Youth, romantic music and the secret to staying current: never being in fashion

After a long wait, the iconic Spanish band Youth returns with his unforgettable boleros to Argentina as part of the celebrations of its 60 years of history with the tour “Si Tú Me Dices Ven Tour 2026”.

The concert will be on May 12 at the Coliseo theater, and they will be accompanied Rafael Basurtolast vocalist of Trio Los Panchos, and Alex Fernandezson of Alejandro Fernández, and one of the greatest exponents of Mexican romantic music, transformed the evening into a selection of romantic music in Spanish.

After two decades of waiting, Izaskun Uranga (foundress), Idoia Urangto, José Miguel González, Rosa Rodríguez, José María Santamaria and Tony Menguiano return to the land of Sandro and Gardel to perform six decades of hymns to love, divided into more than 20 albums with classics like It’s you, take me or leave me either your exampleamong others.

When Mocedades released his debut album in 1969, the man stepped on the Moon for the first time. and the hippie movement in the United States redefined the concept of freedom with its Woodstock festival.

From those days of French May to these days of viral challenges and visualizations, the world changed as many times as it rotated on its axis. And in all this Cambalache in Discepolian terms that span two different centuries, there is something that never changed: singing about love as a sublime fact and if it is accompanied by the talent of the multivocal group from Bilbao Mocedades, much better.

“The secret to being current for so many years is precisely not to be in fashion, because Fashions are ephemeral and just as they come, they go. The key is to be faithful to what was originally the group’s hallmark.: vocal and multivocal polyphony and the truth is that we are very proud that the public continues to recognize us 60 years later.” The owner of the definition is José Miguel González, who more than a decade ago left his position as manager to be one of the main voices of Mocedades, and in an exclusive conversation with Clariontalks about the impatience of reuniting with an audience “full of art and nostalgia,” like the Argentinian one.

-After many years, including a frustrated visit in 2022, Mocedades returns to Argentina, how are they experiencing it?

-First of all, I want to tell you that we are very excited to return to Argentina and also to do it well. We are very happy, because for us returning to Argentina is more of a sentimental issue than a business one. We wanted to return to Argentina as part of the group’s 60-year history and, above all, to a country that is full of nostalgia.

Not because of the tangos, but because of so many countrymen who went there, who made their dreams come true and who today are looking forward to meeting us again at our concerts or the children or grandchildren of those countrymen who one day had to leave then. This, together with the fact that it is a musically exceptional country, makes us happy to return.

-How was your arrival in Mocedades? Did you think they were going to spend more than 60 years making music?

-I have always dedicated myself to music. I have always sung, I have always been in the musical world, but in Mocedades I started as a manager. I was like this for a while and then for the reason that a member was down, they told me: “You come in temporarily and we’ll see what happens, let’s see if he recovers,” and in the end that circumstantial thing has turned into more than a decade in the group, seven albums recorded and toured practically all the countries where Mocedades is heard.

-How do you manage, after 60 years, to continue feeling that tingling before each show and not turn it into just another day at the office?

-I think that the day you no longer feel the tickling it is better to dedicate yourself to something else. Because this profession truly gives you the opportunity to be excited, to do what you like, to enjoy it, to be applauded and to top it off to get paid. Not everyone has those possibilities in their job. Getting excited is a constant, because the Argentine public is not the same as the Mexican one, just as the Chilean public is not the same, just as the Spanish public is not the same.

So, for us returning to Argentina is going to be a concert that we are already preparing with great care so that people are not left without enjoying any of the great hits. And to also celebrate friends who over time have been present in our lives and have recorded with us, as is the case of Luciano Pereyrawhich we recorded with him recently and a wonderful duet has come out, or like Alejandro Lerner, or like so many brothers and friends from our beloved Argentina.

-In addition, the last singer of Trio Los Panchos and Alex Fernández will be there. It will be like a kind of selection of romantic music in Spanish…

-It is going to be a very emotional concert, because the last voice of Los Panchos will be there, which is maestro Rafael Basurto. And our godson will be there, Álex Fernández, who represents one of the most important dynasties and sagas of Mexican music singers in history. His father, Alejandro Fernández, and his grandfather, Vicente Fernández, and Álex, who is already walking on his own and who is currently in a lot of musical whirlwind and with great success on both sides of the ocean.

-Is there a secret to being so current in a world that changed so much from the ’60s to today?

The secret is not to be in fashion, because fashions are ephemeral and just as they come, they go.. The secret lies exclusively in being faithful to what was originally the triumph of the group, to that seal of vocal polyphony, which we distinguish ourselves precisely because of that vocal and multivocal seal, and the truth is that we are very proud that the public continues to recognize us 60 years later.

Afterwards, we have made different forays to update the music, to preserve it and to rejuvenate it. And we have gotten together with David Bisbal, with Morat, with Luciano Pereyra, with Ana Torroja, with Carlos Baute, Il Divo, well, with many singers from another generation, so that precisely the current generations know our music.

-After many years where it seemed that Artificial Intelligence and autotune came to steal the scene, artists with high vocal capacity began to be valued, at least in Argentina. Not only good performers, but good singers. Do you see it that way?

-Completely. We are real artists, we do not use any type of makeup, because then things have to be defended live and you have to know the same thing about singing with a piano, alone, with a symphony orchestra, with your band, with a guitar, because that is where the class and capacity and category of an artist is demonstrated. I absolutely agree with you that Argentina is one of the countries in which authentic music and music with true foundations have once again been valued. And that is something that happens in life and has happened throughout history. Everything is cyclical.

We have had a time where it seemed that trash music, with all due respect, was what was going to prevail, and little by little we are returning again to valuing good lyrics, good melodies and songs that really transmit a message beyond the absurdities that reggaetón has brought us in other times and many absolutely despicable lyrics.

-Which Argentine artists are among the most admired by you?

-We are admirers of many Argentine artists. If Argentina has something, it is precisely pure art in its veins. From Mr. Atahualpa Yupanqui, of whom at the beginning of the group, many years ago, we have recorded songs. Alberto Cortesanother great one, who was a great friend of ours. Who doesn’t know songs by Alberto Cortés? But I can go to Cacho Castaña, Negro Lavié, Valeria Lynch, or I am a great admirer of Abel Pintos. Lerner, Luciano Pereyra. That is to say, my knowledge is very poor to be able to express with admiration all the art that Argentina has. I mean, I couldn’t stop telling you names.

-What is it like to talk about romanticism in the 21st century?

-Telling a person I love you or telling someone I love you will never change, and that can be done with one style of music or another, but the best way to communicate with our feelings has to be through the most beautiful words that our vocabulary has and through the best music that our composers and musicians have.

I understand that good taste does not understand generations. And when a song is good, it’s good 50 years ago and today. And when a song is bad today, it will be just as bad 100 years from now.