What’s happening with Manu Tenorio’s house | Opinion

Strange things happen. You turn off the TV and Manu Tenorio appears too. Spain is in a state of turmoil, not because of Pedro Sánchez’s dictatorship —which also has its intricacies—, but because of the last week of the singer of Operación Triunfo. Searches for Tenorio —a good name for a musical group— have suddenly multiplied in recent days on Google, Instagram, X, TikTok, everywhere, you know. Also in the news: “The Manu Tenorio controversy”, “Manu Tenorio attacks Podemos”, “Manu Tenorio explodes against his detractors”, “what happened to Manu Tenorio?”. It gives you an audience, what will happen. If they call you from an unknown number, pick it up, it’s not Tenorio because he will be on TV.

Tenorio, 49, left OT 23 years ago. He is dedicated to music. He does his gigs around Spain. He sings. He dances. He acts. He goes out. And he sells, although with some buts. According to the biography of your agency Tenorio has sold exactly “4.39 billion albums” under the OT label. This means that one in two people in the world – in the entire world, mind you – knows perfectly well who Tenorio is, what Tenorio does, and what Tenorio sings. But, for whatever reason, the other four billion people – maybe three or two thousand – don’t. And they search on Google – rightly – to see what the hell is going on with Tenorio right now; hence the national interest. Asturias, Cantabria and Galicia, by the way, lead the searches tenorists.

It turns out that the Sevillian musician bought a house in the Cadiz town of Sanlúcar de Barrameda a few years ago. He rented it to a family, but —there are always problems with tenants, never with landlords— they have stopped paying him for 12 months, he says. “They are squatters”, says Tenorio. What are they going to do? The tenants, for their part, say that they have received two letters from the Treasury ordering them not to pay the musician. In fact, they said in Antenna 3 —this is already a serial— that Tenorio’s debt with the treasury is “millionaires.” But they did not show these letters. What inquiesces.

Then Podemos arrived – Congress is the place to propose laws – and, in a press conference, the national spokesperson of the party said that Tenorio is a “delinquent” and that he encourages squatting. Tenorio’s profile on X, therefore, is a constant messaging machine. “Let’s see, you bunch of imbeciles,” says the musician to those who doubt his version. “It is regrettable,” he wrote two days ago, “that I have a few squatters in my house and I am the one who has to provide the documentation. Do you know who is to blame? Everyone, for not going out on the street.” All this, he explains, is obviously the fault of the PSOE. Haven’t they occupied La Moncloa? he will think. “The socialists have no limits,” he says, “look how they have ruined Nacho Cano’s life.”

A reporter from elDiario.es Tenorio has gone to the residential area in Cadiz and has been told that the family has a four-year rental contract. “I don’t know if they have stopped paying, but they are not squatters,” says a neighbour. Tenorio, meanwhile, has said that he has no debts with the Treasury, but “a deferral, like any other citizen”. (It is understood that he is a neighbour who is not a squatter). And he gave an interview in the Cope. Here the announcer insisted: “Demonstrating that you have no debts with the Treasury is as easy as showing a certificate.” The musician, somewhat surprised, replied: “I would be submitting to the dictatorship of unpresentable people and we should not go down that line.” Yes, there are too many dictatorships in Spain. The World Today has joined the issue with a latest exclusive: “A vulture fund manages to evict an entire building by playing Manu Tenorio’s music.” Anyway, thank goodness the housing problem has already hit the media.