain had had in Eurovision in several decades. The professional jury chose the product that best suited what the contest required”, he recalls. We shut up many mouths.
TVE had established the order of performance of the artists. "We had to fight because a draw was made"
-It was said that Chanel will be the candidate of TVE.
-He even took me out on 'El Jueves' as a man with a mustache sitting in a BMG chair signing contracts with TVE. He made me laugh, but the reality is that they were all candidates selected by TVE. Some artists were directly selected by the network, as was the case with Rigoberta Bandini or the Tanxugueiras themselves. But several companies were also asked, as was our case (BMG's) to propose candidates. In fact, before Chanel, we featured a performer for the song that she didn't end up sticking with. The first candidate will be a girl from Irún named Aysha. But they tell us that there is a dancer who had worked in the musical 'El Rey León' and in the pre-production of 'Malinche'. We saw her and she loved us.
-How did you create a diva?
We did it from scratch. The largely gay Eurovision audience adored the divas and hired an outside agency for our help with the image. A lot of financial investment and very intense work. Our strata was surprised because no one had seen the show that was 'SloMo' before the semifinal. We had released a series of videos that generated anticipation. We carry a wild value proposition, the likes of which have never been seen before with a completely new artist.
-To what extent is politics done in Eurovision?
-It is a contest where geopolitics rules. Let's not forget that Ukraine wins the gala. The message that the Tanxugueiras were going to was linked to the claim to carry out the entities of the towns. If the newspaper library is consulted, the BNG had directly supported the Galicians. The Minister of Equality had done it on Twitter with Rigoberta's feminism. But the 'show' and the work of an immigrant woman, with Cuban roots, ended up triumphing.
