Eleven years ago, Carmen Ferreiro, recently arrived at Atresmedia's entertainment management, had an idea that today fills the channel with joy: she wanted to recover the spirit of Antena 3 from the 90s with emblematic programs such as Surprise, Surprise and Rain. of stars. From that seed that she planted then Ferreiro grew, and she continues to grow today, Your face sounds familiar to me.
Everyone knows what Tú cara suena me is, but few know how it was born, how it has become not only the most watched program on television in Spain, but also the 100% Spanish format most exported abroad and how, 10 years after its birth, it continues to break audience records season after season and broadcast after broadcast.
Tonight Tu cara me suena celebrates its decade on television (10:00 p.m. on Antena 3) and without one of the performances of this new season having yet been released, it has already become one of the most commented on and most viewed content on social networks by Atresplayer. It is about the performance of Andrea Guasch as Chanel with the SloMo. As Manel Fuentes tells us "the years go by but there is still magic".
To celebrate its decade, the program has prepared a big start. From the street and as a festival, the first number of the talent show has recovered some of the most mythical contestants in its history, characterized as some of the most important numbers of the program. They will be in charge of giving way to the contestants of this edition: Alfred García, Anne Igartiburu, Agustín Jiménez, Jadel, Merche, Miriam Rodríguez, Josie, Andrea Guasch and Susi Caramelo.
The guilty producer of Tu cara suena me is Gestmusic, but it was not the first name that Ferreiro thought of. The entertainment director of Atresmedia asked different production companies for set formats to recover "that big, family-oriented and spectacle television". Zeppelin (Endemol) presented the first draft of what would later be born Your face sounds to me. Ferreiro was "delighted" and, finally, "when we decided to go ahead, I asked Gestmusic -also from Endemol- to produce it". And then the monster was born.
"Your face sounds to me has some universal ingredients," Tinet Rubira, director of Gestmusic Endemol, tells EL MUNDO when asked about the keys to a success like this program. "It's the admiration for someone who has talent, which Americans describe as the Woh Factor. The music component, which is a vehicle for emotions because everyone associates part of their life with soundtracks. And then a lot of sense of humor Everyone likes to laugh," he adds.
And this is nothing more and nothing less than what Tu cara me suena offers: celebrities imitating artists, with music that takes us back to the past and present, and lots of laughter. These are the main features of a program that has been exported to 40 countries around the world and that "in the final of its first season in China, it surpassed the audience at the closing of the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing," reveals Rubira as a proud father of its stem. Yes, China, Portugal, Italy, Poland, several Arab countries and even Panama where it has the crown of being the most watched broadcast in the country's television history.
"You always have pressure. When you work on a generalist television, pressure is what sets the rules," replies Manel Fuentes, the visible face of Your face sounds familiar to me. Because scoring more than 20% share in each broadcast is a joy, but it is also a heavy responsibility, which you have to know how to handle and for which you have to look for tools.
"The greatest danger of this profession is the ego and when you have worked yours and have put it at the service of the rest, you realize who needs you to take care of them more, that you give them more love. It is to understand that the celebrities who participate in Your face sounds like they need a hug, or tea with lemon, or they need you to acknowledge them or realize that they've had a bad week. Understand them in order to get the best out of each one. That's why no one who has participated in Your Face It sounds like it has never gone badly for him", explains the presenter.
Since the format started, this has been one of the premises of Manel Fuentes, but also of the entire team behind it and also of Antena 3. Manel Fuentes takes care of celebrities who risk participating, while the chain is clear that a format like Tu cara sounds familiar to me "deserves to find the ideal programming spot in which it can best shine". There are few programs with the decade on their backs that can say 'they don't move me from this hole in the grid'.
Then there is the other part, which the viewer does not appreciate in detail, but as a whole. The show's success has a name: its casting. It is very surprising when Tinet Rubira tells you that the selection of celebrities begins even before an edition ends. It lasts a whole year and it is not to arrive and kiss the saint. When an edition ends, Gestmusic has already begun to make the lists of people and to see possible candidates.
"Normally there are people who approach us and then there are people to whom we extend the invitation," reveals Rubira. "It's a job like in the shadows," he admits because it's not just names, it's seeing a lot of people, seeing their possibilities, asking them to record themselves singing, keeping in touch with them for a long time, even recommending that they go to singing classes. And little by little a first list is coming out, although it is never, almost until the end, the final one.
Sometimes they meet someone who wants to go, but isn't ready. They do not hesitate to tell him and that person leaves, he prepares for a while on his own, "and, perhaps, at the age of two he will become one of the celebrities of Your face sounds familiar to me". "It's not a casting as such. We have a lot of candidates for each casting and what happens is that someone stays or goes, depending on the final photo." The final photo is none other than people who sing, people who have a sense of humor, who dance, who represent both young and old, who come from all parts of Spain... "In other words, that everyone feels represented by them", concludes the producer.
Humor, talent, music, casting and a production job that few television shows have. In the first seasons of Tu cara me suena the idea was "for the famous person to come out in disguise and that's it, because it was funny," says Rubira. Now, that alone doesn't work. Now there is such a global staging that even the movement that the guitarist has to make is taken care of so that it is the same as the original.
The producer says that in order to copy the dresses from some performances, the wardrobe team had to draw the pattern because "it is impossible to buy it in a store". "We copied everything from the original performance, from the production, the objects or the lights, because we understand that the public is getting smarter and more demanding and that they are not going to settle for a simple imitation," he says.
And, of course, Manel Fuentes, the third leg of this tripod who wrapped the baby in his arms and has cared for him ever since. The metaphor may sound corny, but it is that he is clear that it is so. "Your face sounds familiar to me requires everything I have learned in my career, from my years of sports journalism, my informative work, my nose for CQC and what I learned in Crónicas Marcianas to be able to launch the program at a certain time," says the presenter. . A baggage that let him know from minute one that he saw the project that was going to be a success. It demands a lot from him, puts a lot of pressure on him, but "the pressure turns into love and we hope that this love story, because this is a true love story, lasts 10 more years."
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
