Alfredo Alonso, the director of Bizzaro Live, the producer of the Viña Del Mar festival discusses how the Chilean festival became a must-stop for all major Latin acts and how to score an invitation to perform at Billboard’s Latin Music Week 2024.
Alfredo Alonso conversa cómo Viña Del Mar, el festival chileno, se convirtió en meta obligatoria para los artistas latinos, y cómo se logra ser invitado
Alfredo Alonso conversa cómo Viña Del Mar, el festival chileno, se convirtió en meta obligatoria para los artistas latinos, y cómo se logra ser invitado
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00:00Bad Bunny went to the Viña festival and some journalists asked, who is Bad Bunny?
00:06The following year, Bad Bunny was the most listened artist on the planet.
00:10Not because of Viña, because of his career, but I think, or I want to think,
00:15that a small grain of sand of that crossover and that growth of Bad Bunny was at the festival.
00:22We were talking about Shakira, the same.
00:25Carol G. was with us and made a sand.
00:30She was at the Viña festival and made three stadiums.
00:34It is not only thanks to Viña, but I say again, I think it has that small amount of help
00:42that that four-legged table exists.
00:45That people who did not know her, knew her.
00:47That people who had not seen her were surprised.
00:51Luis Miguel, Luis Miguel arrived little, little, little.
00:54A great voice, but that was his platform.
00:57And if you see the Netflix series of Luis Miguel,
01:00chapter one begins at the Viña festival and the last chapter ends at the Viña festival.
01:11Hello, hello, how are you?
01:15Good morning.
01:16I come here and I have the mission to talk about the strength of the Viña del Mar festival.
01:24I will try in 14 minutes with 49, 48, 47,
01:29to explain what is a festival that has been more than 64 years
01:34and being today recognized as the most important Latin festival in the world.
01:39We will go from the most basic to the most complex
01:42and in the end the idea is to give two or three minutes in case you have questions,
01:46in case you want to know something.
01:48If at some point I get too passionate about the subject,
01:51I want you to understand that my history with the Viña festival is quite special.
01:55In the 80s I went public, I went to see the Viña festival,
01:58I bought my ticket, I stopped to see the artists.
02:01In the 90s I had to go as a musician and play on the Viña stage.
02:06In the year 2000 we started booking some artists,
02:09in 2010 more artists, in 2018 we did the complete booking.
02:14Then we did the booking and production,
02:16and today we have to do the booking, production and television of the Viña festival.
02:20So, I don't know, next year I will have to cheer up.
02:26No, but that's why you're going to hear me speak with a lot of passion
02:30about a festival that is really important.
02:32This started in the 60s as a window and a contest
02:37of artists to choose the winner or the most important song.
02:42At that moment, I don't know if you remember,
02:44there was La Oti, there was San Remo, there was Viña,
02:46and this festival began to grow, to grow and to gain strength.
02:50As the years went by, great artists like Julio Iglesias,
02:55like Puma Rodríguez, like Luis Miguel, very small,
02:58began to go and realize that it was a great platform
03:01for artists to get to know each other more and more.
03:05The Viña festival began to be broadcast to several countries
03:07and began to gain more and more relevance, more importance.
03:11And the competition also began to gain more relevance
03:13and more importance each time.
03:15Let's go first with the simplest things.
03:18It's a festival that has a six-day live format.
03:22It's a festival that lasts five hours every night.
03:26In fact, last year it was the people from Eurovision
03:29who came to see the Viña festival because they couldn't believe
03:31that a six-day festival was being held in a row,
03:34five hours on air every day.
03:37Those who have done television, those who have done festivals,
03:39will know how difficult that is.
03:40We finish the festival at three in the morning.
03:42At seven in the morning, the sound test of the first artist begins.
03:45It ends at three in the morning.
03:47At seven in the morning, the next day,
03:49the test of the next artist begins.
03:52So we have learned to have some special skills,
03:55like sleeping standing up, like not sleeping,
03:58but the festival has to go on.
04:00Many times we talked to people from big festivals
04:03who tell us, yes, if an artist is delayed by 10 minutes,
04:06there is no problem.
