Carlos Baute's recitals: from "monkey out" to "drugs in the suitcase"

BarcelonaThe Venezuelan Carlos Baute, singer and soap opera actor, stirred up Madrid's Puerta del Sol a week ago. "Out with the monkey!", he shouted, joining the crowd gathered to applaud the Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, María Corina Machado. The words, which referred to the interim president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, caused him more than one headache due to the racism they exuded, for which he finally apologized. The forms are new, but the premise is not.

Baute had already shown himself to be against the Venezuelan regime of former president Hugo Chávez, as he had dedicated phrases in his songs such as "you will continue destroying my nation" or "she must be removed, because this rat alone will not leave". However, in 2008 he refused to sign a manifesto in support of singer Alejandro Sanz, after the cancellation of his concert in Venezuela by the Chávez government, for fear of reprisals. A fear that began to fade with the arrival of Nicolás Maduro to the presidency in 2013, the year in which he stated: "Today I would have signed it". In fact, the singer's emboldenment did not stop there, and when asked what he would do if he could meet with Maduro, he stated that he would love to be armed, although he later added: "Armed to be able to threaten him and take him to prison". Nevertheless, the singer stayed away from Venezuela for a time because he said that, literally, they could put drugs in his suitcase and his career would be over, in the purest Hollywood style.

"I am a natural seducer and I love to conquer. I have already chosen a partner, but before I didn't stop, I went from flower to flower", is how Baute defined himself in 2009. At that time he was acting as master of ceremonies for

Elígeme

, a television dating show described by critics as a "massive date in which 24 women, smiling and provocative, sought their better half" and where the singer appeared "too sweet and rushed", openly flirting with the contestants. A modus operandi that he already incorporated into his songs, stating, on repeated occasions: "I will always be behind you" or "You liked being chased".

For whom Baute was also not irresistible was for the singer Marta Sánchez, whom in 2008 he literally had, hanging in his hands. The singer complained in an interview in 2011 that the joint hit, which at that time had 170 million views on YouTube (it is now about to reach 1,000 million), had only generated her 6,000 euros. "He is a guy who has many weapons to make a good impression. He plays his role very well –the singer affirmed–. It hurt me that he had never been interested in how I had done". A controversy to which the singer put an end four years later: "I owe him nothing, maybe the manager I had..."