—Yes, there are songs that are quite sad, but there are songs that motivate you to dance and sing. Something that I am very grateful for, at 40 years old, is expressing what I truly want to convey and cumbia gives me that privilege: to tell what I experience. One of those songs is ‘This love is so great’, which belongs to my life testimony regarding my path in God and I realize that some who dedicate it to their children, their girlfriends or wives; and others sing it to God. In any of those ways, joy is reaching those hearts.
—Actually it has already arrived (to other countries). What Argentina did was take those beautiful things that each country implemented in cumbia. Maybe what’s missing is going (abroad) to show what you do. Ráfaga, at the time, was concerned about going out to show what he did and in this way he arrived at the Viña del Mar Festival in 2012, and that was a springboard to the world (…) Walter (León) recently visited me. together with Bill (Orosco) and we were able to share on my 40th birthday, people from the Karicia group and other colleagues came. It’s about sharing music, not about ‘I do this and at some point they will know me because social networks exist today’. Yes, but there are many groups… The music comes, but if we physically go and show, they will see us. I highly recommend Peruvian music because I had the opportunity to share it with many. That’s a bit of word of mouth. I say that (Peruvian cumbia) is in the ears of those of us who are interested in good music and there is a lot of good cumbia in Peru to learn.
— What has Peruvian cumbia contributed to Argentine cumbia?
—We learned to play cumbia in Peru. The Peruvian cumbia gave the cumbia a salsa touch with congas, with the bongo and with percussion instruments (…) There is a specific study in percussion to reach that sound (‘biscuit’), which is with only one hand , and we learned it from seeing how it was played in Peru. The Peruvian studied, nurtured himself and added music to cumbia and that helped us.
Rodrigo Tapari surrendered to religion
— Years ago, when you talked about your conversion, the memories hurt you. Now you are calmer. What happened?
—It’s life itself, not everything is going to be rosy. All the blessings for me – family, fame and money – come with a weight and one has to be prepared. And the decision to accept Jesus came with tremendous weight. Those who knew me in my old life and knew what I did would condemn me. Those who have religion as an amulet, unfortunately, also condemn you because they begin to speculate with ‘he says he is a Christian, but he keeps singing cumbia, he keeps going to the disco and he is going to go to hell’.
— What is the most difficult part of that process?
—I chose to accept Christ, but there is a process to go through, where we are going to have thousands of falls, we are going to have people who tell us ‘I am praying for you’ and others who tell us ‘I hope you go to hell.’ And we have to go through that process to realize that there is only one focus, which is Jesus.
— Did you lose friends in your conversion process?
—Some left, many returned and God brought me very blessed people. Those who have left may have been (because I am) a reflection of what they lived. Sometimes you don’t want to be next to someone who says ‘I don’t want this anymore’, so you walk away. But you reach a limit of darkness, where you no longer want to live, perhaps you will say ‘so, he was right’. And when one fulfills that commitment, it generates trust in the other, they say ‘if Rodrigo could do it, I can do it’.
— As a result of your excesses, were you afraid of losing your voice?
—I was on the verge of losing my voice due to whiskey, I did some studies and the doctor asked me if I took drugs and I told him ‘no’. He told me ‘it’s strange because you have wear and tear on your vocal cords’. And he recommended that I not drink more whiskey. At that moment I feared I would lose my voice, but I didn’t really care because I was lost. My focus was not God.
— Are you able to collaborate with an urban artist?
—There are things that are not negotiated and there I am going to be blunt. There are artists who ask me for collaboration and send me explicit (sexual) songs. There are things that I don’t negotiate because I don’t even want them for myself. Not even for my family. It is not about collaborating to generate a hit, but rather about sharing music between both artists. I don’t want my children to listen to music that encourages them to take drugs or have uncontrolled sex. I’m not interested. Because? Because I had that life and it didn’t end well. I have nothing against doing feat., except, not saying things that do not build up the other’s life.
Rodrigo Tapari admires Marcelo Tinelli
— Marcelo Tinelli has become controversial in Peru for his relationship with Milett. What is he like in person?
-It’s lovely. I believe that people who are successful in what they do are because they work hard for it. I don’t find a person who has lasted for decades and generations, by being there (doing nothing). He, without knowing me at all, opened the doors of his much-seen program to me, where I had the opportunity to sing and worship God. He allowed me to do it regardless of whether the rating went up or down.
— They are friends?
—He is a very close person and I have the possibility of talking to him over the phone. Without knowing us at all, he gave me his personal phone number, being such an exposed and well-known person. Just so you know, Marcelo Tinelli on Argentine television is number one. There is no other person who has the ability to carry a program forward, by himself, improvising on many occasions and everyone is amazed because in situations where someone else’s world would fall for a program, he carries a program forward. He is number one, literally, and I feel privileged to be his friend, to be able to share conversations with him and to wish us blessings.
— It also has many critics
—Many people speak without knowing or give titles. God does not give us a title. I am one of those who think that one has to love for what he knows and not for what he is told. I prefer to know the person before giving my opinion and it has happened to me with him (Tinelli), we had a beautiful connection and as seen on the channel, that’s how it is. And I think that intimately he is much more loving, even.
