The big winner at the Los40 Music Awards, with three awards, returned to his hotel soon after the ceremony held in Madrid last Friday, November 3. “I was tired and I went to sleep. I didn’t go to the after party or anything like that, I had a quiet night in,” Manuel Turizo confirms days later. The singer has dominated Latin music with solid melodies in the last year. It may sound contradictory, but the person responsible for providing a soundtrack to club nights with global hits, such as La bachata and El merengue, is one of those that likes to curl up at home and prefers his own company. “There are people who like to go out in every city and be on the street, but I prefer quiet nights with my friends and my girlfriend,” he adds almost apologetically. Unwinding after bathing in the adulation of thousands of people is not easy. “There are times when it hits,” he concedes during the interview with EL PAÍS. But he gets used to it: “I start writing or have a beer with the team because if you come home with a lot of energy, and you stay there looking at the ceiling, your head talks a lot. The crazy person in your head never stays silent and it can be toxic. You have to control it.”
At first glance, Turizo checks all the boxes of the typical young music star. He wears clothes that are a couple of sizes too big, sneakers by Louis Vuitton, glitzy rings and pendants, an XL dial watch, sunglasses with tinted lenses, and a mesh cap. The interview starts with a handshake and an affectionate “how’s everything, bro?” in a suite that has panoramic views of Madrid, and he takes the opportunity to check his social media while waiting for the lens to point his way. Once settled on the set arranged for the occasion, the aesthetic artifice pales before his shy smile and a thoughtful speech about his artistic instinct. “Everyone is happy to get awards, but I don’t make music with that in mind. I do it because I love it and if one day people don’t want to listen to me anymore, I’ll still do it. My mind thinks about songs, lyrics, and sounds all the time.”
His found his vocation early, in the family apartment in Montería, a city with a cattle tradition in the north of Colombia where becoming an international star seemed like a dream that would never come true. His bedroom walls were decorated with guitars, horse riding accessories — horses are his other great passion — and a violin that he asked for one Christmas and has never learned to play. Although his father is also a musician, Turizo’s personal soundtrack was marked by his mother’s tastes. “When I got up every morning, she already had the radio on. She really likes the music people can dance to: salsa, vallenato, merengue.” He explains his predicament due to the mixture of genres that is now one of his hallmarks as a performer. “If I like many types of music, why should I limit myself to just one? You can try performing them all and see if it works.” His next album will be released in Madrid at the Christmas by Starlite festival in December. It is called 201, in homage to the apartment number that has marked him so much.
