Mexican Style Love: Passion and inner desires are revealed through the language of LUXURY and STYLE [Vogue Mexico, February 2021]

Thalía on her first Vogue Mexico magazine feature on their February 2021 issue. Below is the English translation of the interview. Enjoy!

Vogue Mexico, February 2021. Click the image to view all the scans in the gallery!

This February we talk about love in all its facets: of PASSION and perseverance to achieve our dreams, of how it helps us to have a positive attitude and of examples of SUCCESSFUL women, like the Mexican actress and singer Thalía, who has fallen in love in different ways for several generations.

Thalía wearing top by Valentino. Cotton Crochet Bikini - Azure, US$890
Skirt by Altuzarra. 'Billie' Knit Skirt, US$795
Shoes by Prada. Slingback Pointed Toe Pumps, US$834.34

Latin Monarch
She has spent more time on stage and in front of cameras than in a normal life. She was VIRAL before the term even existed and decades ago she established herself as the queen of Latin American pop culture. THALÍA makes her story on her first cover for Vogue. Away from shields, she talks about her new album, reviews the weight of growing up under the spotlight, remembers how her father's death marked her and reveals the key to continue dominating the WORLD (always in Spanish).

Photography
BJORN IOOSS

Styling
MAX ORTEGA

"I open the Billboard and the # 1 global album in Spanish is Bad Bunny's. How wonderful that our music in Spanish is ruling the world!", says Thalía in a celebratory tone. She catalogs the growing Hispanic wave as a "new Latino boom" that has little to do with the one that woke up in the 40s with Carmen Miranda; which matured in the 70s and 80s with figures such as Carlos Santana, Julio Iglesias or Gloria Estefan and which ended in 2000 with Ricky Martin, Enrique Iglesias and Shakira. "Tommy (Mottola) pushed him," she will say with a laugh. "In the others, everyone was trying to sing in English, everyone was trying to do Spanglish for the crossover: now you see the great artists singing in Spanish to do it," she assures.

Thalía anticipated all those outbursts. And she has remained. The crossover was reformulated in her hands. In the mid-1990s, when it had already appropriated a place on the national scene and the soap operas that she starred were one of the main imported products of Mexico, it conquered latitudes such as Hungary, was received in Jakarta and paralyzed the Philippines on a promotional tour in which she even met with the president of that nation. Her music, almost always in Spanish, accompanied her, although she eventually recorded herself in Portuguese, French, English and even a whole album in Tagalog. "I imagined it in my dreams of greatness, the girlish dreams and the stars in my eyes," she recalls.

It is not for less, in her there is an almost genetic affinity for the stages. In part, perhaps because she was named after one of the Greek muses of the theater. The same for the effects of her childhood that she confesses it is lonely. "My childhood was fun, but very lonely because my sisters were already leaving home." Her art served her as a refuge. "I grew up alone and for that same need I had to find my own universe in my home." The rest of her fell on her mother Yolanda Miranda Mange -decanted by painting and sculpture-, who would accompany her for the rest of her career.

This is the only way to understand that in Thalía's childhood, games have been replaced by spotlights, recording studios and participation in competitions that dominated prime time. First in the children's group Din-Din, then in Juguemos a cantar, soap operas like Quinceañera (the first youth novela in Mexico), Timbiriche, a solo career... the rest is history. By the time we speak, not even the brake that the pandemic has brought has stopped it. She has released several songs since the confinement broke out, premiered a program for Facebook Watch produced with her husband Tommy Mottola, has run home school with her children Sabrina Sakaë and Matthew, has revised a Christmas song and has finished with the new album whose release is still pending. "This new album is incredible and has wonderful surprises. The lyrics are intense, mischievous, it will have some collaborations, solo songs".

Despite her dizzying schedule, when talking to Vogue, Thalía moves away from the talks against the clock. She dilutes the shields. She recovers her personal passages that have strengthened her. That of the woman who grew up anticipating her empowerment. "We encouraged it. It wasn't something that happened from time to time, for us it was always"; that of a mother who never stopped her creative momentum: "Her vision was: music will open another horizon for her, it will make her more intuitive, more self-confident" and even that of a little girl who witnessed the death of her father in a hospital ward. "When I saw him, I kissed him, I hugged him and just when I left the room the machines began to go crazy, the sounds, the nurses, the doctors. My father had just died. I always thought that that kiss of love had killed him. I understood that I had to work out that situation with my father and let go of the idea that it was my fault".

