Peruvian singer and composer Sebastian Llosa can boast of belonging to a lineage in which art and professional success have been very present. Filmmaker’s son Lucho Llosa and the singer Roxana Valdiviesonephew of the Nobel Prize for Literature Mario Vargas Llosa, the young man thought for a long time that he would be the only member of his family to dedicate himself to the gray world of finance, but finally his passion prevailed and he decided to bet on music.
After several years making his way, the singer adds a new milestone to his career this Thursday, November 27, starting in Madrid his first international tour‘Volver sin ti’, a tour that will also take him to sing in Miami, Mexico City and his home, Lima.
“I have always had the dream of playing here,” confesses Sebastián Llosa to Infobae Spain when referring to his long-awaited debut in the Spanish capital. Although the choice of Madrid as starting point has responded to logistical questions, for him it was a priority to present himself to the Spanish public: “The type of music that is heard in Spain is music that I listen to a lot and that I feel is similar to mine,” he points out.
The artist acknowledges that he faces this first meeting with the Spanish public with a mixture of nerves and enthusiasm: “I’m scared to death because I want it to turn out well,” he admits in this interview. And he underlines his personal connection with the capital: “This is a city to which I have come a lot, all my life, to which I am very fond, in which I see myself suddenly living in the future.”
Sebastián’s connection with Madrid has a lot to do with his uncle, with whom he confesses to having very beautiful memories. “There has always been a very close relationship with my uncle Mario,” he explains, recounting that in his city visits He stayed in the house that the writer shared with his wife Patricia and that his uncle took him to watch Real Madrid games at the Bernabéu.
About the media exposure of the family, especially in the last stage of Vargas Llosa, has pointed out: “I think it is a family that is very used to the cameras, to the press. Everyone handled it quite well.” Regarding his own private life, he has admitted: “Anonymity still comes very naturally to me. Most people don’t know, that is also a blessing because the one who was recognized was him, not me.” Regarding the figure of Isabel Preysler, he simply responds: “I don’t know her.”
Although he carries his last name with pride, the singer defends that it is no guarantee in his career: “The success of a family member does not guarantee yours in any way,” he stated. In fact, many times that family bond can be more of a burden than an advantage, although for him that demand is always self-imposed and not external: “There are more expectations that you set for yourself yourself, because most people don’t know who you are and don’t care,” he says.
Asked about other artistic concerns, Llosa pointed out that, if he opted for another discipline, it would be cinema: “I don’t know if I have the makings of a directorthe truth. I’ve tried acting and I’m not that good at it,” he commented with humor. Although he likes literature and cinema, he prefers to enjoy them as a spectator. Regarding the long shadow of his uncle Mario Vargas Llosa, he states: “If I wanted to be a novelist, I imagine it would be an enormous burden. For music, I see it as something so different that there is no world in which there can be a comparison.
Despite belonging to a lineage of artists, Sebastián Llosa’s family wanted to steer him away from those paths, thinking about his job and economic stability. “I come from a family of people who are in the art world and many people think that makes it easier. In my case it was the opposite,” he explains to this medium. As he has revealed, his environment warned him from a young age about the difficulties of dedicating himself to art: “They told me: ‘Hey, don’t even think about itbecause actors do poorly, singers do poorly… it’s very difficult.’”
For this reason, he initially chose to study Economics: “I didn’t know what else to study, It wasn’t because he felt an affinity for the economy,” he confesses. The process of life change was gradual, trying other options such as journalism or writing, until he recognized that music was the only constant thing in his life: “Singing was the only thing he had never stopped,” he expresses.
In the beginning, Llosa composed in English, influenced by his father’s experience in the United States: “I went to Los Angeles with my guitar and absolutely nothing happened for several years,” he recalled in his conversation with Infobae Spain. The artist explains that, at that time, social networks were not yet the main channel to make himself known and he did not have access to traditional media. After that stage, he decided to return to Lima and later move to Miami, where the Latin industry has a relevant weight: “What happens in Miami tends to have an impact in Latin America and here in Spain.” The change to composing in Spanish marked a turning point in his career.
In 2022, Llosa experienced her first viral success with the song someone elsewhich became popular on TikTok: “We didn’t have a budget of marketing, there was nothing more than a good song and a little piece that I uploaded to TikTok and it flew,” he says. The artist has acknowledged that for years he doubted his path, but virality came just before he turned thirty, an age that had been marked as a symbolic limit to begin reaping the fruits of his effort. Regarding the concept of success, he has been clear: “For me, success is being able to make a living from music. My thermometer of success is whether I can still continue doing it in a few years,” he concludes.
