Guitarricadelafuente on His Acclaimed Acting Debut in ‘La Bola Negra’: ‘It Was an Extension of What I Was Feeling Musically’
Categoria: Musica
The artist spoke with Billboard Español about getting the role, creating its song “La Nieve” and how his own music evolved since filming Spain's selection for the 2027 Academy Awards.
Por Billboard | 05/11/2026
Guitarricadelafuente has spent nearly a decade building a career from a place that, at first, served almost as a hiding spot. The artist, whose real name is Álvaro Lafuente, began singing under that pseudonym precisely because he was shy, and wanted to maintain some distance between himself and the person behind the songs. But, over time, music ended up doing the exact opposite, giving him the tools to show himself. Now, his journey has taken on a new dimension with La Bola Negra , the film directed, co-written and produced by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi — known in Spain as “Los Javis” — inspired by Federico García Lorca’s unfinished play, and representing Spain in the race for the 2027 Oscar for best international feature film. For Guitarricadelafuente, this means that many people are discovering him for the first time, through something entirely different from his music. “They should know that I really come from music and making songs,” he tells Billboard Español . “I’ve been fortunate that, in this film, in some way, the character I’ve portrayed is an extension of what I was feeling musically. I think it’s very beautiful that this has been able to happen.” La Bola Negra follows the lives of three gay men at three key moments in Spanish history: 1932, 1937 and 2017. Guitarricadelafuente — who co-stars in the film alongside Milo Quifes and Carlos González — plays Sebastián, a young musician (trumpeter) forcibly recruited by Franco’s forces after surviving an attack during the Spanish Civil War. From this project, the song “La Nieve” was born, an original piece he wrote alongside Raül Refree and Lucas Durán, further intertwining his two worlds within the film. But long before portraying Sebastián, there were the songs he began sharing online, almost anonymously. In 2018, he released his first original composition, “El Conticinio,” recorded with a PlayStation microphone. That same year, he launched “Guantanamera,” which reached No. 69 on PROMUSICAE’s songs chart. Those early steps shaped Guitarricadelafuente, a project that, according to the artist, was born as a way to protect himself from his own shyness. “I’ve always been someone very timid,” he explains. “The reason I call myself Guitarricadelafuente was to create a nickname so that no one would know it was me behind it. From the first time I got on stage, I was always using the guitar as a shield so no one could see me.” Over the years, that relationship with the audience changed, and music ended up giving him something he initially lacked: the ability to show himself and, at the same time, to play with different versions of himself. “Music has given me the tools to express myself as I feel and to show myself for the first time on stage, but it’s also given me the skills to personify different roles,” he says. Perhaps that’s why, when Los Javis saw him perform in 2024 at the Primavera Sound festival and suggested shortly after he co-starred in La Bola Negra , they saw something in him th