04:07For us, the delay of 30 seconds of an artist
04:10generates a huge problem because it's 30 seconds of black on the screen.
04:14And that's a big problem.
04:16So you can imagine that the stress, the love and the passion
04:20that is experienced at that festival is huge.
04:22Last year, we had Andrea Bocelli with 140 musicians on stage
04:27and we only had a 11-minute commercial break
04:30to dismantle the 140 musicians and dismantle the next show.
04:33And this doesn't stop, doesn't stop, doesn't stop.
04:36Why am I telling you this?
04:37So that you understand a little bit the trance of this festival,
04:41the love that is put into it,
04:43and the respect that the artists, the tour managers, the managers
04:47put into understanding this.
04:49Because you have to understand that you only have five minutes
04:51to assemble, to disassemble, to leave, to enter.
04:53The artists have to understand that Viña del Mar is a city
04:56that doesn't have the amount of hotels,
04:58so they have to enter and leave.
05:00But they all do it with so much love,
05:02with so much love that this festival is 64 years old.
05:07Let's go to the next one.
05:09Emblematic cases.
05:10I don't know if any of you know this,
05:12but in 1994, Shakira participated representing Colombia
05:16at the Viña festival with an unpublished song
05:20and that song, and that Shakira,
05:23you know what she has become today.
05:25I remember the state when she arrived.
05:28She was very nervous.
05:29She had to represent Colombia.
05:31She participated, she made an excellent presentation.
05:34And that marked as a before and after
05:37that you can use the Viña festival as a platform
05:41to get to know you.
05:42Why?
05:43Because the format is very special.
05:45An artist opens, then a humorist comes,
05:49then the competition comes in the middle
05:51and closes another artist.
05:53What happens?
05:54By strategically putting the competition in the middle,
05:56what we do is that all the fans see the complete competition,
05:59all the viewers see the complete competition
06:02and incredible cases have happened.
06:04There was an Italian singer who went to represent Viña,
06:07won, and in Italy he wasn't so well-known,
06:10and then in Viña he filled up arenas and filled up very large spaces
06:13because people wanted to see him,
06:16because he had been part of the experience of a country.
06:20The Viña festival has something that is important.
06:23It marks peaks of 45 rating points on open television,
06:27which is very rare nowadays,
06:30to get to mark that.
06:31For you to have an idea,
06:33while we are at 45 or 48 rating points,
06:36the channels that are on the new side,
06:38ours are at 2 or 3 points.
06:41It is also broadcast live
06:43by several channels, friends in other countries,
06:46and now the magic of the Internet
06:49has made that digital platforms also start to broadcast it.
06:52So it becomes a very unique festival,
06:56very different.
06:57In fact, I don't know if there is another festival like this in the world.
07:01Cases like Luis Miguel,
07:04Miguel Bosé, Roberto Carlos,
07:07Julio Iglesias, Shakira,
07:10in the beginning were emblematic cases.
07:13De Polis came to play at the Viña festival in the 80s
07:16and nobody knew who De Polis was.
07:18And everyone said,
07:19oh, how good is this band from Rigue.
07:22And then Sting comes back with the symphonic
07:25to play at Viña del Mar in glory and majesty
07:27once it becomes what it became.
07:29There have also been emblematic cases
07:32of bands like Simply Red
07:34who went to play at the Viña del Mar festival
07:37and today, in 2024,
07:40they play in South America making arenas,
07:43they make an arena in each country,
07:44and in Chile they just finished their fifth arena.
07:47Sold out five arenas in a row, five days in a row,
07:50unlike the rest of the countries.
07:51Why?
07:52Because the Viña festival achieves something that is very important.
07:56We believe that for the success of an artist
07:59there is a four-legged table that has to exist.
08:03If you manage to get the audience to know
08:06the artist's name, the artist's song,
08:09the artist's face,
08:11and manage to enter a crossover of audiences,
08:14success becomes much greater.
08:17Many of you know the artist's song
08:19or know the name of an artist
08:21or the name of the song,
08:23but very rarely do you know the whole thing.
