Jorge Drexler: Music "Is a Bridge" in a World That Is "More Insensitive"

With his usual boldness, Uruguayan singer Jorge Drexler proposes building "bridges" between people through music, especially in a world that is "more insensitive" and crumbling, as he asserts in his latest album.

Drexler is in the midst of an international tour to present "Taracá," an album for which he is nominated for eight Latin Grammys, including Best Album, Recording, and Song for "¿Cómo se ama?".

The "songwriter," as he likes to present himself, unpacks the themes of his new album and discusses the ills of our times in an interview with AFP days before his concert on Friday in Paris at the prestigious Grand Rex.

"The world has become a more polarized, more extreme, harsher, more insensitive, and more unconscious place," since Donald Trump came to the U.S. presidency, the 62-year-old musician recalls during the video call.

The song "Nuestro trabajo/Los puentes" was written precisely one day before Trump first came to power in January 2017.

"I had a fit of fear, a fear that turned out to be justified afterward," he says.

Back to Uruguay

Faced with this world that is going "to hell," as the song says, Drexler proposes that "we all learn to put ourselves in the other's place, even if we think the other is wrong."

"It is the basic act to dismantle a conflict," he insists.

And that can be done through music.

"Music in itself is a bridge between people, which puts you in phase with the other person," comments the singer-songwriter, with his red-framed glasses and a black T-shirt with yellow designs.

"Taracá," his fifteenth studio album, represents his return to his native Uruguay, where he had not recorded in two decades.

"Uruguayan music is living a very special, very fruitful moment, especially around an Afro-Uruguayan rhythm that is candombe," he explains. "It is the rhythm that somehow gives structure to the album."

Tracks such as "Toco madera," "El tambor chico," and "¿Qué será que es?" are directly related to this traditional Uruguayan rhythm.

"A Good Concept"

The album is nominated for eight Latin Grammys, which, if they become awards on November 12, could add to the fifteen gramophones he already has and the Oscar he won in 2005 for "Al otro lado del río," from the soundtrack of "The Motorcycle Diaries."

"I have the same number of nominations as Rosalía, who has made a historic album. That makes me very happy," comments Drexler, surprised by the feat.

"It seems my colleagues have a good concept of me, because otherwise I can't explain it," jokes the author of "Todo se transforma."

Although throughout his career he has been nominated on some fifty occasions, Drexler never ceases to be amazed at rubbing shoulders in this edition with Spanish singer Rosalía or Colombian Karol G.

"My project does not go on the highways of the mainstream but rather on the regional roads," says the physician by training.

"I have always been a bad record salesman," he concludes.

"Little Stream"

Regarding the success that Spanish-language music is experiencing, with planetary phenomena such as Bad Bunny or Rosalía, the Uruguayan singer-songwriter is more than satisfied.

"It is a very good moment for music, for Spanish-language culture in general, for the Spanish language," he says.

"The places where Spanish music is arriving today include sites that Cervantes did not reach in his time," he states.

Asked how he views this cultural tide of which he is also a part, he comments, modestly, that his is "a little stream."

Could he one day collaborate with Puerto Rican Bad Bunny, of whom he is a great fan? What would he propose?

"I don't think he would be interested, but if he is [...] the first thing I would say to Bad Bunny is: 'if you like what I do, let's work. If not, I will keep listening to your music with admiration.'"