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Jorge Drexler revisits Uruguayan candombe on eight-time Latin Grammy-nominated album
Uruguayan singer-songwriter Jorge Drexler won an Oscar for “The Other Side of the River”, written for The Motorcycle Diaries, despite being little known and not invited to perform at the 2005 ceremony. Now 62, he is nominated for eight Latin Grammys for his latest album, Taracá, which revisits the candombe music of his homeland and celebrates dancing.
Drexler grew up in Montevideo during a dictatorship hostile to musicians and says its effects kept him from dancing until he was 45. He trained and worked as an ear, nose and throat doctor while writing music, then moved to Madrid and found success by bringing scientific ideas into his songwriting. His songs have explored subjects including the conservation of mass, human migration and the biological origins of love.
In short
- Drexler won an Oscar for a song from The Motorcycle Diaries.
- His new album Taracá has eight Latin Grammy nominations.
- He says dictatorship-era repression kept him from dancing until 45.
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Originally published by The Guardian as “‘I didn’t dance until I was 45’: how Jorge Drexler went from repressed doctor to rump-shaking Oscar-winner”.