From Mendoza to Musical Stardom: The Incredible Journey of Negro Tecla

From broken dreams in football to musical success, the story of Negro Tecla: “I went from having nothing to having everything”

The case of Negro Tecla must be unique in the world of music: he knew that his song would be a hit even though that song did not exist. Far from intuition or blind premonition, his certainty had a firm basis: the large number of views on TikTok that the preview of “Rompe”, the song in question, had garnered. It was just 15 seconds; Now he had to compose the rest, two minutes of music. If this were movies, Negro Tecla had filmed the trailer. He needed to produce the film. He did it, of course. And it was a box office success, with theaters – or rather, tickets for their shows – sold out.

Son of a street vendor and a housewife, Giuliano Alesso Rover – his real name – dreamed of playing football: he was looking to make his way in Gimnasia y Esgrima, a club in his native Mendoza. The signing of the first professional contract was the desire. Until everything changed one afternoon. And the songs that he dreamed of hearing from the popular, applauding his name, changed for the applause of the public that sings and dances to his songs.

Before, of course, there is a story to tell.

—How do you go from being Giuliano to Negro Tecla?

—When I was 17, at school everyone called me Tecla because I spent all my time playing the keyboard. And when I took off with music, since I was darker than I am now because I trained in the sun and so on, Negro Tecla remained.

—Music was always there, but before that there was football.

-Yes Yes. She had both there, at the same time. But the way I live now, they are two totally opposite things: I went from waking up at seven in the morning to go to training, to two, three in the afternoon.

—After a game we see how the music appears in the locker room, in the players’ celebrations. And how music idols meet football idols too.

—Look, weeks ago I did a show in Uruguay with the shirt of (Federico) Valverde, who plays for Real Madrid. And he tested me: “Tecla, thank you very much for wearing the jacket. “Whenever you want, I will send you some,” he told me. So I got one signed by him, in a box. Football and music are always there: as if hand in hand.

—At what age did you start playing soccer?

—Since I was little, always in the neighborhood. Then in a more professional club: I played in the reserve and in the first Gimnasia y Esgrima club in Mendoza.

—And the dream, what was it?

—Arrive first and sign the professional contract. I was already half grown up and I was reluctant to ask my parents for money to go out. And there was a time when we were not very well. So I was about to quit and start working in a hardware store. A topic sticks to me every week. And my dream changed like that, overnight.

Negro Key: “I am not what I reflect in my songs”

—Was music a hobby or did you want to dedicate yourself to that?

-No no. It was always more of a hobby, it was for the love of art.

—Didn’t football leave money?

-No no no. I lived with my parents. They supported me. We didn’t have any money at that time either and I said: “Well, that’s it, I’m going to have to quit.” He was waiting for a call from a hardware store, and overnight…

—The first song explodes: “Rompe.”

—Yes, from one day to the next the song had like 10 million (views). She had released a 15-second teaser on TikTok, where she had about 1,500 followers. I was nobody.

—What was that moment when you picked up the phone and saw that it had so many views?

—My cell phone got stuck. I had to change it: I would go to Instagram and it would get stuck, the same on TikTok. The views were already over a million and the full song had not yet been released.

—But did you have the entire song or did you only have those 15 seconds?

—Those 15 seconds.

—You had to start doing the topic.

—And I didn’t have time to talk about it… So I started to do it. And I said: “If these 15 seconds were very good, the whole rest of the song has to be even better. If he is very good at the beginning and then goes down, he will not perform.” And it seems that people also liked the topic. She loved it. I recorded it at my house: it wasn’t mastered, it didn’t have a video clip, it didn’t have anything.

—How did you record it? What equipment did you have?

-Nothing. Just a computer like that, from home, with microphones. Investigating how it was recorded: I produced everything. I did buy the track because I didn’t know how to do it, but I recorded the vocals myself. When I uploaded it, they took it down due to copyright: this, that, I don’t know what. I had to find out, I had to buy it. I asked my dad for money: “Are you sure? Look, it’s a lot of money,” he tells me.

—I don’t understand: why did you have to ask your dad for money if the copyright of the song was yours?

—But the track was from YouTube. It was in the middle of the pandemic: it was 4,500 pesos and when I went out dancing, I asked for 1,000 pesos. It was already a lot, imagine… My old man gave me the money. Now I gave it back to him.

—The whole topic comes up and breaks it.

-Yeah. Within a week he already had a million; after two weeks 3 million; a month, and he was already ten. And I didn’t have a record label, I didn’t have a representative, it hadn’t been recorded in a studio…

—And faced with that, what begins to happen?

—My fumes rose a little. They called me from everywhere. It was crazy: they offered me dollars in advance, apartments, houses, cars… Everything. “Come here and we’ll give you this, we’ll give you that.” I had only one song stuck and they asked me for many shows. “Come, I want to make you sing,” and he had only one song to sing. Many record companies and many production companies called me, and I didn’t feel encouraged.

—And who helped you put your feet on the ground there, to be able to think and decide well what step to take?

—I saw a lot of things, and going from having nothing to having everything was like… you see? It was my parents who kept me, who didn’t want to let me go. And I made one of the best decisions: the only contact we made was with Warner Music. A few months ago “There there” stuck to me. That song came out two years before “Rompe” and it exploded now. And after sticking it to music, I dedicated myself to music. Thank God, today I live from music.

Negro Tecla: “My temper got a little high. They called me from everywhere. It was crazy: they offered me dollars in advance, apartments, houses, cars… Everything”

—What about the pressure of having to generate success? Metrics can be maddening.

