We live in one of the world’s art capitals. Living in Málaga we have some great masters of painting, performing arts, literature, music and geniuses in many other cultural disciplines. We don’t know exactly why, but the reality is our city oozes brilliance, excellence and brims with self-confidence. It’s part of the idiosyncrasy of the Costa del Sol.
Málaga’s musical production is truly incredible. Pablo Alborán and his namesake López, Diana Navarro, Vanesa Martín, El Kanka, the group Chambao, Tabletom…the list is endless. Young virtuosos of song emerge from our streets like flowers in a garden. Among them is our protagonist Iván Peláez. This promising musical star has been building up his career step by step and has already achieved fame in our city. Iván writes “from the heart” and wanted to dedicate a song to one of his biggest passions, Málaga CF, a beautiful song.
The artist was featured on the TV programme Got Talent where he sang a version of ‘Solamente tú’ by Pablo Alborán, with a very Malaguista twist. The judges, Paz Padilla, Daniel Martínez, Edurne and Risto Mejide, urged him to create a piece with his own melody, which he did. One day in September last year, following the competition, he wrote ‘Azul & Blanco’ in an hour and a half, the length of a football match. Iván tells us the story:
How did your time on Got Talent influence you to write this song?
“I would never have considered writing a song about Málaga. On the programme they gave me that boost to be able to make the song and I’m grateful for the motivation”.
How did Azul & Blanco come about? Is it true it took you the length of a football match to write it?
“I wrote the song in early September 2019 (the programme was recorded beforehand). I remember I was at home with my wife, it was night time, and we were about to go to bed. Suddenly, the first lyric of ‘Azul y Blanco’ came to mind which is used in the chorus and is the name of the song, and it was then, talking to my wife that I realised I’d thought of something special. At that moment I told her to go to sleep and I had to do something, then in an hour and a half I’d written the entire song. Of course, I made some little tweaks here and there, but the essence of the song took the length of a football match to write”.
What do you intend to convey with this song?
“With this song I want to show people how it feels to be a Malaguista when you go to a football match. What you see at La Rosaleda, how you feel, watching the kids with the footballs…I live in the city centre and seeing all the fans making their way to the ground with their shirts, flags, full of excitement, that’s what I wanted to convey with this song. It’s a Malaguista song written by a Malagueño. I’ve tried to express the feeling of a Malaguista fan. I hope I did that”.
There’s a lot of feeling in the song…
“It’s written from the heart. As I said on the programme, there are things you feel inside that cannot be expressed in any other way, so I hope it’s reached the hearts of the Malagueño and Malaguista people. That’s what I’m most excited about”.
Lastly, a message for the Malaguistas…
“I bared my soul with this song. I’m following the social networks to see if you like it or not. Thank you so much for your support and interest. I hope you enjoy it”.
