Belinda’s bittersweet return to Madrid: “I love my country, but I wish they loved me more than they hate me”

Barely five minutes have passed since he started posing for the camera and he has already been asked for a selfie. Taking into account the high temperatures of the day, which are more inviting for a summer siesta than for a walk, and the quietness of the neighborhood in which we find ourselves, the immediate detection is surprising. “There are many Latinos in Madrid,” Belinda Peregrín, known globally only by her first name, says, almost excusing herself, after solicitously attending to the spontaneous request. Not even the 9,000 kilometers that separate the Spanish capital from Mexico City disguise the majestic fame of this 32-year-old singer and actress. She was a pop icon for two decades, she is now immersed in a vital reinvention process that led her to move to Spain last March. A decision that, after taking off his shoes and settling down on a red velvet sofa, he enthusiastically celebrates: “Roots always call at some point in life. For me it is like going back to childhood, I notice that it is part of my DNA”.

In Spain he was born and lived until he was four years old and in Spain he now displays an agenda filled with the recording of new music, the filming of the second season of the Netflix series welcome to eden and single release with Ana Mena (12 hourscandidate for song of the summer) or Omar Montes (if you call me). Collaborations dictate the record industry and also Beli’s recent career, as her friends know her, that she counts in her repertoire with other national stars like Lola Indigo Y bad rodriguez. A practice, that of two women sharing the same song, which for decades was a veto in the record industry. “It is a great advance because before you could only collaborate with other men. It was unthinkable that a love song could be performed by two women, ”admits the young woman, proud of having stimulated sisterhood among artists.

Belinda has raised the flag of feminist activism for decades, when the voices that dared to expose machismo in society were not so many or so loud. Living with the frustration of seeing “how, despite raising our voices, nothing changed” and the misogyny of the music industry —“we are always being demanded and judged more”— has not been easy. “Why do you applaud when a man does playback and dances, but a woman is criticized? Why can a man take off his shirt, but if a woman is sexy he insults her? Why is it that if a woman has two boyfriends in six months she is easy And if a man goes with seven, is he the fucking master?”, he reflects, raising his tenuous tone of voice for the first time during the course of the chat with EL PAÍS.

Although he almost always displays a sweetness and courtesy made in MexicoBelinda’s dialectical anger, “honest, but direct”, give off an undoubted Spanish pedigree that she herself recognizes. Lola Flores admirer Y Rocio durcal, and trained in sevillanas, on her walks through Madrid she usually gets lost in the flamenco tablaos that she visited when she was a girl. The singer took to the stage at the age of eight, at 10 she debuted in a popular soap opera and at 14 she led the charts. Bad times for her abounded, but she managed not to become a broken toy. “You grow up so fast, even though deep down you’re still a girl,” she reflects, “I wasn’t aware that I had a responsibility to entertain millions of people, I was just trying to do my best.”

Another snapshot of the singer Belinda in Madrid.Samuel Sanchez

Much of the blame for her musical career, and for the artist’s character and personality, lies with her grandmother Juana. “Juana Moreno de la Plaza”, specifies Belinda, whose huge blue eyes soon cloud over when she remembers that she died just a year ago, just three days after she landed in Madrid to shoot welcome to eden. “She is the woman I have loved the most in my life. My mom had postpartum depression when I was born, she had a rough time of it for a while, so she raised me. She had a hairdresser’s in the center and I remember how the women said, ‘Let’s have Juani do the highlights for us’. He has gone out to her, he confirms. Despite her move to the capital, she has not been able to return to the house where she lived: “I have the pain so present that I can’t even get close to her neighborhood. I have not overcome the duel, I am denied”, she adds while she extends her hands to ratify that the mere memory of an “independent, empowered and very feminist” woman causes her to spontaneously sweat.

The couple of Mexican singers Belinda and Christian Nodal.
The couple of Mexican singers Belinda and Christian Nodal.RR.SS

Juana was also the one who pushed her to hide her shame and display a talent that has sold more than 15 million records, as many as followers. has on Instagram. But Belinda, who conceives dozens of articles with each new look, is clear that he puts the real love of a handful of people before the legion of digital admirers he boasts: “I can’t say that I have even 15 people who really love me, I think I can count them on the fingers of one hand… times to whom I have given myself the most has stabbed me later, ”he concedes. Although he avoids mentioning the name, his recent sentimental breakup with fellow musician Christian Nodal He has graced the front pages of Mexican tabloids with unusual exposure and crudeness. It’s time to turn the page: “There are times when I prefer not to say how I really feel, so that my fans do not go to the jugular of the people who have hurt me.”

Belinda strives to reconcile the undisguised affection she feels for her country and the condemnation of the grievances and wounds, many still unhealed, that public and media opinion have inflicted on her over the years. The relationship, today, seems toxic. “It is sad that where I have been judged and attacked the most has been in my own country. They have been very unfair to me, I have had a very bad time. I love them, but I wish they loved me more than they hate me,” she explains, torn between dejection and capitulation. Her scrutiny of her hypertrophies to the point that Mexican President López Obrador himself spoke publicly about the singer’s alleged tax problems. “Being the president of a country must be very complicated, he is an authority and deserves all the respect in the world,” concludes the aforementioned, without adding fuel to the fire. Is this what it means to be Belinda in Mexico? The young woman smiles and recovers the characteristic sweetness of her face: “Well, well… for better and for worse.”

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Belinda’s bittersweet return to Madrid: “I love my country, but I wish they loved me more than they hate me”