From today, July 2, until Saturday, the 4th, the SGAE Foundation celebrates the new edition of UrbanEñe. Framed within the activities of Granca Live Fest 2026 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, it will bring together talents such as Admire, who has just published his wonderful debut ‘Revelación’; Paulina del Carmen, MELANIA or Pablo Batista.
The guest on the new edition of the ALGO CAMBIÓ… podcast is Admire, with whom we talk about what is meant by “urban”, today one of the “freest genres”. Mireia Gómez -her real name- tells us about her preference for dancehall and Afrobeat rhythms, or the influence of artists like Beyoncé. “I like it so much because each album is different.” He also talks about precariousness or how he has ended up realizing himself as a multidisciplinary artist, since he designs choreographies or has ended up directing his own music videos. “When I decided what kind of artist I wanted to be, I got into everything.”
We spoke with Admire about the importance of the voice in the urban area, precisely because she has taken care of it and is a follower of people who do the same, but she recognizes that it is an issue that has not always been in the focus. «You don’t need to have a good voice to be an artist. Before, either you were Rocío Jurado or you had no chance. Today you are no less an artist for using Autotune or not. As an example of people who admire, and it is not because of their voice, there are the cases of Rusowsky or Ralphie Choo.
We also have the opportunity to talk about the depth of the genre’s lyrics, since on her album there are hedonistic songs, but also profound ones, like ‘Those people who HMMM’: “I’m talking about people who judge you firsthand, or who look down on you: “poor thing, this girl, she’s not going to make a living.” And you think: “Wow, they could have treated me better because it’s from people’s affection that we get the energy to move the project forward.” And thus this phrase of ‘These people who HMMM’ was born.
He explains in more detail: «I lost a lot of weight for a video clip, for one that I am ice skating and I had never raised anything about my body. And people started telling me “you’re prettier.” And it was like “didn’t it before? “I haven’t done it to lose weight.” And that gets to you without wanting to. With everything I could be doing and I have to worry about whether I have more kilos or less, what nonsense.
After extracting from Admire what her great “guilty pleasure” is – and be careful because it is worth finding out -, in a second part of the podcast we speak with Ana Llorente, mother of Gata Cattana. This allows us to analyze his legacy, as well as reveal that a SGAE Urban Gata Cattana Award will be created, which will be awarded to artists under 30 years of age. We detail it here.
In the last part of the podcast we talk with the Chilean promoter Patricio Subiabre, who has worked at Lollapalooza and Universal, as well as in many other spaces, about the evolution of urban music, or what Spain would have to do to export more artists. Patricio explains that reggaeton has devoured the word “urban”, to the point that now it is even considered national folklore, “urban.” «Cumbia in Argentina is considered urban because it is very neighborhood. In Mexico there were no reggaeton players. Being pigeonholed is the most difficult thing for an artist today,” he postulates, while highlighting the importance of concepts today such as “engagement”, “data” or “merchandising”.
About how to succeed in Latin America from Spain, Subiabre is clear. “Cracking stones,” he concludes, analyzing the cases of Manuel Carrasco, Bisbal and Pablo López. «We must do more permanent penetration work. Have perseverance and permanence. The biggest enemy of the strategy to conquer South America? Many times, the lack of budget. “There is a lack of professionalism for internationalization,” he indicates, warning of the importance of the fund: “The artist is the heritage.”
