A Little Star Is Born | Translation

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The following English translation was generated with the assistance of artificial intelligence. 

[Daniel Alarcón]: This is Radio Ambulante. I’m Daniel Alarcón.

Today we start in Calama, Chile. It’s February 21st, 2004 and about 2,500 people are waiting to see a singer who just seven months ago became a true phenomenon. Her songs are playing in every corner of the country and she’s talked about constantly on television.

The show is very professional. She’s accompanied by dancers, children and a giant Pluto costume dancing alongside them. She sings hits from her first album, which is already a sales success.

Her name is Christell Rodríguez and she’s six years old.

[SOUNDBITE ARCHIVE]

[Christell Rodríguez]:

Move your belly button. Move, oh-oh-oh. And you’ll see how fun it is. Just dance, dance…

[Daniel]: Despite her young age, she has quite a bit of experience. It’s not her first time in front of an audience. She has thousands of fans and has performed dozens of times in theaters and stadiums in different cities across the country. But this time the show is shorter than usual. Christell is sick, she doesn’t feel completely well and she explains this to the host.

[SOUNDBITE ARCHIVE]

[Host]: And why did she get sick?

[Christell]: Because I ate some yogurt

[Host]: She ate some yogurt?

[Christell]: It got stuck in my stomach and gave me a fever.

[Daniel]: And although the girl says she had a fever, the audience wants more. They want to hear all her songs.

The host insists. Christell responds…

[SOUNDBITE ARCHIVE]

[Christell]: I can’t shout. I can’t strain myself too much because otherwise my tummy hurts and I’m going to throw up.

[Daniel]: She complains about stomach pain, about her tummy… The audience keeps cheering. Some whistle in complaint. The presenter keeps the girl in the center of the stage, they want her to continue despite her discomfort. So they turn to Cristian, Christell’s dad. They ask him to speak to his daughter from the tower where they control the sound.

[SOUNDBITE ARCHIVE]

[Christell]: Dad?

[Cristian]: Christell, can you hear me?

[Christell]: Yes.

[Cristian]: Let’s do Barney.

[Christell]: Huh?

[Cristian]: Let’s do Barney.

[Christell]: But daaad…

[Daniel]: Christell keeps complaining but the father insists: one more song, Barney. Christell obeys and sings it.

The show ends. The audience applauds and goes home happy. But a few hours later, that dialogue between Christell and her dad that we just heard will be reproduced on every show and newscast in the country.

This is Christell, who today is 28 years old.

[Christell]: Someone recorded it and sent it to the most well-known gossip show here in Chile.

[Daniel]: And with the same speed that fame had come to her, now the applause would turn into suspicion.

[Christell]: And as a result of that video and that gossip show comes the accusation that my parents were exploiting me.

[Daniel]: A pause and we’ll be back…

[Daniel]: We’re back on Radio Ambulante. Journalist Marina Abiuso along with our producer Aneris Casassus investigated this story. Here’s Marina.

[Marina Abiuso]: Let’s go back a bit to understand how Christell Rodríguez got to that stage. Because everything happened very fast, too fast.

She had never taken singing lessons although music had always been present in her home…

[Christell]: My mom sang, and she sang until she had me. Maybe it’s related to that a little. Like technically I was listening to her voice singing throughout my entire gestation.

[Marina]: Her mom and dad were part of a religious music group that performed in evangelical churches. Christell accompanied them since she was a baby. So from a very young age she learned Christian songs. But also those by Chayanne and Axé Bahía, which she especially loved because of the music videos she saw on TV. She would sing them and practice the choreography with her cousin after family lunches.

[Christell]: The family would sit around our stage, so to speak, which was the living room and they would watch us. From there I had an uncle who always said that I should make it to the Viña del Mar Festival and that I was going to be a singer. I’m talking about when I was two years old, two or three years old.

[Marina]: When she was about to turn five, at the end of 2002, a new program began airing on television. Christell became obsessed with watching it every afternoon with her mom.

[SOUNDBITE ARCHIVE]

[Announcer]: Red, fame against fame.

[Marina]: “Rojo, fama contra fama” (Red, fame against fame). A public channel program that mixed singing and dancing contests, reality shows and magazines. The protagonists were teenagers who performed covers and choreography.

[SOUNDBITE ARCHIVE]

[Participant]: I wonder where we’ll end up.

[Participant]: Forbidden love.

[Marina]: After each performance, a panel of expert judges gave them a rating. The jury chose the nominees to leave the program and the public voted by phone to save their favorites and give them one more week’s chance in the competition.

[SOUNDBITE ARCHIVE]

[Presenter]: Víctor Tapia continues in competition.

[Announcer]: Víctor Tapia… Continues in competition.

[Presenter]: Rubén Abrigo leaves Red.

[Announcer]: Rubén Abrigo.

