Almost two years ago, Omar Montes (Madrid, 1988) achieved an incredible milestone: he became the most listened to Spanish artist in 2020. To this lover of urban music, flamenco, reggaeton and fusion, the common man of Mortals put a face on him when he started a relationship with Chabelita, Isabel Pantoja’s daughter. Then the reality shows would arrive –’Great brother VIP ‘,’ Survivors’– and although the one from the Madrid neighborhood of Pan Bendito had already released several songs, recorded with a computer that were found lying on the street, it was then that their popularity reached the ‘ mainstream ‘and exploded. Now, he puts fifteen thousand people in venues like the WiZink Center in Madrid without losing his hair. ‘The Little Prince is Omar Montes’, a documentary series that premieres this Friday on Amazon Prime Video, tells, with hardly any shadows, the “hard beginnings” of a neighborhood guy and his jump to stardom.
– How did the idea of the documentary series come about?
– The people of Amazon propose it to me to tell a little about the steps to follow in order to be number one. They liked to see how a person on the street, who has had so many problems, gets to the top.
– After seeing it, do you think it has portrayed you well? Have you discovered things about yourself that you didn’t know?
–Discover new things either. In the end it is what I have told, but yes, I liked seeing it. It has made me very excited because they make you a documentary series like that I value it a lot. Not everyone does it and it’s very nice.
– What are people going to know that they don’t already know about Omar Montes?
– The hard beginnings. In the end, on Instagram you see what I want you to see, something that is not real either. In the documentary, you will be able to meet the real Omar, the Omar on the street, not the one who goes to a concert at the WiZink Center in Madrid and blows it away with fifteen thousand people. In the end, that’s fine, but I think people also want to see reality, before getting there and how the hell have you managed to get those fifteen thousand people and why, and there I tell it.
-He became known to the general public for his participation in various reality shows and for his romance with Isa Pantoja. Does it bother you that you continue to be associated with that closer world with the pink press? Do you want to get away from him or do you care?
-No, no so much. Whoever wants to relate to that, well, I’m happy. I do not care. In the end I go to my ball and I never mess with anyone. What they tell me I accept. What do you want to relate me to the world of the heart? That they relate to me. What do they want to relate me to being number one in music? Well, I am number one. I do not care to. The important thing about music for me is to have taken my mother from scrubbing stairs, that we all eat, that we have money to go to the movies … That is my purpose, I don’t care about the rest.
–In the documentary series he is described as someone constant, who gets what he wants and to whom, in some way, life is giving what it did not give him as a child. Do you believe in karma?
Yes, 100%. If you do good, God will return good to you. And that is so. And if you are doing wrong, what is going to give you back is wrong. If something is clear to me, it is that.
– It also advises to always chase your dreams and not stop trying, but there are many people who stay by the wayside. Can it be a counterproductive message for the kids?
– Telling kids to try can be counterproductive?
–Man, there are not many Omar Montes and youtubers of success are counted on the fingers of two or four hands, for example.
Well, I wouldn’t say counterproductive. Fighting for your dreams is never a bad thing, I think. I can be wrong because in the end I do not have the absolute truth, but I think it is a good thing that if you like one thing at least you try. Hell, if you see you’ve been trying to be a plumber for twenty years and you can’t, then become an electrician. But it is not wrong to fight for what you like.
– Another piece of advice he gives to the kids is that if some thugs are making life impossible for them and are harassing them, they should report it and say so. You, who in your early years were the object of bullying, if you went back would you report it?
–It is that I am not an example of anything nor am I the best example for a child and as my grandfather says: «Do what I tell you, but don’t do what I do». Now if you ask me what I did and you want me to be honest, well, no, I never cheated, I was not in my condition. But it is not bad to ask for help, that I did not do it in the day because I looked for my tricks around there … But I cannot use myself as an example.
– He affirms that he is still a neighborhood kid despite the fact that his life has changed a lot in recent years. Is it difficult to keep your feet on the ground?
-Not for me. Keeping my feet on the ground is what gives me that good point that people like. If I lost the pot, people would turn their backs on me. I have it clear.
–In the documentary, he tells that when someone in Latin America has a success with urban music, mainstream artists come to propose projects and remixes, but that here artists such as Alejandro Sanz or David Bisbal have not made any approximation. Is your thorn stuck? Why do you think this happens in Spain? Elitism?
– Exactly, yes. Here in Spain that happens, there is a horrible elitism, which I have been trying to change for a couple of years and which is beginning to change. That’s why they tell me I’m like the new Pitbull, because Pitbull helped new artists a lot by doing remixes, he was the father of remixes and here in Spain I’m doing that a little bit. I try to get people who want to start or who are flapping their wings, well, to put them in the place they deserve and if they have talent, I always turn to them so that they can achieve their dream, because in the end everything that I help them God He is going to give it to me the other way. So I like to throw a cable.
– He also says that he has assumed that being an artist prevents him from leading a normal life. Do you miss it?
-Well, I miss the privacy, going to eat somewhere with my son or my family and being quietly without having to get up to take photos or people not making us a circle to take videos or photos. Yes it is true that there are things that I do not like so much, but in the end they are hazards of the trade.
– What remains to be achieved?
–To be a leading actor in a film by Santiago Segura, which I love.
‘The Little Prince is Omar Montes’ is available from November 12 on Amazon Prime Video.
.