Houston-set series explores music business
Spanish-language music, with its signature stories of love, betrayal and desperation, has long seemed ripe for serialization.
Enter “Guerra de Idolos,” a splashy musical soap opera covering everything from regional Mexican to reggaeton. It debuted this week on Telemundo as the first-ever musical series on U.S. Spanishlanguage television.
Think of it as a counterpart to English-language dramas “Nashville,” “Empire” and “Star.” The series title translates to “War of Idols.”
Alberto Guerra plays Mateo Solar, a producer and songwriter caught up in blustery family drama in Houston. (The show features gorgeous, lingering shots of the city.) Mateo Solar has helped his brother Julio César Solar (Daniel Elbittar) become a regional Mexican superstar. But the pair gets caught up in classic telenovela dynamics in the first episode.
Telemundo previously had success with telenovelas based on the lives of salsa legend Celia Cruz and Latin pop icon Juan Gabriel. But those were based on real-life stories. This series is different.
“You’re going to see multiple sides of music that no one in Spanish, at least that I can recall, has shown,” Guerra says. “And it’s not about a single artist. It’s not a biopic. It’s about what happens in the industry and how people work.
“You’ll see the struggle. You’re going to see what happens when you’re Latino and trying to make music. When you’re Mexican and live near the border. When you’re Puerto Rican, living in New York, singing on the subway for money.”
Guerra, who is not related to this article’s author, is a wellestablished leading man. His credits include “Emperatriz,” “Caminos de Guanajuato,” the film “Tus Feromonas Me Matan” and Netflix series “Ingobernable” with Kate del Castillo.
“Guerra de Idolos,” however, presented Guerra with an entirely new challenge. He’s one of the show’s few leads who doesn’t sing and dance.
“Music has always been one of my biggest fears in terms of acting,” he says. “I have no relationship with music other than I listen to it. I didn’t have any skills before the show. I didn’t play the guitar. I didn’t play the piano. I can’t sing. I don’t like to sing.
“It was really scary, and it was one of the first times in my life that I was actually pretty afraid of stepping into a chapter. This guy, he’s a great musician. He’s a producer. He’s a composer. I needed to make all of that my world.”
To prepare, Guerra took guitar lessons a couple of months prior to filming and attended studio sessions with Andres Saavedra, a Grammywinning producer who has worked with Gloria Trevi, Luis Fonsi and Alejandro Sanz. Saavedra produced the “Guerra de Idolos” soundtrack, which features original songs by the cast.
Guerra also spent time interacting with musicians and advisors on set. Several real-life stars make cameos, including banda outfit Los Recoditos, ranchera singer Pepe Aguilar and reggaeton acts Nicky Jam and Zion & Lennox.
“I know my craft. I’ve been acting since I was eight years old. But I’ve never been in this musical environment,” Guerra says. “I got a chance to see how to interact with musicians, how to ask things from them when you’re trying to get them to get into a mood in the studio. How to make them feel comfortable.
“I think I got myself a little bit confident about two days before we finished.”
Easier for Guerra was relating to Mateo Solar on a personal level. Most importantly, they’re both upfront guys who don’t beat around the bush.
“To create a character, you have to love the guy. You have to defend him. You have to make sure that no matter what he does, you’re not going to judge,” Guerra says. “There are a lot of things I can’t relate to but I can respect them in a person. It was easy for me in that sense.”
But do not expect him to pop up on a Spotify playlist anytime soon.
“I’m not going to sing. I’m not going to perform in a band. No way. No album. No song. No nothing,” Guerra says. “I think you have to know your limits. … I don’t want to step into that world. I’m OK where I am.”