Alejo Stivel, producer of the debut of La Oreja de Van Gogh, is betting on Amaia’s return and reveals that the first album “was not recorded by them”

«I went to see them in San Sebastián and listen to their songs. His music and lyrics had great power of communication, but they were not good enough,” said the Tequila singer. «We had 25 days to record the album, and I saw that with the technical level of the group it was going to be impossible. So I proposed that musicians I trusted record it. The record company agreed, the band agreed, and so we did it. “The important thing was that the album came out.”

Stivel, who naturally confirms that Amaia Montero’s voice is indeed the one that sounds on the album published in 1998, has declared on the Sonsoles Ónega program that his bet is that “Amaia is going to return”, and assures that when he worked with them, there was a good atmosphere between the musicians and the vocalist. “I don’t know what would happen next, when egos begin to inflate until they explode,” the producer concluded.

To record the instruments, Stivel had his trusted team – with whom he would later record albums such as ’19 days and 500 nights’ (1999) by Joaquín Sabina and the debut of El canto del loco (2000). «Everyone realized that this would turn out much better. I couldn’t produce something that was going to sound bad. If I had done it playing the way they played, the album wouldn’t have worked. And with a failed first album, there are careers that do not continue.

The names of the professionals who participated in the recording appear in the credits of Dile al sol as ‘collaborations’: Josu García as production assistant, backing vocalist and guitarist; Marcelo Fuentes as bassist, Fernando Samalea as drummer and Francis Amat on piano for the single Cuéntame al corazón. «Those 28 days were very important for them. They were with top-level musicians, who in turn were in the best position to share their experience with them. We didn’t have them relegated to a room, on the contrary. Choosing to have others play was simply so that the album sounded good,” Stivel argued in another interview a few months ago, where he also told this unknown story.

«Clearly we were very inexperienced, very young. We knew how to play just enough for our songs. There were many things that we were unable to assume and face. We tried but it was very complicated and we had to use four magnificent musicians,” the group’s drummer, Haritz Garde, also acknowledged at the time.

‘Dile al sol’ entered position 54 on the sales charts, and although the first single ‘El 28’ did not have the expected success, a few months later they released the second, ‘Soñaré’, and from there sales increased. They shot up to 800,000 copies sold. To date it has sold more than a million copies worldwide and 70 percent of that figure corresponds to sales in Spain. It led the Spanish sales chart for ten weeks and was among the ten best-selling albums for 30 weeks.

Meanwhile, and almost in parallel, Amaia Montero has given statements to the Telecinco program Tardear, trying to show that she knows nothing about the matter. “That’s what I’m wondering!” she said when asked about the topic. «That’s why I don’t say anything, because no one has given me a candle at this funeral, nor do I want one. This is all crazy. It’s dementia. Have I said or has any member of the group said that I will return? “This is starting to affect me.”

For his part, Leire declared on Basque television: «The group has communicated what it has considered. I have not signed the statement. When I consider it, and I feel well, I will tell myself whatever it is, but, for the moment, I don’t have much to say. According to Luis Pliego, director of Lecturas, the singer has been fired: «Record sources tell me that she has been fired. That, unlike Amaia, who left the group due to disagreements, with Leire they opened a casting where they hired her. She had an employment contract, she is a victim in this story. “He cannot speak because he has a confidentiality contract.”