Every day, a personality invites herself into the world of Élodie Suigo. Today the Colombian singer Yuri Buenaventura. He returned to France for a series of concerts, including an exceptional one at the Olympia on June 29.
Yuri Buenaventura is a Colombian singer inseparable from salsa and France. His Latin version of the title Do not leave me by Jacques Brel, made him the first gold-listed salsa singer in France. His first time with France was in the 80s, when he enrolled at the Sorbonne. It was while playing in the Paris metro trains that his love for music developed, accompanied by his drum. He returns to France for a series of concerts, including an exceptional one at the Olympia on June 29, 2023.
franceinfo: How do you feel about going back on stage 23 years after your first appearance on stage?
Yuri Buenaventura: The Olympia is a very important symbol, it is a temple of music. And the first time, 23 years ago, I was very afraid of not being up to the public of the Olympia. But this time, I am very quiet, very happy and fulfilled. I’m ready.
Salsa is both a musical rhythm and a dance. It is also through salsa that part of the world has managed to still have as much hope, despite the rather dramatic situations of the country, between the dictatorship and the deprivations of freedom.
Exactly. Salsa is made of Native Americans, crossings of Native American visions, African slaves with drums and Europe, European harmony, European lyricism and the Spanish language. These three elements make the salsa, but when you make a cocktail of all that, it’s a mixture of mysticism, joie de vivre, a little lyricism. It’s a nice mix and it’s a good social tool.
You lived and grew up in a wooden house and so that the water wouldn’t come into the house, your mom stuck posters on the walls. Is that how you learned to read?
Yes exactly. The house was made of wood and cardboard. So the rain sometimes came in and my mother put papers on the walls.
“To protect our wooden and cardboard house from the rain, my mother stuck advertisements on all the walls. So when I was little, she made me read on the walls and that’s how I learned to read.”
Yuri Buenaventuraat franceinfo
This unconditional love you had for your mom made you want to write. You write your first song around seven years old. Is it first to make a statement to her, to thank her?
Yes. The house was so full of love, our entourage was so full of love, that I did not realize that we were having financial difficulties. Until I was 17, I thought it was normal because there was nature, biodiversity, the Andes Cordillera. We did not realize that we were precarious.
You are the first salsa singer to receive a gold record in France, with your cover of Do not leave me not, by Jacques Brel. This recovery is inspired by a documentary. You see Brel’s face appear and he’s all sweating. You have the impression that he is playing his life, that he is almost dying on stage while performing this song. Is it a click for you?
Yes, Jacques Brel was playing his life on stage and I didn’t know he wasn’t going to die. I didn’t speak French and I looked at the images telling myself that it was a documentary about a gentleman who dies on stage from cardiac arrest. And he said: “Not, Not“, but I didn’t understand. I went to Colombia, but at the time, there was no Google, YouTube, all that and I looked in all the record stores for a French song that said “Not” and finally, I found it and I made a version, an adaptation of this work of Brel in salsa. People in my country can dance salsa even being inside the Francophonie and the Francophilia .
“Jacques Brel certainly gave me a very important key to understanding that through music, one can discover the world, live a dignified and sharing life.”
Yuri Buenaventuraat franceinfo
What comes out of you is that energy that you have all the time. Is it also a way of transmitting the fact that we must always continue to believe in it, keep hope?
Yes ! I was begging on the subway and I travel the world with music. Life is built on trust. I believe that the first walls to break down are fear. And we are filled with fear. And all the exercises in trust, all the exercises in love, can change that.
Yuri Buenaventura will also be in concert on June 23 2023 in Montauban, July 18 at the Sun & Sea music festival in Canet-en-Roussillon and July 21 at the Nice Jazz Festival etc.