SILVER SEA- Miguel Ángel Cherutti and his daughter Bianca work together literally all week. On Mondays they liven up the casino nights at the Uthgra Sasso hotel in Punta Mogotes, with a show called Únicos, and from Tuesday to Sunday they star in Un super show, the musical show at the La Campana Theater that offers performances at 11pm, and that also includes its cast includes humorist Torry Palenzuela and a female dance corps. Nevertheless, it is the first time that father and daughter share the same stage . Until this summer they had only sung as a duet on television, on the program Singing for a dream, in 2020.
For Miguel Ángel Cherutti (65) this season marks a double celebration: that of his 40 years with the show (which could well be 42 if the first two years of the pandemic in which he was inactive are added) and that of counting on his side to his daughter Bianca Cherutti (26), the fruit of his first marriage to the nutritionist Silvina Ocampo.
–Miguel Ángel: I imagine that this round anniversary will invite you to remember your beginnings. How were they?
-They were in Cañuelas, my hometown. I was a very naughty boy, rather lazy. He had the gift of making people laugh by imitating a local character, the parish priest, a teacher or the bartender. The training in terms of imitations clearly began there and after that with some friends we put together a musical group called Michelangelo and his band. Yes, I called myself Michelangelo (laughs). We did everything by heart, we went in a borrowed truck to Lobos, Roque Pérez, Monte Grande, Temperley, Ezeiza, in short, to all the surroundings. Until one day my cousin brother Polo Martínez appeared and brought me to Buenos Aires to meet a businessman, Lino Patalano (today a factotum of the Maipo theater). At that time I was working at the Mercedes Benz factory; he was a worker, a welder. I asked for a license and just went to the big city to do a test to work with none other than Niní Marshall and Andrés Percivale, and in Mar del Plata! And Patalano ended up choosing me, giving me the first great opportunity of my life.
– So today you are celebrating your 40 years as a professional in the city where you were born as such...
-Exact. I made my debut in the Magoya room, which at that time belonged to Osvaldo Piro. It was a basement, a café concert through which Antonio Gasalla, Enrique Pinti, Edda Díaz and many other artists passed. In Una voz en la radio, as the show in question was called, I played a speaker, an announcer for the radio advertisements, which gave rise to the different characters of Niní. Then, at Lino's suggestion, Niní agreed that I start doing some singing characters. The first was Alberto Castillo and I must have done well because Niní was dying of laughter. At the end of the season, Lino placed me in Michelangelo (a famous San Telmo stronghold) as master of ceremonies in a show where Néstor Fabián, Gina María Hidalgo, Violeta Rivas, Dany Martin and Antonio Agri and his group of arches were present. I introduced them and nothing else. But one day, Néstor Fabián, who knew very well that I sang, introduced me to a representative to act in Great Values of Tango, which was hosted by Silvio Soldán and was a very popular program. There they asked me if he encouraged me to sing “Caminito” the way Julio Iglesias did, who at that time was as popular and famous as Luis Miguel or Ricky Martin are today. I said yes, I hit it and right there they called me to participate in the Happy Sunday cycle. Finally, the one who gave me another great opportunity was Gerardo Sofovich, who without taking a single audition, offered me to work in Don Mateo's hairdresser and allowed me to show a wide range of characters. After signing the contract he told me: "Welcome to a success, when you start earning important money, give me a Dupont or a Cartier" . I said yes to everything, without understanding if it was an irony or not, and that's where the strong stage of my career really began. All of the above was a flat right, although beautiful, because it was with very capable people.
–You say in the course of A Super Show that at the beginning of your career you were lucky enough to work with all the greats. Who else, besides those you already named, did you enjoy doing it with?
–And... I was lucky enough to do theater with Juan Carlos Altavista, also with Juan Carlos Calabró and Jorge Porcel, always in magazines produced by the Russian Sofovich. What could be better than learning the trade alongside such monsters...? The experience with Altavista, at the Hermitage theater, where Adriana Brodsky was the female attraction, was without a doubt the most beautiful I had in my first theatrical stage.