She immerses herself in the flashbacks of her career. The chapter of the incipient child star in search of identity: "I took advantage of each stage, each participation to find my identity, my voice"; the incredulous diva of telenovelas before a global boom: that of having become the first artist produced by the legendary Emilio Estefan, who only used to embark on the projects of his wife Gloria. "That opened for me the internationalization with Amor a la mexicana (album), those songs were hits in Paris and in so many places." She also recounts her first misunderstandings with fame. "There are times where the ego is at the top and where you say 'I am this and the other step aside because I just arrived" and even the double demand that the industry usually places on women and that questioned their abilities at the forefront of the production. "There were those kinds of questions, there were those kinds of people in the industry who definitely gave me advice, some very wise, others too stupid, others very plastic and others very interesting. You learn and you refine your intuition, you listen more to this inner voice".

MODERN ROCK GIRL
Girl they tell me who I am, not to paint me and not to wear heels, but they don't understand that I am different from the others..."

In her 49 years she has served as an author, fashion entrepreneur, had her magazine and radio show and her voice has been fused with that of a range of artists including Tony Bennett, Michael Bublé, Robbie Williams. And she even she broke all protocol by taking Barack Obama out to dance. But long ago she decided to slow down. She was in a certain way bound by the Lyme disease that was diagnosed more than a decade ago and the same by a better creative assertiveness. But to a greater extent, she attributes it to the family nest where she stumbled upon in advance the feminine strength that is so often talked about under the name of empowerment. "My home was that, that matriarchy, that feminine strength, that energy of the goddess in all her splendor".

Her compass is based on that and the same from the experiences that made her see that her profession went beyond simple entertainment. She proved it when she starred in Quinceañera, the novela that put her in the spotlight and that shook "such an oppressive, macho, square society" by addressing issues such as teenage pregnancy. "I received letters from young women saying: 'I was about to take my life when the episode in which Beatriz told her family about the reality that she was pregnant happened and that gave me the strength not to do it.' There I understood that what you do through music, acting, whatever you do to entertain affects people, helps and accompanies (them)".

This would mark the decisions she made professionally. "Sometimes I thought about it more, I contemplated the effects that what I was going to sing could have. But I also gained intuition, passion, sensuality, that feminine, sexual side that I have always had in my life and especially when I was young". Thalía talks about the era of songs Un pacto entre los dos or Saliva, classified as provocative. It was the time of crop tops covered with daisies, the costumes of hot pants and bustiérs and the monumental presentations on Mexican television where she burst in like a pharaoh emanating from a sarcophagus. "There were many costumes, very emblematic, very impressive and important presentations that I did and that today I see them being repeated. I see them in the big ones: Gaga or Perry. I say: Wow!". Although she clarifies: "Nothing is new under the sun, sometime somewhere, maybe, someone did it before".

WHO CARES?
I know that they criticize me, I know that they hate me, envy corrodes them, my life overwhelms them..."

When not in school, the singer plans a strategy for a new business venture or analyzes her possible return to acting. "I would like to return with a character that add up, that challenges me, that gives me another cache, another style. For now it has not arrived despite the fact that they keep sending me scripts and invitations to different things", she reveals. Thalía seems to be far from the scrutiny that has accompanied her. She has been awarded romances with politicians, eternal rivalries with other pop stars, the famous removal of her ribs, the truth behind the kidnapping of her sisters, the breakdown of the dynasty. She does not delve but does not limit herself. "There are times when it is not worth talking, there are times when things have already happened and others that no longer exist in one's present," she indicates. "Today I laugh and what they say, invent and talk has no effect because I know who I am, I know the woman I have become, I know what makes me happy and what I live, so nothing external can change my emotion, but as a child yes".

And what insecurities could the star who had the most lucrative contract in Mexican television have? "Having grown up in the public eye is very strong for any teenager. The same word says it, you are young, you are not trained, you are looking for who you are (...) And when you do it in front of the camera and there are millions of eyes watching you, criticizing you and giving your opinion about you is hard not to believe it. It was very painful".

