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Who is Juanes?

Juanes is a Colombian pop music songwriter, singer and guitarplayer who has sold more than 14 million copies of his albums in Spanish and has won one Grammy Award, 17 Latin Grammy Awards and 9 MTV Latino Awards. He is also a declared social and humanitarian activist who holds a fundation for victims of antipersonal mines named Mi Sangre (My Blood). He is the author of the civil initiative called Paz Sin Fronteras (Peace Without Borders) which consists of free music concerts performanced by him and any other famous singers and musicians, as a way of appealing for peace by ignoring the political differences . There has been two so far, and the second one caused some controversy between the involved parts.

Paz Sin Fronteras II was carried out in Havanna, Cuba, for the people who live isolated in the island under the comunist governmnet of Fidel and Raul Castro and the US economical blockade. These people and the Cuban government and its political allies welcomed the concert but the opposition, specially the one who lives in Miami, US, protested agains it and blamed Juanes because of a supposed support for the Cuban government. They even smashed Juanes' CD albums. According to Juanes, some of them threadtened him through Internet. Despite everything the concert was done succesfully, more than expected since it gathered together more than one million 150 thousand people in a sole square (The Square of Revolution), breaking a world record of atendance.

That is Juanes: an artist who seems to care about Colombian and other countries social and humanitarian problems, the most beloved artist in Colombia, even more than Shakira who is more famous internationally, as I had the chance of experiencing last year when I covered as a TV reporter his tour in Bogota. He had to performance five concerts in the city because there were too many people who wanted to atend his shows. He also atended some promotion and social events where it was imposible for me and my co-workers walk through the crowd. "He is a human magnet" I thought. But my chance of interviewing him had come, it happened in a semi private event, (semi private because it was supposed to be pirvate but the information about his presence leaked and there was more press than expected and , of course, much more fans). I only could ask him three questions as follows:

Rodrigo Rodriguez: ¡Juanes, Colombia's man of the year 2008!
Juanes: This has been an incredible year, brother, I'm really grateful to you the Media who has chosen me, well, some Media, I'm really grateful because of much work, much aceptance, and at the end also many things, brother.
RR: ¿Is this the Juanes who people love too much?
Juanes: This is the only that there is (he laughs and makes people around laugh), I don't know another else there is, this is the only that there is, I can't do anymore (he laughs).
RR: ¿What is that something about Juanes?
Juanes: ¿There's something about Juanes? (he laughs), I don't know, I don't know brother, I really don't know, I just try to make music with the heart and to take my life in fact through the way of the heart, and that's all, even me can't believe it, I can't believe what's going on.

One of the best, short though, interviews of my life. If you know Juanes or not, track him out and listen to his music. You may not understand the Spanish lyrics but I bet you will like that pop-rock music fused to Colombian folk.
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