08:26When we have Andrea Bocelli and Miranda on the same night,
08:30and people say to us,
08:31you are crazy, how can you mix Andrea Bocelli and Miranda?
08:34No, we are not crazy.
08:35In people's playlists,
08:37they listen to Andrea Bocelli and Miranda.
08:39So why should we be crazy to put them together?
08:42Miranda played in Chile last year and made an arena.
08:46She played this year at the Viña festival with Bocelli
08:49and made three arenas.
08:51Why?
08:52Because an audience that didn't know her,
08:54knew her.
08:55An audience that hadn't heard her, discovered her.
08:57An audience that didn't know who she was,
08:59knew who she was.
09:00And so there have been many cases.
09:02They are endless.
09:03They are 60 years of music, 60 years of show.
09:10What is the launch of these careers and these new artists?
09:13If I go messy,
09:14forgive me because the points sometimes structure me a lot.
09:20We are talking about Bad Bunny went to the Viña festival
09:24and some journalists asked,
09:26who is Bad Bunny?
09:28The following year,
09:29Bad Bunny was the most-listened-to artist on the planet.
09:32Not because of Viña,
09:33because of his career,
09:34but I think, or I want to think,
09:37that a small grain of sand from that crossover
09:39and from that growth of Bad Bunny
09:42was at the festival.
09:44We were talking about Shakira.
09:45The same thing, Carol G.
09:47She was with us and made an arena.
09:51She was at the Viña festival and made three arenas.
09:56It is not only thanks to Viña,
09:58but I say it again,
09:59I think it has that small amount of help
10:03that this four-legged table exists.
10:06That people who did not know her, knew her.
10:08That people who had not seen her were surprised.
10:12Luis Miguel.
10:13Luis Miguel arrived tiny,
10:15tiny, tiny.
10:16A great voice,
10:17but that was his platform.
10:19And if you watch Luis Miguel's Netflix series,
10:21chapter one begins at the Viña festival
10:24and the last chapter ends at the Viña festival.
10:27It is something incredible.
10:28Like many artists.
10:29Watch Miguel Bosé's series.
10:31What festival appears at the beginning and at the end?
10:34The Viña festival.
10:35Many artists have had a large space.
10:38And Anglo artists,
10:39because the space is always given to one day
10:41for Anglo artists,
10:43the Anglo day has also played a special role.
10:46We sit down to talk to Elton John
10:48or to talk to Rod Stewart
10:49to tell him,
10:50hey, in the middle of the show we are going to stop you
10:51because people are going to ask for a gaviota.
10:53You have to say,
10:54thank you very much
10:55and people are going to give you the gaviota.
10:57They look at you like,
10:58okay.
11:00Some understand it,
11:01others do not understand it,
11:02but once they understand it,
11:03they enjoy it
11:04and then they take their photos with the gaviota.
11:06I have three minutes and 40 seconds left
11:08and I'm going to slide two.
11:09I'm going to pass the slides quickly
11:10so they don't tell me anything.
11:13How to be invited?
11:14There are ways to participate as a competition.
11:17If you are a singer,
11:18a composer
11:19and you have an unpublished song,
11:21you can sign up for the competition
11:22representing your country.
11:23You can sign up for the competition
11:25to be part of the folklore
11:27or the popular part
11:29or you can also be invited
11:31as a recognized artist,
11:34as an emerging artist.
11:35You can be part of the jury.
11:37There are countless ways
11:39to enter the Viña del Mar Festival
11:42and at least take up some space.
11:45The monster.
11:46The monster,
11:47that's what they say to the public of Viña del Mar
11:49because it has become a monster.
11:51At the beginning, people in the 60s
11:53would raise their matchboxes
11:55or make little paper torches
11:58and from there the torch was born,
12:00which was the first award
12:01that the Viña del Mar Festival received.
12:03And with that,
12:04this is another way,
12:05like the Roman Colosseum,
12:08people do it like this or like that,
12:10they ask you or they don't ask you for the torch,
12:12they ask you or they ask you for the gaviota.
