Gloria Trevi: “I received an unfair punishment, but it made me stronger” | the people

If the life of Gloria Trevi (Mexico, 55) were a TV series, the most important and telling scene would reflect the moment when she felt completely liberated. The moment she escaped not from the prison in which she had been held for more than four years and from which she was released free, but from the man who had “shadowed her for 17 years”, as the singer says in Madrid, in full promotion of the tour that she will take this summer to the World Music Festival in Madrid and three other Spanish cities – Barcelona, ​​Fuengirola and Prigo de Cordoba -.

Trevi doesn’t say this randomly. He’s had time to think about the scenes that make up his life because, precisely, it’s going to be a series. For the past two years, he’s been working on a fantasy show based on his autobiography, which is in full production. Few contemporary artists have so many ups and downs in their life. An overwhelming talent, cheeky attitude for which he earned a nickname Mexican Madonnamusical successes and a long season in hell with the man who reminds him: Sergio Andrade, the famous Mexican musician, his former producer and the father of his eldest son, with whom he lived for nearly two decades, as he accused her in First Justice, a kind of clan in which they recruited teenage girls under the pretext of training them to launched them to stardom, but hid a web of sexual assaults.

After his release from prison in 2004, after declaring his innocence, Trevi made a titanic effort to get away from that man’s influence and rebuild his personal life – he got married and had more children – and his career – he once again became one of the most shining stars in Latin America -. A career that provided her with plenty of material to create “action, love, horror and even sci-fi” series, she jokes. But, as if he hadn’t had enough of the script twists in the novel he’s preparing, reality throws a new one at him.

A court in Los Angeles (USA) at the end of last year accepted a civil claim from two women who claim that the singer approached them when they were 13 and 15 years old and enrolled them in the training program allegedly led by Andrade. They accuse the producer of abusing them and the singer of complicity and of acting as a recruiter, according to the filing obtained by EL PAÍS. According to this account, most of the action took place in the California city. The lawsuit was filed on December 31, 2022, but it does not refer directly to the artist and producer, although it does mention details such as the albums they have recorded and the concerts they have performed, that identify them. This was possible because the state of California had issued a three-year moratorium so that people who were victims of sexual assault could file complaints despite the criminal statute of limitations in their cases.

Trevi was in Spain preparing new songs when he learned of the lawsuit. “I was here because the next day I had a composition session,” he narrates. And he decided to explain his feeling in his new song, Jellyfish. He explains, “That’s when I started writing it because I can’t talk about legal situations in the media, I’d rather have them litigated in court.” Jellyfish It has become his new single, which he premiered on Friday, June 16th. The singer takes on the figure from Greek mythology in one version of it as a metaphor for her current moment. Medusa was a priestess in Athena who, after Poseidon raped her in the temple, the goddess punished her with snake hair. The victim who unfairly becomes the villain of the story. “We’ve all experienced that they tell your story badly, that they make you look like the bad guy. I’m Medusa, I think my story was wrong. I got an unfair punishment, but it made me stronger and stronger,” he affirms the lyrics of the song, which he describes as “happy,” with a message Empowerment, the home’s hallmark, is in style Everyone looks at me And open whores. It describes “dancing after tragedy”.

The Mexican singer stresses the comfort of not talking about this new judicial episode in which she will defend Camille Vasquez, the lawyer who represented Johnny Depp in the media defamation trial against Amber Heard. “I sent him my case and when he replied he’d take it, he was caressing my heart: ‘I’m going to fight for you,’” the singer recalled. Vasquez, whom the Hispanic Bar Association recognized as the best attorney under the age of 40, confirmed in a brief filed with a California court that Trevi was also Victim and that the producer is the “real monster” of the story The document compiled by Almudena Barragán in this newspaper at the end of May reflected that “this case represents an unprovoked assault on a victim of sexual, mental and physical abuse”.

The singer wants to get away from parallel experiences. He prefers to focus on his career, as he continues to put all the meat on stage. He finished 2022 with three Tours in various formats in Mexico. “There are many cities that are not accessible to trailers on the roads, so I am adapting DisplaysThis summer he kicked off his first tour in Spain, after more than 30 years in music. “Isn’t that cool? I’ve only sung three solos,” he recalls. Despite everything, she says she’s full of energy: “I came for her tail, her ears, her everything,” she jokes.

At the moment, the singer is downplaying the new judicial ring. “I go to mine, make music and advocate for her.” However, he criticizes the use of justice “for this purpose”, without specifying the purpose of his words. Laws should be to help people who need them, not to those who want to use them to make a profit, because they diminish the credibility of the victims. It is very unfortunate, and that is why it must be seen in court,” he condemns, trusting that this is the last point he needs. “I think it is my chance to clear everything once and for all. Until this story of Medusa is well told,” he ends. A turbulent new scene in her real life, while a fictional series is being filmed about her to which she will also contribute her point of view: “There will be bad guys and bad guys, but I think the most important will be life itself, and it’s sometimes sunny.” But at other times it is the most ferocious.