Omar Montes (Madrid, 1988) released La sevillana on April 9, placing it directly at No. 1 on Spotify. In one week it had surpassed all the great classics of the genre and became the most listened to song of the April Fair. He only had to beat one on the streaming platform: last night, at the time of going to press, its more than 5.2 million views left 400,000 spots below Let's Dance, Let's Dance by Cantores de Hispalis. Little dent, neither to him nor to the single, they caused him some criticism after presenting La sevillana in the final of the Copa del Rey. "Do you bring a man from Madrid to sing sevillanas in the capital of Andalusia?"
Omar, who was a boxer before he was a singer, knows how to hit where it hurts the most but even better to fight and respond with exquisite finesse: “I chose to film the clip in the Tres Mil Viviendas neighborhood because since I am taking it over a bit – not at all my intention.” , but I sing a Sevillana without being Sevillian and I owe a lot to Seville, because it is where the art is – I thought that a good way to pay it all my respects would be to record in a charismatic place. And Tres Mil is a neighborhood of humble people that reminds me a lot of mine and I wanted to do it for my fans.”
A native of Pan Bendito, Carabanchel district, the general public met Montes when he began dating Isa Pantoja, daughter of the famous tonadillera. It was 2018. “I liked her a lot, but I didn't really approach her but the other way around. "People are very wrong but I haven't tried to explain it much either... He came to see me at a concert, we took a photo, he tagged it on Instagram and we started talking and getting to know each other before seeing each other for the second time," explains chivalrously. The cameras discovered an urban artist between trap, reggaeton and flamenco who flaunted a lot of gold, high-end watches and luxury sports cars. But also a neighborhood hero who even distributed 500 euro bills among his neighbors and helped families in need with food.
“I grew up in some shanties with my grandmother, my grandfather and my mother. And sometimes, if you ate you didn't have dinner,” she explained in the program Déjate Quiero. Today we ask him if the shortcomings of his childhood explain that phase of insulting waste that he has already left behind: “Possibly yes, because I had nothing and I saw rappers and reggaeton artists loaded with gold, expensive watches, crazy cars… I thought that that was what was cool. And he was very wrong: what's really cool is that you take your mother away from scrubbing stairs. For me now, having a Ferrari doesn't fulfill me, but when I see that my mother doesn't work and she can dress well, eat, go to the movies... that fulfills me more than anything. Right now, gold and Rolexes, I don't even wear them anymore, really. I go out into the street with the first thing I grab from the closet. “I give value to other things.”
Some of them are, he tells us, “sleeping hugging my dog, inviting my grandfather to a vermouth, going shopping with my grandmother. Before, my mother or my grandmother went to Cáritas for food, so going to the movies was out of reach. Or shopping. "He who has not gone through that, does not value it."
Omar found in boxing a path to a righteous life. That's what he says himself. He became welterweight champion of Spain. In 2015 he started in music, the general public knew him as Isa Pantoja's boyfriend three years later and he began to frequent television sets. He won Survivors 2019 and his fame skyrocketed like never before. Even Prime Video chose him as the protagonist for the documentary The Little Prince.
They say that you can escape the neighborhood but the neighborhood will always live in you. Omar, who has made a lot of money, knows this. He bought a mansion in the wealthy Madrid municipality of Boadilla del Monte whose price – not confessed – is estimated to be close to four million euros, but he ended up returning to Carabanchel, where the muses visit him more easily among childhood memories. He now uses it to relax on the weekend or organize parties with friends. We will see it in its entirety in the Los Iglesias format prepared by TVE: Chabeli and Julio José Iglesias will remodel the house of a famous person in each episode.
Omar has been dating Lola Romero since 2021, fifteen years younger than him and known on social media as 'Gypsy Kardashian'. He dreams of being a father again and having an Omarcita. He will know how to find time between so much work: in one month he has collaborated with Luis Fonsi, Daviles de Novelda and Rvfv and Carín León and almost in a row, he has released El conjuntito, with El Bobe, and Yo lo soñé, with Saiko. This last single is the second that he dedicates to Ilia Topuria, Spanish champion of Georgian origin in the UFC featherweight category: on the night of the triumph, Omar was with his old friend in Anaheim (USA).
And Omar likes him. Even King Felipe VI posed smiling next to him after the Cup final. How do you manage to be friends with everyone? “Being who you are, being true and a righteous person. With respect. I have learned the codes of the street very well: respect, don't skip anyone, treat everyone as you would like to be treated, be kind and help when they ask you for something and it is in your power."