[Marina]: Red was so successful that the production began touring Chile and broadcasting from theaters or stadiums, with live audiences and local participants in each region.

When Christell found out that the program would come to Talcahuano, her city, she jumped for joy and begged her mom to please take her to participate.

[Christell]: What I remember most is the casting, which was crazy because there were so many people who wanted to participate and so many people who had gone to watch, we entered like an avalanche.

[Marina]: There were so many who wanted to participate in the program that there was a first filter, without cameras. Christell waited, sang and went home with her mom.

[Christell]: After that audition and all that craziness, some time passed and they called us on the phone to tell us that we had made it and that we had to go to the final.

[Marina]: Now yes, in front of cameras: live and direct for all of Chile. That day, the day of the final, would change everything for Christell.

[SOUNDBITE ARCHIVE]

[Jaime Talcahuano]: Ladies and gentlemen, the moment has arrived. Welcome to the musical event of the year at the Tortuga de Talcahuano.

[Marina]: Red was broadcasting from the Tortuga de Talcahuano, a stadium for sporting events. It has a capacity for 10,000 people but that day it was too small, there wasn’t an empty seat. It was so packed that Jaime Davagnino, the Red announcer we just heard, improvised his announcing booth in a very particular place.

[Jaime]: That program, that gala, I did it precisely in the bathroom, sitting literally on the throne, of course with the lid closed. That was the space there was.

[Marina]: He made his comments.

Meanwhile Cecilia Mayorga, producer of the program, waited at the side of the stage to interview the participants.

[Cecilia Mayorga]: And many people appeared arriving, I don’t know, many older girls. And suddenly a girl appeared who was a dot.

[Marina]: Cecilia remembers perfectly when she saw Christell arrive. No other participant was as young as her but she didn’t seem nervous. She approached the center of the stage with short, determined steps. She was dressed as a mariachi. The Mexican hat was so big that she had to hold it so it wouldn’t fall over her little eyes.

[SOUNDBITE ARCHIVE]

[Presenter]: Are you comfortable with the hat?

[Christell]: Yes.

[Presenter]: Yes? Don’t you think it’s a little big for you?

[Christell]: No.

[Presenter]: Okay, that’s fine.

[Announcer]: Everything’s fine.

[Presenter]: What song are you going to choose for tonight?

[Christell]: México lindo y querido.

[Cecilia]: And suddenly this dot appears and starts to sing…

[SOUNDBITE ARCHIVE]

[Christell]: México lindo y querido, if I die far from you…

[Marina]: The usual thing was for each participant to sing only a couple of verses, but not this time. The music never stopped for Christell and she finished the song.

[SOUNDBITE ARCHIVE]

[Christell]: México lindo y querido, if I die far from you…

[Marina]: The audience applauded wildly. There was no doubt…

[Presenter]: And the winner is this little 5-year-old girl…

[Announcer]: The winner in “Red, fame against fame”

[Presenter]: Christell Yasmín Rodríguez Carrillo, 5 years old.

[Marina]: She won a 21-inch television and other prizes. She was happy. She did some dance steps and talked with the presenter…

[SOUNDBITE ARCHIVE]

[Christell]: I send greetings to my kindergarten Mi casita de Flores and I send greetings to my dad who’s at home.

[Marina]: Her mother smiled and the cameras showed her proud. There was almost no time left, but the audience demanded that she keep singing.

[SOUNDBITE ARCHIVE]

[Audience]: Let her sing! Let her sing!

[Marina]: From that moment Cecilia and Jaime were certain that Christell’s presence on the program was just beginning…

[Cecilia Mayorga]: Because it really was an incredible scream. She was five years old and sang very well too.

[Jaime]: To encounter a girl who planted herself on stage and who had strength and who had character.

[Cecilia]: Besides having a lot of talent, she had an incredible personality for the age she was. And said and done…

[Jaime]: She captured the audience’s attention precisely. And that’s what generated this phenomenon.

[Marina]: After seeing the audience’s reaction, the producers weren’t ready to say goodbye to Christell. So the following week they called her parents to invite her again.

This time it wouldn’t be so close to her home but in the studio that was in the capital, Santiago. Christell took a plane for the first time in her life. An hour flight during which the flight attendants recognized her and gave her candy. Upon landing at the airport, Red’s cameras were waiting for her.

The family stayed in a hotel reserved by the program and went to the studio together for the first time.

Cecilia remembers very well how they were preparing at the channel to receive her. The thing is that Christell wasn’t just another participant. She would be the only child in a show of young people and adolescents and that couldn’t be overlooked.

[Cecilia]: She was a girl with a girl’s beret with a girl’s skirt. No, she wasn’t an adolescent girl or an overgrown girl. She was very much her age, very much her age.

