“There was a time when we competed with Michael Jackson for who sold the most records in France.”
The expression is unpretentious: in 1983 more than a million copies of a cumbia composed by the Peruvian Walter León Aguilar, called “Colegiala”, were sold in France.
And she earned a gold record for it, comparable to other big names in the music industry.
But how did it happen?
This story has to do with a Peruvian composer, a famous Colombian singer and a Swiss multinational company.
And the climax took place at the legendary Olympia Theater in Paris, in the same theater that Edith Piaf, “the nightingale of France”, had wrapped in the 1960s. Twenty years later, thousands of French called out “Schoolgirl”.
“In that first presentation we sang it nine times. We played it, they followed two more of our repertoire and then we repeated it “, Juan Carlos Díez, musical director of the orchestra La Tipica RA7, tells BBC Mundo.
The group was then called “Rodolfo Aicardi y su Typica RA7”, including the name of the singer who would make “Colegiala” famous all over Latin America, in France, Italy and Spain.
“It’s very hard to know why people liked it so much, because most French didn’t know what the lyrics said, but there was a time when we competed with famous artists like Michael Jackson who sold the most singles in France”, explains Diez.
Now “Colegiala” is one of the songs most heard during Christmas time in Colombia, but where did the song come from and How did it come to be a resounding success in Europe?
From Peru to Olympia
In 1975, Walter León Aguilar, leader of the Peruvian music group Los Ilusionistas, came up with the idea of composing a song about a young man who falls in love with a schoolgirl.
The song became popular and began to tour several countries. In 1980, the echo reached Colombia, where a decade of tropical music explosion ended.
One of the greatest exponents was Rodolfo Aicardi, a singer famous for several popular music hits such as’ Cariñito ‘,’ Adonay ‘and’The piece of paperWhitewho tried to break down gender barriers.
And on that way he met “Colegiala”.
“Rodolfo loved to search for songs. He was a great interpreter and so he was constantly looking for songs, not only in Colombia but also in South America,” said Diego Londoño, author of the book “Rodolfo Aicardi, the history. from “the idol of always”.
At that time Díez worked as a musician in the Aicardi orchestra.
At that moment an urgent request came to him: to record the number as soon as possible.
“We recorded it in one afternoon. They told us it had to be on the radio before the Peruvians made it famous,” Díez recalls.
The next day the first copies were printed and ready to distributeI know“he adds.
The Colombian version, with the addition of instruments such as timbales and trumpets, was released in the middle of that year and was a success from day one.
So much so that it was included in the major compilations released for the Christmas and New Year holidays.
Thus it became a December classic in Colombia, something that still lasts.
“One thing those songs had (like the one on” Colegiala “) is that everyone listened to them, old and young. And with the passage of time many people have disappeared and their friends and family remember listening to these songs Londoño points out.
“And what’s the most nostalgic time of the year? December. Christmas,” he adds.
Crossing the pool
While most of Aicardi’s songs were hits, “Colegiala” reached another level, crossing borders and continents.
“Unlike what is happening now, duplicating a song with two keys on a computer is done before you had to ask the record company if you wanted to make a copy,” says Díez.
In time, Aicardi, Díez and the other musicians in the orchestra began to notice that requests for copies were coming from the record company that recorded the song from Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Spain, Italy, France …
How did they get this far?
Commercial with a train
It was 1982 and an advertising agency was commissioned with a campaign for the instant coffee brand of a renowned multinational company. Initially it was aimed at consumers in Ecuador.
The song chosen for the commercial was “Colegiala”. It sounded in the background as a steam train passed through several coffee towns.
The publicists came to Colombia to record different parts of that commercial. And while they rested after filming, they listened ‘Schoolgirl“and they decided this was the perfect subject for publicity,” says Londoño.
The Olympia theater in Paris where Rodolfo and his Typica RA7 performed.
As it turned out, the commercial was a success in Ecuador. Later in Peru. Later in Chile. And all for the song.
In Chile, the artist Miguelo even performed it at the popular Viña del Mar Festival in 1986.
“One day they tell Rodolfo that they are going to give him a gold record for millionaire sales in France, which will play in the mythical Olympia theater in Paris ”, Díez recalls.
It turns out that, in addition to the 30-second commercials for French television, the advertising agency had produced a nearly five-minute version that was shown in theaters in Paris just before the films.
There the song sounded complete. Spectators in Parisian theaters had the melody recorded by hearing it in an instant coffee commercial.
“It should only have been one night in Olympia. We were supposed to receive the gold record and give a concert, but it ended up being three. And it was sold out,” said Diez.
One of those evenings they alternated with Charles Aznavour, the singer-songwriter known as the ‘ambassador of the song“French.
“We repeated it nine times per function, and I think the success was due to a mixture of rhythm and that special way Rodolfo sang his songs,” he says.
He didn’t sing. He would tell you what the lyrics of the song said. ‘
“Colegiala” did not only remain in Spanish: of the many known versions, one in Italian by Fausto Papetti and another by Sandra Reemer, a Dutch singer, stands out.
Aicardi died in 2007 of health complications, but the Typica RA7 continued to function, mainly thanks to “Colegiala”, the emblem they consider their “cédula” (ID).
“S.I always had a cassette with me with the song from ‘Colegiala’ for the shows he did as a soloist. And when they asked him to show the ID to identify himself, he joked and said, ‘The one with a photo or the one without?’, Referring to the song, ‘says Diez.
“And ever since, ‘Colegiala’ has been our orchestra’s identity card, our way of identifying us,” the musical director concludes.
