Ana Mena closed the season of Planeta Calleja, in Cuatro, with a most enriching trip to Thailand. The singer, who is now at the peak of her success, explained her humble beginnings, the strange test that led her to work with Pedro Almodóvar, and also, she acknowledged having thought of throwing in the towel more than once .
In fact, Mena confessed that the latter was partly due to a television musical phenomenon called Operación Triunfo, which at that time was sweeping everything. According to the interpreter, who undoubtedly points to the TVE talent, it was the reason for wanting to give up music, something that she ultimately did not do because she decided to leave Spain and try her luck in Italy.
Before succeeding in Italy, where Ana Mena became a mass idol, the Spaniard tried to make a name for herself in Spain. But she hit a wall in the music industry in our country, which is why she decided to try her luck in the neighboring country.
"I went to Italy at a time when it was not going well," acknowledged the interpreter. “My songs didn't work, or the concerts she did had to put money on it. In plan, that she did not have the focus on ”, she assured. "Was there a cause?" Jesús Calleja wanted to know. "Among them, for example, a phenomenon arrived in Spain...", recalled Mena. “Operación Triunfo”, added the presenter in reference to the return of the TVE talent in 2017.
"Well yes," he admitted as a laugh escaped him. “Operación Triunfo really blew me away,” she openly confessed, “it was a time when many young artists came out. It was difficult to have your place, to have your place, when that tsunami arrives. And I had to survive that."
It was then that Ana Mena left Spain and decided to try her luck in Italy: she had been linked to Italian music since she was a child. “And all this without having a damn idea of the language”, she affirmed. And then, a collaboration arose: "And of these things you say: 'Let's see where the flute sounds'". And, with no idea of the language, she used the Internet to learn the lyrics to the song: "Google taught me."
And then he remembered how success came: “The song had neither platform nor radio support, zero. Suddenly it starts to rise a month later until it reaches number 1”. Then the pandemic struck, but even so, the Spanish woman continued to fight for her dream and became number one again with her hit Un paso de la luna.
But, until then, Mena told some funny anecdotes during her hardest stage: they sold her that she would sing in a prestigious place, which turned out to be a hostess club, she even slept at gas stations, in the middle of a performance they yelled at her to leave … “We have eaten a lot of shit,” he said. And, of course, he also admitted: "It has crossed my mind many times to throw in the towel."
