Why did you choose Ibiza for your holidays?
Because it was recommended by a lot of people. And also, and it’s unforgivable, I have never been to Ibiza before. And I have been to so many amazing places in Spain and I’ve been to Mallorca and… but I’ve never been to Ibiza. I wanted somewhere close to Madrid and of course, it’s an hour on the plane, and the weather and the food… And everyone said it’s very… A lot of people said if you want to go dancing but I don’t do that, as you can tell, so I wanted somewhere quiet, so we found this amazing hotel in this beautiful part of Ibiza that feels super peaceful even though it’s high season. So, the weather, the food, and the fact that is very close to home, which is in Madrid.
Now you know how is Ibiza, you’re able to identify Ibiza with a piece of music or a compositor? You feel that special connection because of the environment of Ibiza with a compositor?
Not with a specific composer but it does feels very musical here with the birds and the crickets and the wind and everything, and everything feels like there are melodies everywhere. So really, I love lying looking up at the sky and the sun and closing my eyes and just listening to music here, it feels amazing. Everything is so fresh here, the air, the food, the water, everything feels like it’s clean, you know why I mean, everything feels like it’s brand new.
Perhaps you have seen that the own ibicenco people are, we are very self criticized about how we are treating the island. You have an opinion about this?
Not really, I mean, I’m a foreigner, I’m a visitor here, so I don’t think I’m not in a position to talk about that. But what I do know, from what I’ve seen, there is no need to be self critical, it looks perfect. Then, of course, there are problems everywhere, there are problems with the environment, and with drugs and economically. We can always find things that are problematic, we can always look at the negative things but to me it is quite nice sometimes to put on a different pair of glasses and look at the positive things because there are so many of them and that’s my experience by arriving here that it’s been a completely positive experience in the loveliest ways, the people have been so kind, the weather has been amazing, even the storms where incredible.
Yes!
And the food and the atmosphere, the energy of Ibiza is not what I expected. I thought it would be one of those places filled with people who want to get high and go dancing until five o’clock in the morning but it feels like the opposite, it feels like the most peaceful place in the world.
Did you imagine an island that is more desertic, with palmeras and sand but not with so many trees and so many nature and agriculture?
It’s a very natural place, isn’t it? It feels like a very natural place, it’s beautiful, I love it.
Everyone knows that you are very compromised [committed] with this issue of sexual violence against children. You had a very interesting meeting with Spanish President, Mr. Pedro Sánchez and you have been collaborating very actively with Save the Children. Are you optimistic for the future in this issue or you keep your scepticism about how this painful matter will evolve in the future?
About this issue, I am optimistic, having met Mr. Sánchez, and you know when you meet someone and you look them in the eye, you can tell if someone is being honest or if someone is not, and he seems to me to be a very…, he seems to me to have a lot of integrity, Mr. Sánchez, and he gave me his word that he would take action and working with Save the Children has provided a new law that will make, it it’s implemented, it will make Spain the number one country in the world in the protection and safeguarding of children, which is incredible and we talked about this with the President and we said we would like to put the law before the Congress in September or October because it will take a few months. And he seemed very excited by that and the idea that in six or seven months this law could be implemented in Spain and the rest of the world would look at Spain as ‘this is the example of how to protect children’, to me it’s incredibly exciting. I think it’s very unusual to have an issue where all political parties and all politicians agree. You know, it’s very hard to do that with taxes and economics, it’s very hard to do that with tourism, it’s hard to do that with a lot of things, but with this issue, I think everyone agrees that, you know, enough is enough, and every week there is another terrible case in the newspapers of these terrible things happening. So, my belief is, we met with Mr. Sánchez and we plan to meet again with him in September and I really believe he’s going to do everything he can to make sure this law is implemented. And that’s a very exciting thing for me.