[Marina]: On air they received her with a small clip remembering her previous participation, they invited her to dance salsa and to sing the victory song again.

[SOUNDBITE ARCHIVE]

[Christell]: México lindo y querido…

[Marina]: Between segments, the presenter returned again and again to chat with Christell, who answered questions without nervousness.

[SOUNDBITE ARCHIVE]

[Host]: And do you have more siblings?

[Christell]: No.

[Host]: The queen of the house?

[Christell]: Nooo

[Host]: And who is the queen of the house?

[Christell]: My mom.

[Announcer]: Miriam Carrillo.

[Host]: What’s mom’s name?

[Christell]: Miriam.

[Host]: Miriam. And dad? The king of the house?

[Christell]: Yes.

[Host]: What’s dad’s name?

[Christell]: Cristian.

[Host]: Good. And where is dad?

[Christell]: There are my mom and my dad.

[Host]: There’s dad with mom. Look at dad gushing… bring a bib!

[Marina]: Mom and dad smiled. But the producers smiled more…

[Jaime]: Here we functioned for many years, with the Bible of television, which was the People Meter, right? that measured ratings and therefore if the meter shot up, then it was fed like a meat grinder until there was no meat left.

[Marina]: In other words, clinging to what generated ratings, without caring about anything else. That day, when Christell appeared for the second time on the program, the channel hit a viewership peak.

[Cecilia]: The success was immediate and also having a girl on a youth program also brings you to another audience which was the little ones.

[Marina]: So they started inviting her more often and her parents accepted. We wanted to speak with them for this episode but they preferred not to participate.

At five years old, Christell began living between her city in the center of the country and Santiago. Planes every week. Some days she went to kindergarten; others to television. Christell liked it, she felt good in that environment…

[Christell]: I say that I was like the program’s mascot, in the sense that when someone saw me it was like “Oh”, just like how one sometimes reacts when seeing someone else’s pet. They treat you very, very tenderly, very affectionately, everything super respectful.

Well, I always went with my parents anyway, so I was always very safe, right? Always respecting my limits, always giving me space to be a child.

[Marina]: Besides, Christell had her own status within the program. She no longer participated in the competition, the jury didn’t criticize her performance and her permanence was never at risk. Hers was a sort of separate show within Red.

[Cecilia]: Always taking precautions if she went to galas outside, she was the first to perform, so they wouldn’t make her stay up late. She would go do her mixes and wasn’t there for the whole program. Sometimes she stayed a little longer because she wanted to, but no, it wasn’t excessive work.

[Marina]: Soon she expanded her repertoire.

[SOUNDBITE ARCHIVE]

[Christell]: From the dark mountains, beautiful heaven they come down…

[Marina]: They even sent a camera to film Christell at her home and in the classroom with her little classmates.

[SOUNDBITE ARCHIVE]

[Christell]: We’re in the music room that I like a lot because we’re with teacher Caro. We’re going to sing some songs.

[Marina]: A kind of reality show around Christell’s life. Everything was happening at a dizzying pace. Although she enjoyed the attention.

[Christell]: Never as a responsibility either, but also understanding it as a consequence of what… of the lifestyle that was being lived. It doesn’t mean it wasn’t uncomfortable.

[Marina]: Because her fame was so great that now they recognized her everywhere. They would stop her, a bunch of people would corner her and ask for autographs. Although she still hadn’t learned to read, she knew how to write her name which she surrounded with a heart and a star. Cecilia remembers that dozens of letters and gifts arrived at the channel for her.

[Cecilia]: No, it was a phenomenon. Christell had fans, all the children wanted to be like Christell. The girls, especially.

[Marina]: Brands wanted to dress her and music producers wanted to hire her.

[Christell]: All the executives from the record labels of that time approached my mom – Warner Music, Sony Music, with their cards like: we want your daughter now.

[Marina]: Her parents didn’t really understand either. But she does remember that they talked to her…

[Christell]: And they ask me if I like what I’m doing, if, if I’m happy, if, if I want to keep doing it. And I said yes, that I really liked it.

[Christell]: And they always told me that the day I no longer wanted to keep singing or that I didn’t want to keep going to television, we would simply stop doing it and that’s it.

And we signed with Warner Music.

[Marina]: The agreement was for recording not one, but three albums. A long-term bet. Warner was committing to what they imagined would be a great child star. And that star who would generate a lot of money had to stay with the label.

It wasn’t going to be easy for Christell. Because it was one thing to learn lyrics that she heard on radio and television, now she had to sing songs written especially for her.

[Christell]: I was always very restless, so I couldn’t sit down to rehearse. So what my mom came up with was teaching me the songs playing with my hands. That’s how I learned all the songs. All the songs were a game.

