One of the phrases from Van Gogh’s Ear to which I have returned the most in ordinary conversations is the one that serves as the final moral in “Roses”: “And I am beginning to think that true love is only the first, and “It’s just that I’m beginning to suspect that the others are just something to forget.”
I have returned to it in countless conversations with friends who couldn’t turn the page on their teenage love, and it has almost always been to defend that, although the phrase is beautiful, it is also as stupid as a grown-up temple.
We have a strange generalized tendency to over-idealize and romanticize first loves, when the truth is that, in most cases, they occur in a completely unstable and irrational life situation. How is your first love going to be true if you chose it when you thought that the New York filter on Instagram was cool and that “Hache” by 3MSC was a gentleman?
With Van Gogh’s Ear it was always assumed that the first love, Amaia, was the true one, and Leire was just an attempt to forget. A replacement. However, you only need to take a silly look at the group’s profile on Spotify to see that it is not true. Leire’s stage, in addition to being the longest, has given us great songs like “Jueves”, “Inmortal”, “El Última Vals” or “Cometas por el cielo”. And yet, Leire never managed to shake off the unbearable feeling of being a replacement. Of being “the other”.
In an interview with Navarra TV a few months ago, he said that he felt that he had been ignored and disrespected, and that many comments were made in reference to a possible return of Amaia, ignoring the fact that LODVG already had a singer. He ended by saying “it seems like nothing matters”, although between the lines you could read a clear “it seems like nobody cares about me”.
And I wonder: when you don’t feel loved in a relationship, whose responsibility is it? From your partner’s ex, from others or from your partner?
We have always followed this as a fight between Leire and Amaia, but what if instead of it being Amaia against Leire, it was Amaia and Leire against four hunks incapable of making their vocalist feel valued?
In the last few hours, and following Leire’s departure from the group, the debate has reopened as to whether Van Gogh’s real Ear (whatever that means) is Leire or Amaia.
It is paradoxical that this is the discussion when, in reality, no one is able to say the name of a single member of LODVG other than Leire and Amaia. Which shows that Van Gogh’s Ear, in fact, is them. To speculate, that may be what hurts the four gentlemen who issue the statements. Tremendous communications.
In the first, Amaia’s, they made it clear that it had been her decision: “A few weeks ago Amaia decided not to continue with us in the group to start her solo career,” and also that she had broken their hearts: “since that we have known this, we have
“I feel a lot of sadness.” The second, Leire’s, (colder and more concise) stands out above all for one detail: they talk about her and the group as two absolutely separate things. “We want to announce that the professional trajectories of Leire and La Oreja de Van Gogh will follow separate paths.” I think this, in a way, explains what Leire said on Navarra TV, and that feeling of not feeling valued or integrated.
The fact is that it doesn’t matter what we think on networks or in the media. The truth about Van Gogh’s Ear is only known by Van Gogh’s Ear. But what unfortunately almost all women do know is that feeling of being constantly compared, of having to prove your worth all the time. I don’t know what has happened or what will happen with LODVG, but I hope Leire’s departure can be seen less as a fight against Amaia and more as a reminder that sometimes you have to stop waiting with a wet face for them to arrive with roses.
