Camilo: “There's so much talent in Catalonia that it's strange there's room for someone like me.”

Camilo is back on the road. Just two months after wrapping his successful Nuestro Lugar Feliz Tour , where he presented his latest album, Cuatro , and which had to be rescheduled for Spain due to the birth of his second daughter, Amaranto, this Colombian artist with more than 23 million monthly Spotify listeners and countless hits is returning to the stage.

And he does so with a clear nod to our country. On June 14th, he closed his last tour with a concert in his native Medellín, and this Friday he begins a mini-tour with around twenty concerts throughout Spain. He arrives with a new single under his belt, Maldito ChatGPT , and the Terramar CaixaBank Festival in Sitges, the only date in Catalonia, is the first stop. And a few days before his performance, he spoke to La Vanguardia by phone.

He's back in Spain, with around twenty concerts in the coming months.

It's very exciting. I'm very grateful for the generosity of the entire Spanish public because there's so much music here, so many excellent local artists, that the fact that the doors are open to someone who comes from so far away for such a beautiful tour is something that makes me feel very proud.

You were already in Spain last year. What does it mean to be back so soon after with twice as many recitals?

You know what I see there? More than a picture of how cool I am, I think it's a picture of how cool you all are, how generous you've been with me. We had a 16-concert tour in Spain last year and had to reschedule six due to the birth of my second daughter. And we were still waiting to go back. We had those concerts left, but in the end, thanks to the generosity and love of the people, we decided to do a new tour where we would play in more cities, and we ended up doing this 17-concert tour. I feel very excited, very happy, and, again, incredibly grateful.

“90% of the logistics of our tour revolve around my daughters.” Camilo

What will the audience expect? Will it be a continuation of the Our Happy Place Tour repertoire, or will there be changes?

It's a completely different concert. We finished our Happy Place in Medellín, and we designed this new tour as a different show, taking into account the energy we felt spending a summer in Spain. So, we put it together with that in mind, with the relationship we have with the Spanish public, with the history we've shared together, and with its diversity.

At a concert at Starlite in Marbella, you said that one of the reasons you feel so close to Spain is because your two daughters are made in Andalusia.

I said it, it's true. My two daughters are, let's say, the crystallization of my first two tours in Spain.

Speaking of your daughters, your wife, Evaluna Montaner, and you take them on tour, something that has drawn some criticism. What's it like traveling with them around the world?

Our daughters are still very young; one is three and the other will be one. So, they're children who need their living, present core most of all. And I think the most beautiful gift you can give them in that early childhood is to be together, experiencing the reality of the family we are, and we have the privilege of organizing tours and trips. Honestly, 90% of the logistics and organization of our tour revolves around my daughters. I'm very proud of the system in which we're raising them. I get off stage to give them a kiss, and then we all go out to dinner together. It's my happy moment. I can't imagine touring without my family.

I imagine that collaborations with his wife on stage will also be a feature of this tour.

No, you won't miss them because my wife is always by my side. When she's on, she means everything. Evaluna is my favorite artist, and my career and hers are one and the same. We're enjoying this summer together, and that translates to sharing the stage.

Read also Lax'n'Busto transport Sitges to the golden age of Catalan rock. Martí Abad

People are increasingly focusing on the work and less on the origin of the work.” Camilo

You've released a new single, Maldito ChatGPT , which is a critique of Artificial Intelligence (AI). How do you perceive our use of it?

My goal was to denounce the distance between the intellect, feelings, and the heart. The way the heart and the intellect list what's important is very different. For example, the list I make of the attributes that the person I'm with should have is a completely different list from the attributes my wife has. And that, for me, is cause for celebration. And it makes my relationship with my wife so special: thanks to it, not despite it. I'm deeply curious to see the way people are searching for answers to their inner world in a tool that can only observe what's manifest on the outside. I felt that contradiction needed to be photographed. I really enjoyed making the song.

What's your relationship with AI? You explained that you asked ChatGPT, for example, how to deal with nerves before the final concert in Medellín.

Yes, it's very interesting because AI tools observe the patterns you feed them. For example, I was on a trip around the Mediterranean just before arriving in Spain, and ChatGPT was my botanical co-pilot because it knows, based on what I've told it, how important botanical recognition is to me. So I was using my phone and ChatGPT to recognize all the flora and fauna around me. It was hilarious. There are also days on the tour when I feel weird, and suddenly with ChatGPT, I remember it's because I haven't organized my schedule. It's all external things, but then things get difficult when you try to get internal answers with a tool that only looks at the outside.

What do you think is the state of Latin music in Spain? From outside, the impression is that more and more concerts featuring Latin artists are being scheduled.

I can only speak from my experience, from being a person deeply blessed by the generosity of an audience that has enough. On this side of the ocean, there's enough talent... half the playlists I listen to are artists from this side. In Catalonia, there's so much talent that it's curious there's room for someone like me who comes from so far away. The diversity and fusion, the opening of doors for someone like me, is something I can only receive as a gift. I can't argue with you and say, "Yes, of course, we Latinos have something that isn't here ." I don't think it's that way. I think it's because the way things mix is so beautiful. And it's not a specific genre, because my music doesn't have a defined style. It's true that, if you had to put me in a record store, of course I'd be in the Latin music drawer, but because of my origins, not because of my sound. In the end, my music is profoundly diverse, and there are a lot of things I do that are actually being influenced by things that come from you. I think people are increasingly focusing on the work and less on the origin of the work.

Once this tour of Spain is over, what's your next plan?

I don't have many plans. I have an incredible manager who plans things I'm not interested in planning. Creatively, I always live in the immediate future because I like the here and now. Right now, my eyes are only on this summer tour. But I do have a little bit of time left waiting to get to Miami to start recording the things I'm already writing and for which I already have a very clear creative path. Since I haven't started materializing them, they're still in the universe of possibilities, which is my favorite creative moment. I'm eager to get home so I can give shape to what is still multifaceted.