—Look, the truth is that I asked myself those questions: “If I made this many plays with the first song, for the second I expect the same or more.” During that period I met several singers, and the first thing David Papichamp tells me is: “Look Tecla, never pay attention to the visualizations because you are going to get down badly. You continued releasing music, which is what you have to do and what you like. And if they hit, they hit. Let it be what God wants.”

—And it came out?

-Yes, indeed. Now I make music because I like it. If it sticks, it sticks. Obviously, what you want is for it to have visualizations, but what do I know.

—In this year, what have you been doing in music, did it happen that some song didn’t work?

-Yes of course.

—And you banked it?

—We have to keep working. Because this is like this: if you hit one out of ten, it’s a great goal. We are just now starting to become better known.

—What is a weekend of shows like?

—We are adding more than five per weekend.

—And the body is enough for that?

—I’m 22, so I’ll put up with it. But out there, if I’m tired, I say: “Fa, I want to go home.”

—I ask you because in Argentina we have tragic stories, of complicated nights on the tours of the musicians with the vans, of going from one place to another, of people who tried to fit 17 shows into one weekend. And that didn’t end well.

—Once we did ten shows in Salta and Jujuy, one weekend, and we had to go quickly because otherwise, we wouldn’t arrive. Everything went well, but always with caution. What’s more: we have asked to put in two, three shows per night, at most.

—Last year Huguito Flores’ accident, when he was traveling in the car with the family, was very sad. And at that time the media was talking about this feeling that exists that we have to take advantage of the moment because it took a lot to get there.

—Yes, they say that a lot to us. “You have to take advantage of the moment and put in all the shows you can,” they tell me. But look, I take Juan, my dad, to all the shows, and he always checks on us. To this day he still controls me. He told us no more than three shows, unless we were out of the country. We go to Uruguay, to Paraguay, and there it is convenient because it is only once a year, or twice, you see?

—You also have to be very careful at night.

-Yes Yes. Well, on my team no one drinks and no one smokes. Everyone tells me that I am not what I reflect in my songs. It seems to me that one makes songs so that society feels half identified. I give a message but, for that matter, it is not what I apply. I don’t drink and I don’t smoke either. Now that I’ve left the sport, what I’m doing is the topic of the night.

-What is your favourite topic? Where is your heart?

—At first I really liked “Rompe,” because it was the one that stuck. But when they called me for shows, I didn’t sing “There there.”

-Because?

-I don’t know. Like she didn’t call me. Now I have to add it because people sing it to me, shout it to me. It’s what they ask me most at shows.

Negro Tecla with Tatiana Schapiro on Infobae

—Do you remember what you did with the first important money you won?

—Look, I think I had won 50 thousand pesos in a show, and I gave my old man some money to eat, and I left the rest to myself. “Here, dad, let’s buy some Milanese,” I told him. And it was crazy… Today my old man is on my team, he works with me.

—Were you able to buy the house or is it the dream?

—It’s in the plans. Now I can help them a lot and we are comfortable, in everything. We have a permanent house, the house is quite good, so it was not something urgent. I had other things, which I was already able to accomplish, so buying the house is also in the plans.

—How do you get along with people on the networks?

-Very good. Every time I go on social media there are a lot of views, people talk a lot about me and support me a lot.

—Is there a lot of hate?

-Yeah. But do you know why? I think because of the stage name. They think that because my name is Negro Tecla, I am just any black man. Like they denigrate me. And for me, it’s not like that. They have educated me very well, so I have enough class to sit down and eat well with someone, and also to eat in the neighborhood with the kids, do you understand me? And out there they tell me: “Ah, Tecla, who does he think he is? If he just has a topic stuck… “. And it’s a lie: I already have two. It’s like that. They think I’m just anyone, and when they hear my songs they sing them, they dance to them.

—What do you answer them?

—No, I can’t answer. But before you tell me anything, I would like you to know me. Let them know what I do. Which I don’t even drink, imagine.

—Are you new?

—I’m dating. She was in my first paid show, but I don’t know what happened to her, she had to leave; She didn’t meet me at the end that night. A week later she went dancing and we met there, dancing.

—And they didn’t separate anymore.

—To this day we are firm there. It always accompanies me.

—Every time you post a topic, just as the hate appears, the messages on the networks also appear.

—They always are. Not only when I bring up a song, but after the shows.

-And what about that?

—I respect my partner a lot. So we go, we work and we go. It’s like that. I don’t even read them, especially now, when my networks are exploited. I’m not even with the networks, only when they tell me: “Tecla, you have to post this.” Well, I’ll upload it. But if not, not even that. What’s more, I forget to answer my mom…

—Do you manage your networks?

-Yeah. To this day I manage them.

—And the advertising and exchange proposals will appear. What is the most bizarre thing they offered you?

—An advertisement for sex toys. A house of those things. I went to do a photo shoot and they wanted to do publicity for it. “No I do not. “I’m not here for this,” I tell him. That was the most bizarre thing.

—Did they pay you well?

—No…. On top of that, they wanted to give me a couple of things there, that weren’t even for me, and they wanted me to upload photos. So no. Yes, I have put up with many friends in the neighborhood who have shoe and clothing businesses. More than 100 thousand people are seeing my stories, so I go there and advertise to them: “Hey, look friends, here they are selling sneakers.”

—What do you want to happen? Now, what are you dreaming about?

—I would like to live a lifetime of this.

2024-04-06 05:25:00
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