Her relationship with fame became just as tough. She came to overtake her at times. "Your ego begins to beat you, but for the same reason the blows come, the learning, the situations that suddenly do not go so well and that is where you hit the wall", she confesses reflectively. She reserves them for herself, but as soon as she is questioned whether her mother was an accomplice to that loss of reality, she relives: "My mother gave me some feelings!", she relives mischievously. "I appreciate it. She pushed me out there to find a little more security and look at where I am: I'm very secured!", she lets out with a laugh that puts down the solemn moment.

After all, Thalía believes that, like her jobs, in life it is possible to edit for the better. "You don't need to stick with things that make you a jerk, obsolete, that get in the way. You can edit and start with life. That's a beautiful lesson I've learned". Has there been a project that she would remove from the film of her life? "The only thing I can tell you is that novela Luz y Sombra. The script direction, the production, I didn't like anything. But beware, from there I met Enrique Álvarez Félix and from there I had a contact with his mother (María Félix), so it wasn't bad either.

MEXICAN STYLE LOVE
"I don't want compassion, I don't want pity, I want a hard love that can make me vibrate..."

Reviewing Thalía's career is to recall the pop fantasy of a girl who grew up in the foliage of Santa María la Ribera, the oldest neighborhood in the Mexican capital, conquered the world and ended up married to a tycoon who reformulated the rules of music. Since they were married more than two decades ago, she has earned him all kinds of gossip in the press, and the tabloids in turn will find a regular way to talk about an alleged divorce. And it was not for less, that wedding is one of the most remembered Latin wedding. Any character who had a name flocked to St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan. Michael Jackson, Robert De Niro, Jennifer Lopez, the Estefans... The police were overwhelmed that night in December 2000 in which a daring Thalía wore a memorable dress with a kilometer-long train that was 17 meters long that required at least four people to assist her in order to move. "They did not know where the blow from Thalía-Mottola's wedding hit them because Fifth Avenue was paralyzed, they did not know how to divert traffic, open new roads," she says, even she with a mixture of enthusiasm and disbelief.

When questioned about the whereabouts of that daring bridal piece, the singer reveals that it is kept safe in a New York house dedicated to the preservation of this type of clothing, where they also take care of the pieces of the Metropolitan Museum. "I said: this is a museum, this one stays there with all the other MET pieces". If she is asked about her love life, Thalía maintains a dreamy tone but is cautious. She does it in her networks when necessary and she prefers to keep aside any other clue that goes beyond the private sphere. Her public appearances have been limited to red carpets, although the musical genius has accompanied her at crucial moments such as the sudden death of the singer's mother in 2011 just two weeks after the couple welcomed their second child. After two decades, with a smile that is more revealing, the singer affirms that music continues to link them (the relationship is summarized in Acción y reacción). "We love scrutinizing singers from the 40s, 50s, 60s. Always looking for that inspiration". Are melodies enough to survive the media maelstrom for more than 20 years? "Someone told me that what makes a successful couple is having a common plan and we have three. Music, we love houses: building, decorating and selling; and our children who are our priority".

The mention of Matthew and Sabrina becomes a spark for a promise that Thalía made in the late Cristina Saralegui program, in which the newlywed clarified that the wedding was not sold (to the media) because she preferred to preserve it for family memory: Have the little ones seen that video? "Yes. And they still do not understand what that love story was. When they are older they will understand that romance, that which occurs suddenly from time to time in fairy tales, princesses and that touched us".

A reminder that the conversation is about to end breaks the fantasy. In a resumé that seems endless, is there something to do? "One of my dreams was to have my Vogue cover. Being here is one of those dreams that I had on my bucket list." After a few seconds in which she mentally goes through a to-do list she adds: "There is still everything to do".

In this report:
Hairstyle, Rita Marmor wearing Oribe
Makeup, Anneliese Tieck with ILIA Cosmetics products
Manicure, Megumi Yamamoto
Photography assistants, Corey Danielie and Geoff Leung
Fashion assistant, Alexis Ayala
Talent, Thalía