-In the show you also dedicate a very special memory to Sandro. Were friends?
–We shared the same manager: Aldo Aresi, who passed away a short time ago. One day he told me: “look, Roberto is going to do a show called 30 years of magic at the Gran Rex theater, I suggested that you do a 20-minute routine for him when he had to change his clothes.” Then Roberto wanted to meet me and invited me to his walled mansion in Banfield. Go figure! I always remember that when I arrived and sat in his office, everything was shaking. The meeting lasted only five minutes, but what came after… like six hours. He simply told me: "I want you to do the strongest part of your routine, don't ask me anything, do what you want, but do the best you know how to do, right?" This already speaks of his notorious generosity, which is not abundant in the middle. The issue is that after he invited Aresi and me to have a drink, I asked for a soda and he told me: “no way, let's toast with whiskey”. From then on he spent the whole afternoon giving me whiskey and advising me as if he were a brother. We were only able to leave when it was practically time for the two shows that were waiting for me that night, in remote and opposite areas. Then we were at the Gran Rex for 40 performances, later we did a season in Mar del Plata and a tour of Greater Buenos Aires. Every night I would stand backstage and watch him, watch him stand on stage and connect with people. That helped me a lot. It happened to me with him what, they say, happened to many with (the vedette) Nélida Roca, that when you saw her you admired her. And you don't know how he introduced me to her girls. She told them: “he is a very talented young man, I want you to listen carefully and applaud him. Ladies and gentlemen, here I leave you with Miguel Ángel Cherutti”. I was never introduced like this again, how can I not remember and miss him.
– When did you start imitating him? Did you ask permission?
–There was a time when we had already gained a lot of confidence; then he asked me: "why don't you imitate me?". Because I have a lot of respect for you, I told him. "Stop screwing around," he added. And he asked me to rehearse “Rosa Rosa” the next day, he told me to come in first singing with the band and then he would appear in the chorus. “Is that okay with you?” he asked me. From then on everything was sublime, people burst into applause and shouts. Roberto was very generous, a great human being and he invited me every night to his suite for dinner. A great like there is not and there will be no other like it.
–You became famous for your imitations, but in recent years you put aside this type of interpretations a bit to dedicate yourself to singing with your own voice, according to your own style. What motivated you to make this change?
–That began to happen after separating from Nito Artaza (with whom he formed a magazine duo for years), and from other duos that I put together with Reina Reech and Carmen Barbieri. When I went to work I just threw myself into the side of the showman, something I learned from Roberto. Sandro had a song routine and a spoken routine. He was more of a Frank Sinatra than an Elvis Presley. I took a liking to that and then I started looking to jump from an imitation to something more sung. That happened to me with tango and lyric. That is why, for example, I am now opening a super show with a song like “La Cicada”, by María Elena Walsh, with my usual voice, which is a song that in some way has to do with these two years of the pandemic. Or I just do it because it's a song that I love, to which we've made a very rocky arrangement. I still have the unfinished business of, and why not a Miguel Ángel Cherutti just a singer? Little by little I am achieving it. Maybe my next show should be more of a musical comedy type and jump from humor to something more dramatic, like tango, which suits me very well.
–Bianca: your case is the opposite of your father's. Although you are not a debutante, your career is just taking off. Was it difficult for you to achieve it?