12:14Then the gaviota advanced,
12:16then the silver gaviota appeared,
12:18the gold gaviota,
12:19then the platinum gaviota
12:21and more and more
12:23there has been a participation
12:25between the public and the festival.
12:27Why do we do it?
12:28Because we like it.
12:29We like the public to feel they own
12:31or feel they participate
12:32in the success of an artist,
12:33in the path of an artist,
12:35in what an artist does at the Viña Festival.
12:39This is a festival that,
12:40during these 60 years,
12:41has gone through dictatorships,
12:43democracies,
12:45the biggest earthquake
12:46in the history of humanity,
12:48fires,
12:49social outbursts
12:51and we have continued there.
12:53For the social outburst,
12:55all of Chile was very convulsed
12:57and the Viña Festival took off.
13:00We thank all the artists
13:01who, on the way from the hotel
13:03to the Quinta Vergara,
13:04saw everything that was happening
13:06and still got on stage.
13:09I'm not going to say the name
13:10because I don't like to tell incidents,
13:11but an artist that day got on
13:13and told his musicians,
13:15no matter what happens,
13:16we're going to play
13:17and we're going to make
13:18the best show of our lives
13:19because I owe this festival a lot.
13:22And he got on stage
13:23and he was a great engine
13:24for the rest of the artists
13:25to have the confidence
13:26to get on stage
13:27despite everything
13:28that was happening on the street.
13:30One of the days of the festival
13:31was the earthquake,
13:32the famous earthquake of 2010
13:35and the artists were there.
13:37They stayed there.
13:38So,
13:40it's something that goes beyond,
13:42that touches the heart
13:43of popular music
13:44and we hope it continues
13:46for another 60 years.
13:49Why?
13:50Because we need platforms
13:51to promote,
13:52to consolidate,
13:53to make every moment of music
13:56be shared by everyone.
13:58Today, as I told you,
13:59the television is open,
14:00there are digital platforms,
14:02and everything.
14:03And the festival of Niñas
14:04is part of all this.
14:06So, I have 42 seconds left
14:10and I said I was going to ask questions,
14:11but you have, well,
14:12you have 34 seconds
14:13in case anyone wants to ask a question
14:15and I apologize for the hurry.
14:19Does anyone have a question?
14:20Yes, please.
14:33I heard, I heard.
14:34I still have...
14:37Look, that's super important.
14:39What we try to do
14:40is that there are always artists
14:42that are playing,
14:43that have sales,
14:44that have views,
14:45because this is a festival
14:46that sells tickets,
14:47that has a rating,
14:48and that has to meet
14:49a number of requirements.
14:51Okay?
14:52We rely a lot on that.
14:54On the other hand,
14:55it also has to exist
14:56that the festival of Niñas
14:57is a platform
14:58so that we can proudly say,
15:00Bad Bunny was there,
15:01and then,
15:02look what it is,
15:03Karol G was there,
15:04and then,
15:05look what it is,
15:06Luis Miguel was there,
15:07look what it is.
15:08All these cases
15:09make us have to be constantly
15:11searching.
15:12The labels give us information,
15:14the platforms give us information,
15:16there is a committee
15:17that helps to choose
15:18which artist should be there.
15:20And well,
15:21like all things in life,
15:22we have been right,
15:23we have been wrong,
15:24we are people,
15:25but we have always believed
15:27that we have to look for many criteria
15:29to be able to achieve it.
15:31Out of nowhere.
15:32And I got to zero,
15:33so I apologize.
15:35I would have loved
15:36to be able to talk to you
15:37much more about Viña.
15:38I think it is a very important festival.
15:40But,
15:41first,
15:42we are waiting for you in Viña.
15:43I hope you come one day.
15:44The doors are open.
15:45If you are composers,
15:46if you are artists,
15:47if you are managers,
15:48if you are lighting,
15:49if you are EDs,
15:50if you are bookers,
15:51welcome,
15:52and let's make this festival
15:53last for 60 more years
15:54all together.
15:55Thank you very much.