let us remember his person and his colossal art, capable of defying time

If Spain is a perpetual stage, Raphael He is its main actor. There is no corner of the country that has not felt its echo, nor a generation that has not vibrated to the rhythm of its voice. This man born in Linares 81 years ago is not just an artist, he is a force of nature, a symbol of what happens when talent overflows and decides to settle forever in the collective imagination. And when, a few days ago, the news of his hospitalization broke, it was as if the pulse of all of Spain stopped. Because if Raphael hesitates, we all feel that the curtain may fall early.

Fortunately, everything ended in a scare. There was no stroke, there was no tragedy; just a crash that left him momentarily out of combat, a slight imbalance in that prodigious machine that has been running at full capacity since, as a child, he surprised the world with his velvet voice and his insatiable hunger. Raphael, the total star, couldn’t give up like that. Not him, who has known how to defy time, illness and fatigue as if all that did not concern him.

To talk about Raphael is to evoke an eternal spectacle, a ritual in which every gesture, every note and every look seems to be charged with a unique magnetism. He is that man in complete black who not only sings, but interprets, floats, fights and flies, bleeding with each verse. I am that, my big night, What does nobody know…his songs no longer belong to those who wrote them, but to him, who gave them soul, body and life of their own. Every time he goes on stage, Raphael is consumed in a bonfire of emotions and transforms applause into his fuel, into that “very expensive love” that he needs to stay upright, always ahead, always more.

This is not the first time that Raphael has faced the shadow of death and emerged victorious. That hepatitis B that degenerated into cirrhosis brought him to the brink of the abyss. His liver, punished by the long tours and those little bottles of liquor he used to fall asleep, was asking for relief. And he had it. In 2003, a transplant saved him, and Raphael was reborn, as he himself confessed. What for others would be a reason to retire, for him it was an encouragement. Two years later, he returned with Raphael for everyone, and since then he has not stopped recording albums, touring and filling stages with the intensity of someone who knows that every day is a gift.

In that second life, Raphael has shown that greatness is not measured only in successes, but in perseverance. While other contemporaries of his have retired or slowed down, he continues to work as if he were still in his younger years. Every Christmas comes with a television special, every year with a new album, and every tour is a waste of energy that seems to defy the laws of biology. This latest health mishap occurred while he was promoting his new album, Ayer… Still, and preparing the Christmas special of The revolta project that, without it, will no longer see the light of day.

The stages of the Wizink Center were waiting for him with open arms to close the Victoria tour, but Raphael has had to cancel those dates, something that, according to his son, was for him “how to lose a leg“. Because if something defines Raphael, in addition to his talent, it is his vocation. Singing is not only his job, it is his reason for being, his way of existing. And if the stages are empty of him, the world seems a little more grey.

However, it would not be fair to define Raphael solely by his blows against adversity or his resilience. Raphael is art in its purest form, a mix of discipline, passion and a charisma that cannot be learned. His silhouette occupies the stage like a wave that sweeps away everything, like a tongue of fire that consumes it while illuminating. Each gesture of his is a declaration, each word a sentence. In his songs, loves are fierce, defeats epic, and life, a constant swing between glory and wound. But always, always, the concert ends in a burst of applause, with a smile on his face that seems to tell us: “Here I am. I am still yours“.

Raphael is not just a singer; It is an institution, a living myth that has known how to reinvent itself without ever betraying its essence. His name is written in capital letters in the history of music and in the heart of a country that considers him part of its soul. And now, while he recovers in the hospital, those of us who admire him look forward to that moment when he rises again, to defy time again and remind us that, in this world, there are few things as eternal as his voice.

Because what does anyone know? We know it, Raphael. We know that 81 years are nothing when your heart beats with the intensity of yours. So get up and sing. There is still a lot of wood to burn, master.