[Marina]: A tongue twister, a theme in gibberish, word games. Happy music, catchy lyrics. Very catchy… And once she learned them, the recording sessions in the studio began. There were interruptions: when Christell got bored they would go to a nearby plaza so she could play for a while and clear her head. Then they would return to the studio. In just three days, they finished recording the first album with this song:

If you want to dance, play, paint, sing. You can come to my house…

[Marina]: Maybe it sounds familiar to you. “Dubidubidu” had been written by a Chilean named Claudio Prado and was about Christell inviting friends to play at her house. It had simple and fun lyrics. Contagious.

Chipi-chipi, chapa-chapa. Dubi-dubi, daba-daba. Magic my dubi-dubi boom, boom, boom, boom…

[Marina]: In November 2003, just four months after being on television for the first time, the album was already being presented on Red. It was called “Christell”, plain and simple, nothing more was needed.

The success was immediate and exponential. It had several hits. And soon recognition for sales volume began to arrive.

[SOUNDBITE ARCHIVE]

[Announcer]: Gold record, more than 10,000 copies sold in one weekend.

Platinum record.

[Host]: More than 20,000 copies sold in just 14 days.

[Marina]: Each achievement was celebrated, of course, on Red, with Christell live and direct for the entire country. At that time she achieved a total of 120,000 copies sold. Surely a lot of money for the record company… but how much for Christell?

[Christell]: I have no idea how much money it was. I don’t think it was too little for that time, either. But I also don’t think it was too much.

[Marina]: She doesn’t have details. She never asked. She knows that her parents bought a new car, which they still have more than twenty years later. And that another part was used to pay for her education at a private school where she could learn English. No fortune. Neither from record sales nor from her participation in the program.

[Marina]: It was the summer of 2004. Christell had turned six and was still at the height of success. Her parents managed her schedule and decided which commitments to accept. And the thing is that Red participants, now famous, traveled the country hired by shopping centers, companies and municipalities.

They traveled to Miami and Christell participated in Don Francisco’s show. There they recorded the most famous Chilean television program. Upon return, taking advantage of Red being in summer recess, she would give another concert in Calama, in northern Chile. It would be a brief show with some songs from the album. Red and National Television of Chile weren’t involved, nor were producers. They were prohibited from working with artists outside the program. To avoid problems and responsibilities.

[Christell]: The day before that show I didn’t feel very well because I had eaten something that had made me sick and I’ve always been very… Here we say “alharaca,” meaning exaggerated with pain. […] I was afraid that the next day I would feel sick again.

[Marina]: According to Christell, her parents talked with the organizers to see if the show could be suspended or rescheduled…

[Christell]: And they told them no, that it couldn’t be because of the contract and all that stuff.

[Marina]: So the production and the parents reached an agreement: Christell would sing even if she felt bad but it would be fewer songs. When the end came, the audience asked for more. And well, everything happened that we already heard at the beginning of this story.

[SOUNDBITE ARCHIVE]

[Christell]: I can’t shout. I can’t strain myself too much because otherwise my tummy hurts and I’m going to throw up.

[Christell]: In my innocence I said that if I kept singing my tummy was going to hurt and I was going to throw up, so at that point a producer forced my dad to convince me. They pass him a microphone and my dad speaks to me over the loudspeaker to ask me to do one more song and then we’re leaving. So I’m like: but dad.

[Cecilia]: Maybe deep down dad, uh, thought that she was really joking. Or maybe she was exaggerating. When the child says: I have a fever, I don’t want to go home.

[Marina]: The truth is that Christell wasn’t exaggerating. When the video started circulating in the media, she was hospitalized in an Antofagasta hospital, about two hours from where she had given the show. They had to operate on her as an emergency.

[Christell]: I started with a febrile condition. And in the end what it was was that I was having early signs of appendicitis.

[Marina]: But the media made a different diagnosis: a newspaper headlined “Stress broke Little Christell”. There were stories on television, on radio, in magazines.

[Jaime]: And that event is what I think triggered everything else.

[Daniel]: A pause and we’ll be back

[Daniel]: We’re back. Marina Abiuso continues telling us…

[Marina]: When the video of Christell complaining about stomach pain and her father insisting that she sing became known, Red was preparing the launch of its new season. Cecilia remembers very well the tense atmosphere that was lived at the channel.

[Cecilia]: The host was hysterical. He almost fired me because I didn’t have information from a journalist who had said something against Christell, no, I swear.

[Marina]: Christell, the successful child star, had now become an exploited child… Perhaps worried about being under the same accusation, the program rushed to request a meeting with UNICEF, the United Nations organization that deals with children’s rights. They wanted to have an endorsement for the way they worked with young people. While Christell was the youngest, she wasn’t the only minor.

Cecilia was the channel’s representative at the meeting: she presented the girl’s working conditions and those of the other participants and returned to prepare an official response that would establish Red’s position regarding the scandal.