-Since I was very young I was inclined towards the artistic because I grew up in the dressing rooms, and then I asked him to come every season to accompany him. Later I started to study singing, dancing and acting. I preferred that to school, where I took all the subjects. I was always half an artist, we would go to Miguel Romano's (who at that time was doing Susana Giménez's hair) and I would ask him to put colored extensions on me, when I was 9 years old! I didn't play mom, I played being a singer or a dancer. I was a fan of Natalia Oreiro and Bandana and wanted to be like them. At school that was not allowed, but since I always participated at the end of the year in the musical comedies in English that were made there, finally they banked it. Until then I enjoyed everything, later, in adolescence, the subject became angry and frustrating: I went to the castings and there was no left. And not for anything in particular, simply because there are a lot of independent artists, like me, who fight for it every day, and there isn't always room for everyone. This race is a bit of sacrifice, a bit of perseverance and a bit of luck. When I finished high school, to alleviate my frustration a bit, I began to study other careers (Veterinary Medicine and Communication Sciences) and work in other activities (promotions), but everything lasted very little. Obviously it didn't last at all because deep down, unconsciously, everything reminded me of my deepest dream, of art. Finally, everything changed with the pandemic, this extreme situation helped me understand that life can end in an instant and that is why there is no time to lose. Since then I take the profession of artist very seriously and I play hard.
–How much did the fact of being the daughter of Miguel Ángel Cherutti help you and how much did it conspire?
-When I was a girl I suffered a lot, but because of my complexes, it's not that someone wanted to make me feel bad. Obviously there are always looks and nudges anywhere, but today I think, what an idiot! I would have enjoyed being the daughter of Miguel Ángel Cherutti from the very beginning. Being able to say it with more pride; but, well, everything happens for a reason and that's why as a girl I preferred to hide my last name. I still remember when I went to the casting of Cantaniño, when I was eight years old, that I did it with my mother's last name. For them I was Bianca Ocampo, and only when they told me that she had been left to form the cast and that both my mother and my father, being a minor, had to sign my contract, did the whole truth come out. The producers and technicians couldn't believe it, obviously he had worked with everyone. When he challenged me, I told him that I had wanted to fend for myself. Today I know that hiding my last name was not and is not necessary. If he is a consecrated contra artist and one of the good ones, why should he deny it? So, final point, whoever likes it is ok, and whoever doesn't, that he doesn't consume what we do.
–Did your time on the program La Voz Argentina, last year, change your luck?
-Yes. The Voice thing... happened in a very crazy way. In 2019, when I was going to do a freelance promotional job, a friend called me and told me about the casting for the show. First I thought: I'm not going to go, they're going to hit me with a pipe for my dad. But he convinced me and I finally went to the hotel where it was taking place. We were thousands and the casting was tedious, we went from 60 applicants at a time and I thought "why did I come if this must be all set up?" Far from enjoying it, I felt bad and as soon as that first stage was over I headed for the start, but imagine my surprise when they named my number (because, mind you, until then I was a number, not Bianca) among the four or five they had chosen . I had no choice but to stay. Then I went to a second filter where I could sing two or three songs and they filmed me so that the executive and general producers of the contest could see me. Suddenly they stop my test and tell me: “Cherutti, you are the daughter of Miguel Ángel... what are you doing here, her?”. I had to explain to them that she sang, they didn't know me. Three weeks later I was on the subway and suddenly my cell phone rang. They were the ones who summoned me for the blind auditions. I started screaming like crazy, to the point that people thought I had been robbed. The issue is that after a month they contact me again to tell me that the program was suspended until March 2020 by decision of the channel. As Susana Giménez resumed her cycle with the segment "Little Giants", they did not want to come out with two very large formats. But, of course, what happened next, in March 2020? The pandemic appeared. The craziest thing is that my father didn't know anything, neither did my mother or my grandparents. They only knew that my sister and the friend who had insisted on participating had been chosen. I didn't want to burn it. Dad only found out about my mouth in February 2021, when the program was revived. The cycle was recorded with all the protocols from March to September, but only in July did it begin to be broadcast.
–Your participation in the program generated mixed comments on the networks. Did they affect you?
