Pablo Alborán‘s motivating and heartwarming “Cuando Estés Aquí,” a beneficial song with all proceeds going to UNICEF to help fight COVID-19, is accompanied by a poignant music video released on Monday (April 13).
The song, born in his childhood makeshift studio, and video were created in less than 15 days, says Alborán who is quarantined in Spain. “We were running against the clock so the lyrics, the music, the video were done in two weeks,” the singer-songwriter tells Billboard. “We made the video how we could with whatever means we had and had to work fast. With the video, we wanted to be original and at the same time for it to be simple.”
The simple, yet evocative, black and white video, recorded with Alborán’s cell phone and animated by BAMSTUDIO, starts off with a sand clock and from there, the figure becomes different shapes throughout the video evoking a sense of solitude with empty streets. But it also gives hope with birds flying as a symbol of freedom and the sand clock becoming two people embracing each other.
“There have been many videos that have been put out by other artists where they use images of concerts and images of people hugging each other, which I think are beautiful images, but I wanted mine to be visually different and most of all, for it to make people think and for them to reflect on the reality we’re living and everything that is happening with this video.”
Alborán has in the past collaborated with BAMSTUDIO for album covers and other videos. “My brother works there and we’ve worked a lot together. My brother, who is an illustrator, told me that he wanted to make a simple video and that he wanted to interpret it his way as an artist too. He drew everything by hand.”
“Cuando Estés Aqui” became the first song Alborán recorded in his garage turned studio to be released. “It’s where I would record my songs when I was younger and where I learned how to play guitar and piano. It’s also where I would rehearse with my band. It’s very exciting in that sense,” he says.
With Alborán on vocals, he tapped guitarist Lolo Álvarez who recorded his part from home and the engineer worked on the song from Madrid. For this song, he’s asked fans to record themselves singing this song and he hopes to create some sort of concert effect with his fans’ vocals.
“I was thinking that it would be beautiful to create something that makes it seem like we’re in a concert together. That part in the concert] when I would sing with my fans, just our voices singing together. That’s something you could only live in that moment and I want to recreate that with this song.”