[Cecilia]: We met with the host, who was very nervous, very nervous. He didn’t know what to do. And all this information was discussed in a kind of communiqué, the issue was addressed based on this meeting.

[Marina]: The first thing was to clarify that Red and National Television of Chile had no connection whatsoever with the show in question. They acknowledged that Christell was seen “evidently sick” and that encouraging her to continue was an action that violated her fundamental rights as a child. And they assured that those were not their usual conditions at the channel. That’s how they wrote it in the communiqué.

The scandal had escalated beyond television programs. Several congressmen expressed their intention to prepare a project against child labor exploitation and announced that they would call it the “Christell law.” The project proposed protection measures for the rights and assets of child artists under 15 years old, and sought to establish clear obligations for employers and parents to preserve a percentage of earnings until the artists reached adulthood.

Christell’s parents were under the scrutiny of the entire country.

So 2004 was a particular season start for Red. Instead of having Christell singing and dancing, they invited her parents. This time they weren’t behind cameras but sitting on the set, always holding hands.

[SOUNDBITE ARCHIVE]

[Host]: I know that you are a family of faith and with that tranquility you can face the cameras.

[Marina]: Christell’s parents felt it was time to come out and face the rumors and accusations. The thing is that the attention on the family had gone from intense to delirious. One newspaper, for example, went so far as to wonder if Christell’s songs didn’t hide a satanic message. That’s why, that day, the father said:

[Cristian]: For us who are Christians, evangelicals and to be associated with evil, let’s say, with Satan or whatever they want to call it, is a low blow.

[Marina]: The scandal grew bigger and bigger. Other media pointed to Red, and the program responded. To defend itself, yes. But it also made good ratings. This is Jaime, the announcer, again.

[Jaime]: Nobody cared if Christell’s tummy hurt or didn’t hurt, if she had eaten something bad. That’s the least important thing for those who were in the fight which was for ratings, but nobody ever. I think that really nobody, nobody cared about what was happening to Christell.

[Marina]: In fact, in the interview with the parents they didn’t even ask them about Christell’s health. They corrected the error the next day, in a phone call…

[SOUNDBITE ARCHIVE]

[Cristian]: The operation is already overcome. She’s already very restless just like she is. She hasn’t realized all this that has happened.

[Presenter]: That’s good.

[Cristian]: Yes, perhaps she’s struck by seeing dad sad with a few tears.

[Marina]: The scandal was such that even the National Service for Minors also got involved and issued public statements expressing concern for Christell. Then it decided to intervene to review her living conditions. After meeting with the family, the deputy director spoke to Red’s cameras.

[SOUNDBITE ARCHIVE]

[Loreto]: We have spoken with the family, we have spoken with the parents […] The parents have agreed, there will be a team of professionals, in fact, who will advise them not only regarding these specific cases, but also regarding their development in general.

[Marina]: They opened a case file on the parents to verify whether there was or wasn’t a violation of rights.

[Christell]: They reviewed accounts, they were, well, I was told this when I was older, because I didn’t realize any of it and they even spent days with us, they spent days with us and I don’t remember.

My dad told me a little about what he had to live through, uh. That they even almost threw tomatoes at him in the street. That he had to endure people shouting things at him too.

[Marina]: Insults, accusations… all related to the supposed exploitation of his daughter that -according to her- never occurred. For those who worked on the program, the accusations against the parents were disproportionate…

[Cecilia]: I don’t think there was an intention to exploit Christell. I don’t think so, because they were really very calm parents who were always worried about her. No, they didn’t understand much about the television and events world either.

[Jaime]: They never had professional preparation in the field, in the media aspect they were formed practically there.

[Christell]: They were obviously trying to do things as best as possible, being people totally ignorant on the subject. And very poorly advised, because that was another thing too.

[Cecilia]: I think Christell commanded more than them. I think she had more personality than her parents.

[Marina]: Red was at a crossroads. Could they keep inviting Christell if there were suspicions that they weren’t taking care of the girl? They decided to put closure to the matter. They no longer talked about exploitation but about a “condoro,” that is, an error. A serious error, but an error nonetheless.

[SOUNDBITE ARCHIVE]

[Host]: Personally this team doesn’t want her to feel that… Forgive me for being so clear, because of a screw-up that dad makes, she feels that afterward she can’t be on this stage at all. This stage will continue to be Christell’s stage. This program will continue to be Christell’s program.

[Marina]: And so it was, at first. Christell returned to the program a few days later, oblivious to the scandal. They had made sure she didn’t find out about anything. She sang and danced as always. Normalcy returned. A few weeks later she even recorded the second album that was already planned by contract.

[SOUNDBITE ARCHIVE]

[Host]: Is this the new album?

[Christell]: Yes, that one. It’s called “the party continues.”

[Announcer]: The party continues.

[Host]: Really?

