They say that some time ago, Fito Páez demanded explanations from his management team on the eve of a show that had barely sold half the seats. The answer shook him. “And what do you want, if you don’t give notes, you don’t network… and you turned the public against it.” The Rosario’s fury shook the dressing room. But it would later bring internal echoes. And in conversation with musicians and with his partner (Eugenia Kolodziej, with whom they met nine years ago on Facebook, and is, according to what they say, part of the change in mentality and course), he would accept the cruel truth. He had to change things, or resign himself to the graves of old glory.
The plan was put into action almost immediately. In 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, a new album would arrive. “The conquest of space”, barely 36 minutes, would shine with “The song of the beasts”, “The things that do me good”, “People on the street” and “Nobody belongs to anyone”. An event for which Fito would take the Grammy for Best Latin Rock Album the following year (his song “Lo mejor de nuestras vidas” won in the Best Rock Song category, and the collaboration with Carlos Vives was established as Best pop-rock song).
And he would repeat in 2022 with the golden gramophone with the Best Pop-Rock Album for “Los años salvajes”, the initial chapter of the trilogy that is completed with “Futurología Arlt”, an excursion in orchestral format, and “The Golden Light”, an introspective journey that connected with the most intimate passages of his biographical series, “Love after love”, the Netflix biopic 30 years after the self-titled album that marked the peak of popularity in his long and prolific career. A remembrance that combines nostalgia and relaunch, and that puts Fito, at 60, on everyone’s lips again.
The biopic, which premiered on April 26, was viewed in a week by millions, becoming the most viewed Netflix in the country last month. And it reached 7,900,000 in just one week according to the repercussions on networks measured by Ibope. Another 3.3 million joined in the first days of May. The platform’s estimate is that one in three Argentine subscribers will have seen “Love after love” (starring Iván Hochman) by the time Fito Páez premieres at the end of the month, on May 30, the re-recording of that double album by 1992, which now comes with a dozen guest voices.
“You may fall short with those numbers,” corrects Mariano Chihade, CEO and founder of Mandarina Contenidos, the production company behind the success, with a smile, to which Héctor Colella, the “heir” of Yabrán, joined as a shareholder in 2018. . “Very rarely does it happen that a product is prestigious and popular. When a fiction like this is installed, it’s because you did everything right. And I knew we had a good thing from the books. But when I saw the first chapter I hugged Pablo crying (Kolodziej, the creator of the series) and told him ‘we have it’ ”, he reviews.
“When the series premiered, Fito wrote to me that he was very happy, and that was my crowning glory,” continues Chihade, who feels that she has jumped ten boxes with the debut of her fiction production company, speeding up the launch at the end of the office month. in Madrid and new developments in Mexico. He feels part of the virtuous spiral, the magic wheel in the revival of Fito Páez, godized today by millennials, who perhaps discover him at the hands of Lali Esposito or Knowing Russia (with whom he recently recorded), and nostalgic people who rediscover him with passages of his family life, and behind-the-scenes anecdotes with national rock heroes such as Charly García or Luis Alberto Spinetta.
“Music always brings nostalgia in itself. But above all that of Fito, which was the soundtrack of so many generations. It goes through us. But his story also crosses us. The relationship with that father who plays ‘Campi’, who was able to see him take off but not at his peak. With that mother who never got to listen to the Rolling Stones, as her song says, and the violent death of her grandmother and aunt. Each chapter of ‘Love after love’ responds to a different genre, from the biopic to the romance, from the drama to the police, and that is also part of the success of the product”, analyzes Chihade, who points out that the man from Rosario made it easy for him to producer job.
“From when we met for dinner the first time in October 2021, until Netflix approved our budget, barely six months passed. We came to a quick deal because he didn’t want to make a pasteurized version of his life. There are not only the episodes with drugs, but also the scenes of mistreatment of the band. ‘I was a superb asshole in the past’, he told me. The series reflects that, and the path of the hero, from busking in Madrid to success, a rebound that is reflected in this wonderful present”, concludes the producer.
by RN
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