–What happened to me was the same that would happen to any human being, because no matter how much you have a field or are used to being famous, nobody can bank the excessive aggressiveness that circulates in the networks. Anyway, as I was very excited about being able to show myself alone and tell my personal story (beyond the one inherited from my father), I survived those comments. Something similar had happened to me when I sang with my dad in Singing for a Dream, they thought he was doing it because he was well off or because he had a last name, and no, nothing to do with it. I had auditioned to be the partner of any celebrity, I wanted to work in a contest and make myself known; finally, work. I was not selected in the first instance, but they told me that maybe later they would call me for a replacement. And that's how it happened: when there were casualties due to Covid, they called him (because being a professional he could solve a new issue in a single day) and me, who already had me on the list. I'm not saying that they didn't see or look for the duo, but each one was summoned in a different way. And so we spent three weeks, as a replacement for Charlotte Caniggia. It was very good for him, who had just been out of work for a year and was a little down for his recent separation, and for me, who was in limbo, without a job and not knowing if La Voz would materialize or not. It was a bit of gasoline for both of us.
-Miguel Ángel, your divorce from Fabiola Alonso, after 23 years of relationship, was it something surprising or a chronicle of an announced separation? Did you affectively rebuild your life?
–I separated in 2020 and then I got divorced. No, my separation was not surprising, I have to admit it. The relationship was already wearing out and the pandemic did not help at all; That's when the fuse was lit and the bomb exploded. But, well, they were beautiful years and I have two beautiful children left from the relationship, Luján and Santino. Now I am single and quiet. I know you should never say never, but today I'm not looking forward to falling in love again. This is a time to enjoy my children and I am lucky that they are very attentive to me. Antonella helps me a lot in all accounting and administrative matters, Luján (who lives in Spain) is also very present and Santino gives me the satisfaction of sharing the passion for football and going to the field. Today I am devoted to the family, this is a period more for children than for love. They are my priority.
-Beyond the artistic bond that you maintain today, how has the relationship between you, as father and daughter, been over the years?
Miguel Ángel: -I was always a present father, wanting to see her every day, just like her sister Antonella. And the relationship with Bianca was always like this, like now, very close. Of my four children (Antonella and Bianca, from my first marriage, and Luján and Santino, from the second), for me Bianca is the most special. In addition to being a father, I tried to be a friend. I not only tried to help her financially, if necessary, but to worry and ask her every moment: "what's wrong, what do you need?" For me, her dialogue with her is very important, that is what our relationship is based on. I remember that when she was very little I had a lot of work and I missed many school events and parent meetings, that is something that I blame myself today. But luckily life gave me revenge and today I am enjoying it tremendously. I hope it's always like this. And as for work… Bianca changed my life. I was very down because of the work stoppage that the pandemic caused. Sometimes I'm cyclothymic and it's hard for me to overcome certain situations, but as soon as Bianca accepted my invitation to sing with me all summer, somehow I came back to life.
Bianca: -The link was always very good. Up to a point we were three daughters, since Santino arrived much later. Note that Antonella is 31 and Santino is 17. For years we were his three flip-flops and he was just a father of girls. Now Santino enjoys it a lot and he is the other man in the house, but until then he only had us. And the father of girls is different, much more docile and sweet. He was always very demonstrative and although, as he just said, sometimes we didn't see each other very often due to his work commitments, there was always the "I love you", "I love you", "I miss you". It never affected me that my parents separated because at that time I was very young, I was only one year old, so I have nothing to reproach him for, but it does strike me that they did it as soon as I was born... As if I were to blame, what horror (laughs). Now, the good thing about our relationship is that due to the pandemic he went down a change, he is more present than ever and I am already a woman. As a teenager, maybe he didn't give it to him so much, he preferred to go out with my friends "Today we both find ourselves more focused and willing to enjoy our bond, personal and artistic. I respect him as an artist, and I learn a lot from him, and at the same time I think he is learning from me, that I am part of another generation." And this is good because we give each other feedback. He for me is pure experience and I p Give him a breath of fresh air.
Thanks: Uncle Curzio.
