“There was a time when I was competing with Michael Jackson for who sold the most records in France.”
The phrase is not pretentious: in 1983 a cumbia composed by the Peruvian Walter León Aguilar called “Colegiala” sold more than a million copies in France.
And he won a gold record for it, tied with other big names in the music industry.
But how did it happen?
A Peruvian composer, a famous Colombian singer and a Swiss multinational are dealing with this story.
And the climax took place in the legendary Olympia Theater in Paris, in the same theater where Edith Piaf, the “nightingale of France”, packed in the 1960s. Twenty years later, thousands of French people shouted for “School”.
“In that first performance, I sang it nine times. We sang it, two more from our repertoire followed and then we repeated it “, says for BBC Mundo Juan Carlos Díez, musical director of the orchestra La Tipica RA7.
The group was then named “Rodolfo Aicardi y su Typica RA7”, including the name of the singer who would make “Colegiala” famous throughout Latin America, France, Italy and Spain.
“It’s very difficult to know why people liked it so much, because most French people didn’t know what the lyrics said, but there was a time when we competed with famous artists like Michael Jackson for those who sold the most singles. from France “, explains Diez.
Now “The Schoolgirl” is one of the songs that is heard the most during Christmas in Colombia, but where did it come from? How did it become a resounding success in Europe?
From Peru to Olympia
In 1975, Walter León Aguilar, the leader of the Peruvian music group Los Ilusionistas, came up with the idea of composing a song about a young man who falls in love with a school.
The song became popular and began touring in various countries. In 1980, the echo reached Colombia, where a decade of tropical music erupted.
One of his greatest exponents was Rodolfo Aicardi, a singer famous for several popular music hits such as “Cariñito”, “Adonay” and “Piece of paperwhite“, which sought to break down gender barriers.
And on that road he met the “Collegiate”.
“Rodolfo liked to look for songs. He was a great performer and that’s why he was always looking for songs not only in Colombia, but also in South America,” said Diego Londoño, author of the book “Rodolfo Aicardi, the history of” the idol of always “.
At the time, Díez was working as a musician in the Aicardi Orchestra.
Then an urgent request came to him: to record the song as soon as possible.
“We recorded it one afternoon. What they told us is that it has to be on the radio before the Peruvians make it famous,” Díez recalls.
“The next day the first copies were pressed and ready for distributionknow“he adds.
The Colombian version, with the addition of instruments such as timpani and trumpets, was released in the middle of that year and was successful from day one.
So much so that it was included in the main compilations that were released for the Christmas and New Year holidays.
That’s how it became a December classic in Colombia, something that still lasts.
“One of the things these songs had (like the one on ‘Collegiate’) is that everyone listened to them, old and young. And as time went on, a lot of people disappeared, and friends and family remember that they were listening to these songs “Londoño points out.
“And what is the most nostalgic time of the year? December. Christmas,” he adds.
Crossing the pond
Although most of Aicardi’s songs were hits, “Colegiala” reached another level, crossing borders and continents.
“Unlike what happens now, that to duplicate a song is done with two keys on a computer, before, if you wanted to make a copy of the song, you had to ask the record company,” says Díez.
Over time, Aicardi, Díez, and the other musicians in the orchestra began to notice that they were receiving requests from children from the record company that had recorded the song from Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Spain, Italy, France …
How did they get here?
Commercial by train
It was 1982 and an advertising agency received a campaign for the instant coffee brand of a renowned multinational. It was originally intended for consumers in Ecuador.
The song chosen for the commercial was “Colegiala”. It rang in the background as a steam train passed through several coffee towns.
“Advertisers came to Colombia to record various parts of that commercial. And as they rested after filming, they listened. “Schoolgirl“And they decided it was the perfect topic for advertising,” says Londoño.
Olympia Theater in Paris, where Rodolfo and Typica RA7 played.
The advertisement turned out to be a success in Ecuador. Later in Peru. Later in Chile. And everything for the song.
In Chile, the artist Miguelo performed it at the popular Viña del Mar festival in 1986.
“One day, they tell Rodolfo that they will give him a gold record for millionaire sales in France., who is going to play at the legendary Olympia theater in Paris “, Díez remembers.
It seems that, in addition to the 30-second commercials for French television, the advertising agency published a version of almost five minutes that was shown in cinemas in Paris, just before the movies.
There the song sounded complete. Spectators in Parisian theaters had the song recorded with the force of hearing it in an instant coffee advertisement.
“It should have been one night at Olympia. We were going to get the gold record and play a concert, but it ended up being three. And he was exhausted,” says Diez.
One of those nights, they alternated with Charles Aznavour, the singer-songwriter known as “the ambassador song“French.
“We repeat it nine times and I think its success was due to a mixture of rhythm and that special way that Rodolfo had to sing his songs,” he says.
“He didn’t sing. He told you what the lyrics of the song said.”
The “schoolgirl” did not stay only in Spanish: among the many known versions, one stands out in Italian by Fausto Papetti and another by Sandra Reemer, a singer from the Netherlands.
Aicardi died in 2007 due to health complications, but Typica RA7 continued to function, mainly due to the “Collegiate”, the emblem that they consider their “certificate” (identity document).
“SI always wore a tape with the song “Colegiala” for the performances he did as a soloist. And when they asked him to show his ID card to identify himself, he joked and said, ‘The one with a photo or the one without?’, Referring to the song, “says Diez.
“And since then, ‘Colegiala’ is the identity card of our orchestra, our way of identifying ourselves”, concludes the musical director.
