David Bisbal on Paying Tribute to the ‘Best Era of Romantic Pop in Spanish’ with ‘Eternos’
Billboard ·
The new album, featuring covers of classics popularized by Nino Bravo, José José and others, arrives on Thursday (Oct. 1).
There are songs that David Bisbal has known forever, but listening to them with the intention of singing them made him discover them in a completely new way. For Eternos , his tenth studio album — which arrives on Thursday (Oct. 1) — the Spanish artist lends his voice to classics of romantic pop from the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, popularized by Nino Bravo, José José, Juan Gabriel, Raphael and others.
“This is a tribute to what I consider the best era of romantic pop in Spanish,” Bisbal tells Billboard Español , adding that tackling this repertoire gave him a new perspective on the artists who originally popularized these songs. “When I started studying the songs of these performers, that’s when I realized that they were, without a doubt, the best.”
To make these so closely associated with other voices his own, Bisbal started with a simple idea: imagining that the songwriters had given these tracks directly to him. From there, he sought his own way of singing them, respecting the melodies and much of the original arrangements, without attempting to replicate the interpretations that made them famous.
The tracklist includes 10 songs, such as “Te Quiero, Te Quiero,” “Vivir Así es Morir de Amor,” “El Amar y el Querer” and “Abrázame Muy Fuerte.” For most, Bisbal stayed very close to the original arrangements; in others, he allowed himself more creative freedom, such as with Raphael’s classic “Qué Sabe Nadie,” which he adapted more to his own style. Vocally, he showcases a more restrained and measured approach throughout much of the album, allowing the melodies to breathe and reserving his powerful vocal prowess for moments when the songs demand it.
For Eternos , Bisbal collaborated once again with Cheche Alara, the producer and arranger of his Christmas album Todo es Posible en Navidad (2024). The goal was to recapture the way music was recorded decades ago, bringing musicians together to play live, with large instrumental ensembles that, in some tracks, involved more than 90 musicians. The core of the album was recorded live at Henson Recording Studios in Los Angeles, with drums, bass, percussion and Alara on piano, while strings and brass sections were recorded later in Budapest, in sessions that Bisbal followed remotely from Madrid.
“In the old days, to make a song sound big, they had no choice but to bring in a lot of musicians,” Bisbal explains. “Today, we have the ability to substitute musicians with programming, but to make the album sound like it did 50 or 60 years ago, we had to record it under the same conditions.”
“Amor Eterno” represents one of the album’s grandest moments, featuring a symphonic mariachi arrangement with strings, harp, brass and guitarróns. For Bisbal, however, the song transcended the musical realm. When he recorded it, his father was going through a difficult health situation, and he thought of Juan Gabriel and the grief from which he had written the song for his own mother. After his father’s passing in February, Bisbal found himself singing the song from his own place of loss. “Now, that song has taken on a new meaning for me,” he says. “He is here, he is with me.”
Among the songwriters featured, Manuel Alejandro stands out as the most represented on the set, with tracks like “Qué Sabe Nadie,” “Frente a Frente” (co-written with Ana Magdalena) and “El Amar y el Querer.” The latter, in particular, was a true revelation for Bisbal, both for its lyrics and for what he uncovered while studying it to make it his own. He also found something special in “Frente a Frente,” a song with few male versions and one he believes is especially rewarding to perform live. On “Quijote,” Bisbal jokes that he connected with a lyric that “perfectly describes Julio Iglesias’ life.”
After strings, brass, mariachi and grand arrangements, Eternos closes with the simplest touch: Bisbal’s voice singing Joan Manuel Serrat’s “Aquellas Pequeñas Cosas” a cappella, a magnificent ending for an album where the arrangements play a fundamental role.
For Bisbal, this project is part of a journey that remains open, even after more than two decades in his career, driven by a curiosity he hopes to never lose: the desire to keep learning.
The next challenge will be taking these songs to the stage, something he admits will demand a unique interpretation every night. To do so, he plans to expand his band with a strings section and a brass section. “Some artists need dancers or other kinds of things; what I need is my band,” he says.
The tour kicks off on Oct. 6 in Santiago, Chile, and will travel through Latin America before continuing in Mexico and the U.S., while Spain will have to wait until the summer of 2027.