[Announcer]: From Warner Music.

[Marina]: Despite the scandal, or perhaps because of the scandal, the second album was also a sales success.

Los Prisioneros, Chile’s most famous rock group, invited her to participate in the video clip for their song “Manzana.”

The third album came out in December of that same year. It was called “Get your act together!” and included a duet with Monserrat Bustamante, a colleague from the program, older than her and who would later be better known as Mon Laferte.

[Marina]: However, something had changed in the atmosphere. Christell’s television appearances were briefer but newspapers and gossip shows remained attentive to the movements of the girl and her parents, who hadn’t stopped being under scrutiny.

[Cecilia]: The parents kind of decided to take her out a little. I think it was their decision more than the channel’s.

[Christell]: We had already been notified that we weren’t going to continue, so the activities we had by contract were going to end and then it wasn’t going to continue.

[Marina]: The versions between them differ. But regardless of who made the decision. Christell accepted the end of her career with the same naturalness with which she had taken fame. Although she did ask her mom why things had changed.

[Christell]: She explained to me that we went to the program because the program invited us and that now the program wasn’t inviting us, so that’s why we weren’t going.

I think I never deigned to ask, I mean, I never asked more questions like why don’t they invite us or anything. Like it was simply like they’re not inviting us anymore and that’s it.

[Jaime]: I don’t remember, uh, that this ended just overnight, but as I tell you, I recognize that television is a meat grinder machine. And if the… and if it’s not giving, it’s not giving anymore, let’s go with something else and bye.

[Marina]: Christell’s time on Red was over. Behind them were platinum albums, a tour that had taken her through Mexico and Puerto Rico, commercial agreements to launch a children’s clothing line and even a Latin Grammy nomination.

She completely distanced herself from that environment.

[Jaime]: Christell disappeared from my radar because, well, television has that powerful thing where it puts you in a showcase and suddenly, when it disappears, it stops being, it practically stops existing. And I didn’t know any more about her.

[Marina]: It had been too much for the whole family, especially for her parents. Because she simply enjoyed singing. And, actually, she kept doing it. If they invited her to some event she would go and sing.

[Christell]: I always did it until I was twelve, around there, when I had a personal period of mine when I decided to stop singing. My dad was like hey, they’re inviting you here and I was the one saying no, I don’t want to go. The truth is I don’t feel like singing.

[Marina]: Because she was already a teenager and her songs were for children.

[Christell]: But we also didn’t have the economic options to be able to make a new production or anything like that. So, that option wasn’t there.

[Marina]: The record companies that had filled her with offers at five years old no longer had interest. Red, the program that had catapulted her to fame, was no longer on the air. No one invested in her. She tried to live the life of a normal teenager, but it wasn’t easy for her. At school she suffered bullying… and her artistic career no longer brought her joy.

There were six years of absolute silence. But when she turned 18 and finished high school, Christell made a decision:

[Christell]: It was like, okay, I want to try it again.

[Marina]: She wanted to be a singer. She would no longer say it was a children’s game, but a conscious choice. A career.

She moved to Santiago to study music. She worked with some independent producers, released some new songs but they didn’t reach the success of when she was a child. It was a very difficult time personally…

[Christell]: Reality shocked me a lot, realizing that what I had seen when I was little still existed.

[Marina]: That is, the scandal never completely disappeared. In that new attempt to build a musical career, she again accepted invitations to television programs and questions about her family always reappeared.

Christell became convinced: this environment wasn’t for her. She moved to Viña del Mar, city of the famous artistic festival, the ultimate aspiration of Chilean musicians. But her plan wasn’t that stage but the faculty, this time a new career to become a speech therapist.

[Marina]: It was 2018. Red was about to go on air again, with a new host and other rules, but with the same announcer.

[Jaime]: They called me from TVN to tell me: “baldy, the time has come, they tell me, we’re going back to doing Red and you have to be here,” they told me.

[Marina]: Jaime accepted and returned to being the voice-over of the contest that was now called “Red, the color of talent.” The ratings and the audience followed and the cycle was reinstalled.

In August 2019, a little more than a year after Red’s return, Jaime was in a meeting to organize what the program would be like…

[Jaime]: We were reviewing the script, what was coming and there I found out that Christell was there.

[Marina]: The production of the new Red had summoned her to the program and she had accepted the invitation…

[Host]: I have the pride of saying…

[Jaime]: Moment of tension.

[Host]: Come forward Christell.

[Jaime]: A historic Red artist, we met her when she was barely five years old and with her talent she quickly won people’s affection.

[Marina]: Christell was returning now as just another participant, subject to the jury’s vote and opinion.

[SOUNDBITE ARCHIVE]

[Christell]: Thank you, thank you very much. I’m super happy, anxious, and excited to be here.

