Colombian superstar Juanes stopped by Billboard News to talk about the abrupt cancellation of his July 12 SummerStage show in New York City, his new album Vida Cotidiana, his struggles with mental health and more.
Juanes:
If I hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t be sitting here telling you I feel great!
Hi, how’s it going? I’m Juanes, and you’re watching Billboard News.
Leila Cobo:
Juanes, welcome to Billboard!
Juanes:
How are you doing?
Leila Cobo:
We’re here in New York, and Juanes was performing at SummerStage, which is located in Central Park. For those of you who don’t know … it has a capacity for 5,000 people, but 15,000 people arrived and they had to stop the concert. I know it was terrible for you because you were in the middle of playing your second song when the police arrived. Tell us what happened from your point of view.
Juanes:
Well, we were invited to perform at the SummerStage through [Latin Alternative Music Conference] and too many people showed up. There were way more people than they were expecting. Around 5,000 people entered the venue, but there were around 12,000 people outside. During the second song, I looked back, and the police were on stage. I was like, “What is going on?” And they told me, “You need to stop and you need to leave now.” They explained that there were too many people there, and they were very concerned about people’s safety, and that was the most important thing. It was really sad because we were excited to play. We had rehearsed songs from the new album, you know. Just imagine it, Leila.
Watch Juanes discuss the show’s cancellation, his new album, mental health and more in the full interview above.
