Before Pandora would become the female trio that conquered the music scene with their pop balladsthey had to face the opposition of their family, the rejection of five record companies and even public humiliation.
The sisters Mayte and Isabel Lascuráin and their friend Fernanda Meade They have known each other since they were very young. Their daily coexistence brought them closer to choose each other as a family. This included his decision making.
Mayte, Isabel and Fernanda were girls who got involved in whatever artistic activity was taking place in their schools and their parents, trusting that it was only a stage, allowed them to develop their talent. But when the women grew up, around their twenties, the taste for singing ceased to be just a hobby and they sought to turn it into a lifestyle, something that caused terror in adults, the artists told in the most recent interview of Yordi Rosado on his YouTube channel.
In a risky negotiation between Mayte and her father -which took place in a restaurant and, being public, would not allow her an outburst-, she obtained the long-awaited support for her future work. “Dad, he’s serious and he’s serious, it’s my life and I want to sing. (Alfonso, Lascuráin’s father) saw me so sure that he told me ‘daughter, it’s true that if in life you don’t do what you want, life is weighing you down as if you had stones on your back.
Fernanda, for her part, had to do the same. “My dad tried to be a singer many years ago, but he didn’t make it. ‘I don’t know, it scares me, it’s the artistic environment. And the magic phrase was ‘pa, if you doubt me, you doubt yourself’ And I whipped him, and there he told me ‘then let’s sing'”.
Overcoming the first obstacle, they recorded two demos in Spanish and English -one under the direction of Peter Vargas– which they shared on five record labels that let the trio make their debut opportunity. Luis Moyano, from EMI Capitol, was the only one who accepted, but as a favor to a friend-aunt from his parents’ group who told him about them. The audition in front of Moyano was so relevant that the same artistic director called the “king midas of the artists of that time, Miguel Blasco”who upon hearing them made them pass more tests but without giving them any news.
“They didn’t tell us anything, not even a lot of thanks,” Fernanda said. “They took us to a studio to record,” added Isabel. “Then they took us to a big meal, where we were the Show, this so that all the people would give us the go-ahead, so we sang, and everyone said ‘but now, sign them!’ We had a couple more meals, there were a lot of interviews, they were testing us to see if those three little girls from the house really had it in our blood or we were going to play singing“Fernanda recalled the memory.
Over time, the dream contract arrived and Pandora was born, who experienced a difficult television debut.
In the decades from the 1970s to the 1990s, artist or group that wanted to achieve stardom had to, yes or yes, appear in Always on Sundaythe musical variety show directed by Raúl Velasco broadcast on channel 2 of Televisa (now Las Estrellas), every week from December 14, 1969 to April 19, 1998 (1,480 programs and 10,500 hours on the air).
Achieving a presentation was the goal, but if Velasco liked it, they could be extended up to seven Sundays.
“We brought a very cute little box, with a photo of Uncle Pedro Vargas, and telling Raúl Velasco that in that little box were all his hopes and illusions of knowing what was going to happen in his life and that there we were. And he introduced us very well, very cute, very affectionate -I leave it to your consideration-“, Isabel told Yordi.
“It was difficult later when a cousin of ours was killed… we did three Sundays in a row and on the last one a cousin of ours was killed -and Fernanda’s affection-, and we had to do a always on sunday… it was the first time we had to face saying ‘ok, we have to go on TV’, we went out in black and white, which is very usual for us but we were in mourning and that was the first time it was difficult to say ‘ under any circumstance, we have to smile and be there,'” Lascuráin continued.
As the saying goes “the show must go on”, the family tragedy would not prevent them from continuing to work, even with the mistreatment of the late driver against one of the Pandoras. “He was hard with me, I don’t know why, he demanded a lot from me and I ended up loving him, but the truth was that he was very hard on me,” Isabel replied to Rosado’s express question.
I’m going to tell you what happened with Velasco, he was a person who was so important that sometimes he didn’t have the filter to tell you things in some way. One day he got on a plane and told me directly, with all the artists -it was when Always on Sunday we traveled as if on a charter and there they put all the artists on board-, when he got on he saw me and said ‘you, if you don’t lose weight , you’re not on TV again’, and I (with a frightened face), thanks, but it wasn’t the time, I accept your comment but tell me in private; later I told him at the time.Isabel Lascurain, member of Pandora
Years later, Mayte sent the driver a letter to thank him for the space granted to Pandora to reach a larger audience, but also to make him aware of the insecurities that his sister Isabel generated due to his harsh treatment.
First of all, thank you very much for all the love you have given us, the support, especially because we are who we are thanks to your television program, but you have been a very strong man, you have treated my sister with great difficulty, you have He has been very arrogant with the artists, he has been little tolerant, I can understand that he wants to guide us (…), very little empathy and we had no choice but to pay attention to himMayte Lacurain
Velasco’s response was immediate. “Mayte, how can I thank you for everything you are telling me. Because if I had never understood why what is happening to me was happening to me (liver cancer), today you are giving me a reason.”
The undoing of both parties allowed them a better bond that is maintained with the driver’s widow.
For Pandora, the anecdotes allowed them to grow and overcome them, earning 32 gold records and 15 platinum records in their history for high sales of 18 studio-recorded albums, four live albums and more than 50 compilations. Two nominations for the Grammy Awards and six for Lo Nuestro Awards, winning two.
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