[Jaime]: Christell arrived, as many figures who had been on Red also arrived. And of course, the phenomenon was that she was no longer the girl. No, she was already the woman. She was more than a teenager. And of course, with another personality. And another, another, another profile she had.

[Marina]: No more children’s songs. She sang Shallow, by Lady Gaga. She was among the worst evaluated by the jury, which put her at risk of being voted to leave the contest. She couldn’t contain her tears, but assured that it wasn’t because of the grade, but because of the comments that her return had generated on social media. Now she had to deal with a new enemy, one that didn’t exist when she was a child.

She explained it herself on an entertainment show that followed everything that happened on Red.

[SOUNDBITE ARCHIVE]

[Christell]: That’s why I say, it has nothing to do with the competition.

[Host]: It wasn’t “you’re singing badly” “you were off-key” or anything.

[Christell]: No, no, they have to do with my appearance, with how they dress me, my weight, etcetera… the same as always, nothing new really. Very unoriginal guys, I say it straight up.

[Marina]: That same week Christell lost in the voting and left the program. Again.

[SOUNDBITE ARCHIVE]

[Christell]: I appreciate the opportunity that the production gave me, I would have loved to be there much longer but I trust that God’s plans are perfect, but many people missed me so they could see me for a little while on TV.

[Marina]: Christell stopped traveling to Santiago, stayed in Viña del Mar and concentrated on university. She completely abandoned her musical facet. The songs from her childhood were now part of an almost private ritual.

[Christell]: I listen to all the songs every year, yes or yes. I mean, they’re always there because I have them saved and from time to time I like to sing them.

[Marina]: Christell continued listening to them and singing them at home, with the cassettes and CDs she preserved from that era. She had recorded them in the early 2000s and none of that material was available on the internet.

But in November 2023 that would change. And without Christell’s knowledge, a melody from her past took on a life of its own on the web.

Chipi-chipi, chapa-chapa. Dubi-dubi, daba-daba. Magic my dubi-dubi boom, boom, boom, boom.

[Marina]: And what she least expected was that it was going to expand around the world with the force of a viral hit. A new-old hit.

[Daniel]: We’ll be right back…

[Daniel]: We’re back. Marina Abiuso continues with the story…

[Marina]: Christell had had her childhood fame period and that had ended. Her attempt to return to music as an adult hadn’t been as successful as she expected. She had a social media presence, but didn’t aim to live off that. She had gotten married, was finishing her speech therapy degree and living in Viña del Mar. And suddenly…

[Christell]: I was literally sitting in this same place where I am with my phone next to me and they start tagging me and I’m like, what’s happening. Like I said in my head. A news story came out or something.

[Marina]: She searched quickly in the news media but found nothing related to her. So she went on TikTok and discovered that all the mentions were about an animated video. A kitten appeared moving a paw to the rhythm of the music.

Chipi-chipi, chapa-chapa. Dubi-dubi, daba-daba. Magic my dubi-dubi boom, boom, boom, boom…

[Christell]: It had comments from everywhere like from what’s it called? Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Arabic. There were comments like in many languages, so I didn’t know where it had come from.

And after a while they start tagging me again, but in other videos now of people uh singing it. And these were American kids who changed the lyrics and liked the song.

Dubbing in English: If you want a dance and if you want to sing. I guess you should come to my house.

[Christell]: I was like what. What is this? Like, why? When did this happen?

[Marina]: It was fun. But Christell didn’t give it too much importance.

[Christell]: And then, they started tagging me in a video and it was a video of a K-pop artist.

[Marina]: It was an artist from TXT, a band from the same company that manages BTS. If you don’t know about K-pop this probably doesn’t mean anything to you, but pay attention to this fact: BTS has surpassed the popularity records that nothing more and nothing less than The Beatles had. They accumulate millions of fans and followers and are so influential that they were invited to speak at the United Nations General Assembly.

[Christell]: And I see it and I there, I let out a scream, there I say what is this? What’s happening?

[Marina]: It had been several years since Christell had become a huge K-pop fan. And that’s why she understood very well everything that this movement dragged along. If this group was sharing her song, it was going to become really much more well-known. And she wasn’t wrong. Suddenly they started tagging her more and more. Her song was playing in unthinkable places.

[Christell]: Japan, Germany, Spain, India, Mongolia, Malaysia also played a lot.

[Marina]: And the list continues… Indonesia, South Korea, Thailand, Canada, Peru, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and back to Chile…

[Christell]: It was in the top viral 50 list in many countries.

[Marina]: Christell was bewildered. How was it possible that that song that wasn’t on the internet had become so viral?

She started investigating and tracing the tip of the thread: she discovered that the original video (the one with the kitten moving its paw) had been uploaded by a user from Peru who had her CD and had kept it for 20 years.

