A few kilometers from what was pure desolation a year ago, everything is new. The multicolored shell of the Roig Arena, a venue inaugurated just a couple of months ago, is preparing to host 18,000 people who will be able to enjoy a new edition of the Los 40 Music Awards Santander live. There is certainly no city that needs this type of musical event more than Valencia, which is also fortunate to have a space specially designed for live music and basketball, and which has cutting-edge technology in Europe.
It is the first time that this event takes place in Valencia. Tickets sold out months ago and in just ninety minutes, which gives an idea of the interest aroused by the annual gala that the PRISA music radio group (publisher of EL PAÍS) has been celebrating for almost twenty years: the first edition took place in 2006 in what is now the Movistar Arena. At that time Aitana was only seven years old. Today it has 31 nominations for the Los 40 awards, an absolute record among the musicians who will meet tonight in Valencia. Pablo Alborán and Shakira are leading the classification of historic awards, twelve each.
We spoke with Aitana, immediately after yesterday’s rehearsal:
Ask. In 2006, when the first Los 40 Awards were held, I was seven years old. Now you have 26 and the highest number of nominations in history, 31. Aren’t you dizzy?
Answer. Well, I didn’t know. The truth is, I don’t even count the nominations. But every time I was nominated, in any category, I was very excited. I was sad not to be able to participate last year, which was held in my homeland, Barcelona. But I needed rest on a personal and mental level. I’ve been telling it over the last few months. It’s the only year I didn’t go. And I already missed it.
Q. I think so Blue Room (2025), his fourth album, focuses on the electronic pop he was already practicing Alpha (2023). It’s him synthpop the style in which you definitely feel most comfortable?
R. I don’t think it’s that electronic, actually. Alpha it was more so. I think this is more contemporary in the sense that it has a little bit of everything. More thoughtful, more personal… It has a lot of synthesizers, but it’s slower, actually. I really like change. Within pop, which is the genre I like most.
Q. Before it was a bit bad to say that you struggled if you were a successful young musician: now it’s almost the opposite, isn’t it?
R. What happened to me was that having my dream job and being healthy… I didn’t understand why, if I had everything, it was difficult for me to get out of bed. How is it possible to feel that sadness without any apparent meaning? Before you’re diagnosed, it’s hard to understand.
Q. Do you think it’s a generational issue?
R. I don’t think it’s a generational issue. At that moment I didn’t want to tell it, but at that moment we were recording the documentary with Netflix and, even if we didn’t talk about depression as such because in the end it was right when I was diagnosed, I already felt it. The people around me saw it, but felt like they weren’t the ones telling me. When I was already doing the promotion, I said it. I was afraid to do the promotion Metamorphosis and I thought my hands would shake on the red carpet or that I would notice something. I was in that process. It made me feel safer telling it. When you don’t explain it, people can’t understand it. These are things you can’t control. Being able to share can come, I have always shared everything a lot. I have always been very natural.
Q. Have you learned to keep things to yourself, so you don’t get caught?
R. Many things influence. Among these, the clickbait. It stresses me out a little thinking about what they’re going to put in the title. You know that everything can be distorted or manipulated. And the problem is that many don’t even read the interview. They don’t go beyond the title. They don’t reach the content of what we talked about. So there are things I try to say differently. But, well, in the end I can’t help but get into trouble.
Q. Is it easy for you to maintain friendships with how much your life has changed?
R. There are many things that have changed, it is clear, but we always try to look for the gaps. Just like you take care of your family, your friends are your chosen family. It is important to take care of them. I live in Madrid, and for me it’s a little easier to make plans with my Madrid friends of the last eight years than with my friends from Barcelona, because in the end everyone also has their own life: it’s not when I can, they can, far from it. We have to try to make ends meet together.
Q. How do you behave when the media talks about your private life, that is, your partners and your love life, and not about music?
R. Now I’m much calmer about it. I’m not a person who talks about their whole life either, but I’ve come to accept that when you take it more naturally, the media isn’t as attentive either. It’s true that when I kept the most personal things to myself, the press monitored me more. I think we have found a balance between my personal peace of mind and the interest of the press in these matters.
Q. Coming back to the music: your latest album has 19 songs, but I read that you wrote 70. Are you saving the scraps for future work?
R. No. You’re doing, you’re getting lots of ideas, but you don’t keep many of them. In the end you are not a robot, but you try many, and there are some that don’t fit depending on the type of album. I’m not thinking of recording any of those demos. I want to start over, try new things. I’m seeing where I’ll go next, because I want to take my time with the fifth album. A long time, because I want it to be really special. I have a big tour coming up in 2026 and then I’ll take it easy. Then I want to experiment, see, compose a lot… by trial and error.
Q. What does living mean to you? I understand that he must have some addiction. And in his case, also, with an extremely intergenerational audience: children, adolescents, parents and grandparents.
R. That’s what I like most. You miss it when you’re not active for a while. Although I also like to organize tours without spending too much time away from home. I never stay away from home for more than a month, it’s hard for me. And I like to have all types of audiences, of all ages. Perhaps there are those who underestimate it, but capturing a child’s attention is very complicated.
Rosalía and Ed Sheran, the other protagonists of the gala
The other focus of the 40 Santander Music Awards will be on Rosalía, the Spanish artist with the greatest global impact. Mainly because this Friday he releases material from Lux (2025), their long-awaited fourth album. A work in which he once again masterfully blends the pop artclassical music and flamenco in 18 songs with collaborations from Björk, Yves Tumor, Sílvia Pérez Cruz, Carminho, Estrella Morente or Yahritza.
Ed Sheeran, Myles Smith, Aitana herself, Dani Fernández, Dani Martín, Quevedo, Feid, Bad Bunny, Beéle, Emilia, Kapo, Mora, Morat, Rauw Alejandro, Karol G, Lola Indigo and Sebastián Yatra lead the award nominations.
THE40 Music Awards Santander 2025 will begin at six in the afternoon with the obligatory red carpet, where Cris Regatero, Karin Herrero, Aitana Jerez and David Álvarez will present themselves The pre-show. This special programme, featuring random interviews with key guests as they arrive at the event, can be seen exclusively on the broadcaster’s YouTube channel, and the gala can be enjoyed from 8.30pm, hosted by Tony Aguilar, Cristina Boscá and Dani Moreno El Gallo, via the LOS40 website, app and YouTube channel, as well as on Divinity and Mediaset Infinity. On Sunday 9 November, starting at 8 am, Divinity will broadcast a rebroadcast of the event.
