The house at 2230 Portela street, in Valentín Alsina (Lanús), It no longer exists, but it is still alive in the bowels by Ricardo Montaner (65). He was almost eight when he left her for good, to move to Venezuela with his parents and sister after an irresistible job offer for his father at a time when money was scarce.
In that country he would sow the seeds to reap success and become a world music celebrity. Not only him, but his children as well.
The Montaners today are a clan. Installed in Miami, they just launched a documentality through behemoth Disney+. There, on the film set of Little River Studios, the chief and the leader of the “tribe” are in charge. clarion between a marathon of interviews – virtual and face to face – with the Latin American media which, however, does not let them lose their humour.
“I finally see you working. Since I’ve known you, pure farra“Ricardo jokes before the camera starts rolling, while the complicit laughter of the love of his life, the Venezuelan Marlene Rodríguez (58), mother of three of his five children (Ricky, Mau and Evaluna) rings out.
Memory and impotence
-What remained of that Ricardo from via Portela?
–Ricardo Montaner: The memory. And also the impotence of knowing that I’m going back to the neighborhood and that the house number is gone. There you understand that nothing is eternal, everything is rare. But a lot remains in my memory. How nice it is to remember, how nice it is to know where you come fromHow was your house…
When you come home now and see that you can walk into the pool and see where you’ve lived, how you’ve lived, and how you accept it with that pride, with that peace of having done the right thing, and also knowing that nothing would be possible if god didn’t grab you by the ear and put you where he was meant to put you.
Ricardo often says he had “a private childhood,” even though he “didn’t dream of going to Disney.” He is against transmitting the “pity syndrome”. But in favor of remembering the origins.
-What does Argentina mean to you?
-For meArgentina is the meeting, it’s the beginning. Now I’m more nostalgic. I just made a tango record (Tango) this year, I rediscovered those nostalgias that my grandfather and father had put in my heart, those nostalgias, those memories of Laurentino’s grandfather, carpenter and all the rest…
Montaner admits that he feels Argentina more now, in the age of maturity, even if he has been living in Miami for several years, where he lives in a villa worth over 11 million dollars, close to his three youngest children (the most great are Alejandro and Héctor, the product of his first marriage, to Ana Vaz) and his grandchildren, including the two most recent, Índigo (daughter of Colombian singer Camilo Echeverry and Evaluna) and Apolo (son of Mau and Colombian influencer Sara Escobar).
“I have a moment with the country that gave me life to identify with. It hurts more now, I feel it closer, I’m in love again, because they took me out of there, with no bad intentions, but they uprooted me. And these years that I’ve been going to the TV show (La Voz Argentina) have brought me back to that place, they have brought me back to my Valentín Alsina, to my Villa Caraza, I’ve got him back with me, ”he says.
family reality
For the artist, reality The mountaineers -which premiered the first five chapters and the remaining five will be uploaded on December 28 on the Disney+ platform- comes to put the bad news aside for a while and to give people a chance to sit in the armchair at home and see something to enjoy.
“I think a large number of people are waiting for us who need to hear pleasant news, they need to see things that correspond to the very essence of their hearts and which they have been putting off because of the daily whirlwind,” says the singer.
“So when they come home tired, exhausted, and they find themselves able to sit there on the couch, watch the show, and be able to listen to something Cami says, Mau says, Ricky says, Marlene says, anyone says some boys, and they somehow plant something in his heart… I think it was necessary for us to do that,” he reflects.
-Is there a Montaner formula for happiness?
There is no doubt, yes. I think the formula, which is not secret, on the contrary, is there recognizing oneself vulnerable and in need of the other. And a very important factor is admiration for each other. The other deserves your admiration. So when you leave from there everything flows.
Marlene Rodríguez: For me it’s bending the knees. In other words, for me the key to success in my marriage, because we’ve had a million bad times, but when you know who you’re counting on and you bend your knees and take them there, everything changes.
Ricardo and Marlene are two people, they are different, but they go forward with the same goal: family and faith in God, who moves everything. He appreciates the indispensable role of his wife, whom he married on August 26, 1989 and with whom he renews his vows every five years on that same date of the year, regardless of which day it falls on the calendar.
“Marlene she has proved to be important for everyone in these times as a leader, in the most respectful and humble sense of the word. He tells you from the beginning: ‘I bend my knees’. This makes her the protagonist of all this”, concludes Montaner, who receives the “pico” from his wife, puffs out his chest and laughs heartily, like that boy from Valentín Alsina who was just starting his life with an infinite number of dreams to achieve.
Ricardo, based in Miami after a brilliant career (has sold more than 25 million records), lives in a villa where he allowed himself to be filmed without restrictions, except when he went to the bathroom, like the rest of the family. He is located in the Pine Tree Drive neighborhood of Miami Beach and, they say, is worth more than 11 million dollars.
“I have to thank my mother, who is in heaven. She was the one who somehow planted this idea in us about 18 years ago, in me and in Marlene, because the boys were small. My mother always had her hair combed, the his hair intact, I basically slept sitting up, so we said, ‘this is worth recording,'” he marks.
The series on Disney+
The mountaineersthe docureality series from Disney+ Original Productions, has its first five episodes available on the streaming service from Wednesday, November 9.
In it you can see the most intimate moments of the family and the scenes of events that have had great notoriety in the media and social networks.
Between them, the wedding of Ricky and Argentinian Stefanía Roitman in Exaltación de la Cruz, the birth of Índigo (daughter of Evaluna and Camilo) and the desire of Mau and Sara to start a family, crowned by the recent arrival of Apolo, sixth nephew of Ricardo and Marlene.
It also accompanies them on family trips to Colombia, the Dominican Republic and Argentina, delves into the feelings that Ricardo and Marlene experience with their “empty nest”, and records birthday parties, as well as other special events that reveal the unique way The Montaners celebrate family and prioritize time together, while leading the life of a music star.
Created by the Montaners and Lex Borrero, produced by Intertain Studios, and with creative collaboration from the Disney Branded Television unscripted team,The mountaineers It consists of ten episodes between 40 and 45 minutes long.
The last five episodes are coming next December 28th to the worldwide streaming service.
Borrero, Tommy Mottola and Ivanni Rodríguez are the executive producers together with Ricardo, Marlene, Mau and Ricky Montaner. They are joined by Santiago Zapata and Chris Smith, who in addition to serving as executive producers are showrunners and series directors for Intertain Studios.
“Let them say that I am ‘the witch’. Everything they say, they are right“, laughs Marlene when clarion She asks if what they say is true, that she is the mistress of the “tribe”, as she calls them, inside and out.
“A star is born. It’s for an Oscar,” Ricardo laughs at his side, from whom he never leaves. And he closes with a “I love you“, the phrase that is heard most in the life of Los Montaners, with the cameras on or off.
Miami / Special Envoy.
WD extension
Source: Clarin