[Christell]: I looked for him on Twitter, I talked to him on Twitter. He responded to me. And I told him like hey, how crazy everything that’s happening is and he told me that of course, well, that he knew the song from when he was younger, that he had heard it and simply decided to place the chorus as part of the video he had made.

[Marina]: A decision made without thinking too much, now unleashed a new worldwide wave over which Christell had no control.

[Christell]: It was a bit stressful because obviously I had pressure from people in some way who were like: Hey, you have to take advantage of it. This is a great opportunity. You have to take advantage of it. And I was like. How do I take advantage of it?

[Marina]: They told her to go to Japan, to South Korea, to any of those countries where her music was playing. But…

[Christell]: What am I going to do? If people don’t know who I am. People know the song, the song is a viral song. But nobody knows my current face. The interesting thing is that it’s sung by a five-year-old girl, but that girl no longer exists, I mean, she’s 27 now.

[Marina]: Meanwhile, the song kept playing on networks without Christell having any profit: since she didn’t own her songs, she couldn’t upload them to any music platform and the record company had never done it. So she didn’t collect royalties. Not a penny.

[Christell]: So I had three months from January to March, looking for a way to be able to contact the record company to be able to talk about the possibility of uploading the song to Spotify and take advantage of all this viralization.

[Marina]: Christell finally managed to find a contact email and wrote to them asking for a meeting…

[Christell]: And they had no idea. So yes, technically I brought them the business. Business in which obviously they earn much more.

[Marina]: It was no longer her parents who were going to negotiate her contract. Christell asked for what mattered most to her: for the songs to be available again in this streaming era.

They said yes. They uploaded the viral song first, then the complete discography. Now yes, each reproduction of the song implies a small profit for all those involved. And for her, it’s interpreter.

[Marina]: In 2024 Christell finally arrived in Asia in person. She didn’t go to promote her song, but for another job she had gotten for knowing so much about Korean culture. They hired her as a tourist coordinator for teenagers, K-pop fans, who traveled on tour.

[Christell]: I found it very funny that I was walking and in a store the song was heard and people were singing it and I was passing by like…

[Marina]: As if nothing. Without anyone recognizing her… But the tourists she accompanied were Chilean and knew perfectly well who Christell was. In Seoul they encouraged her to sing her song. On the street, with a street artist’s microphone.

Christell thought this chapter of her life had ended. And although she didn’t get a stage in Asia, they did invite her to sing again in Chile and Mexico.

[Christell]: I was a bit overwhelmed because I said what do I do? I mean, I have maybe, maybe because it’s not a fact either, the possibility of having a successful career again and trying again? Something that I had already abandoned in quotes in my head…

[Marina]: But finally she got encouraged, accepted the invitations and returned to the stage. 22 years later she’s not the little girl who arrived on TV with a Mexican hat so big she had to hold it so it wouldn’t cover her little eyes. Nor the teenager overwhelmed by hate on social media. She’s bigger and stronger.

After the trip through Asia, she started working on an artistic project focused on children’s audiences: audiovisual content, new songs. A new attempt, perhaps the last, to live off music. It’s called “Christell’s World.”

I asked her if all this that happened with the viral is a kind of revenge, a redemption for her music after that scandal that marked her and her family.

[Christell]: The truth is that I see it as a new opportunity to be able to do something that I enjoyed for a long time and that today I realize I still enjoy.

But I have no idea what impact it will have. I have no idea if it will become something as big as what the dubi dubi was or what it was when I was little, my objective is to reach whoever has to be reached.

[Marina]: Because everything else… she knows it, can vanish in an instant.

[Daniel]: Since Christell’s song went viral, the Peruvian user who posted the first video closed their social media accounts after TikTok removed the audio for violating copyright rules.

Marina Abiuso is a journalist. She co-produced this story with Aneris Casassus. Aneris is a producer at Radio Ambulante. Both live in Buenos Aires.

This story was edited by Camila Segura, Luis Fernando Vargas, and me. Bruno Scelza did the fact-checking. The sound design is by Andrés Azpiri with music by Ana Tuirán, Rémy Lozano, and Andrés. 

The rest of the Radio Ambulante team includes Paola Alean, Adriana Bernal, Diego Corzo, Emilia Erbetta, Camilo Jiménez Santofimio, Germán Montoya, Samantha Proaño, Natalia Ramírez, Lina Rincón, Sara Selva Ortiz, David Trujillo, and Elsa Liliana Ulloa.

Carolina Guerrero is the CEO.

Radio Ambulante is a podcast by Radio Ambulante Studios, produced and mixed in Hindenburg PRO.

If you liked this episode and want us to keep doing independent journalism about Latin America, support us through Deambulantes, our membership program. Visit radioambulante.org/donar and help us continue narrating the region.

Radio Ambulante tells the stories of Latin America. I’m Daniel Alarcón. Thanks for listening.