La Oreja de Van Gogh announced on Wednesday the return of Amaia Montero, its original singer, as the group’s vocalist and the temporary departure of guitarist Pablo Benegas, a rumor that had been circulating for months and that increased when the departure of Leire Martínez from the Spanish group was announced.
The expected news was made public on Wednesday in a statement, leaked a few minutes earlier on social networks, accompanied by a photo and a video recorded in a rehearsal room in which Amaia Montero appears already singing, accompanied by Xabi San Martín (keyboards), Álvaro Fuentes (bass) and Haritz Garde (drums).
The absence of Pablo Benegas, who had been in the band for 30 years, is evident both in the images and in the signing of the communiqué in which the group explains that the guitarist is still part of the group, although “he will retire for a while to enjoy more time with his family and explore new professional challenges”.
In this way, the quintet now converted into a quartet will meet again with their audience after having spent the last few months reviewing their hits and also writing new stories that will soon be added to their repertoire.
“Returning to the rehearsal room, turning on the microphone and feeling the magic of our songs alive made me infinitely happy,” says an excited Amaia Montero, who thus returns to the group in which she was a member between 1996 and 2007.
Amaia Montero in her great return to ‘La Oreja de Van Gogh’.
The official confirmation of Amaia’s return comes just one year after the abrupt departure of Leire Martínez, who spent 17 years in the band from San Sebastian.
And there was speculation that after a long time with Montero away from the stage, she returned to the stage at Karol G’s concert at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in July 2024, when with a fearful voice that was gaining confidence she sang her legendary song ‘Rosas’.
Martínez’s departure, on October 14, 2024, was announced by the group with a statement that assured that they had not been able to “bring together” their “different ways of living the group”, in an announcement that the singer’s fans saw as a betrayal of the person who took over from Montero for 17 years.
Leire herself released in April her first solo song, ‘Mi nombre’, where she charged with how the group had treated her: “I was never yours / Find someone to replace me / You already did it once / But you can’t hide anymore / Two faces and one name”.
In recent days it seemed to be an open rumor, as the band’s biography in networks changed to remove the group photo and simply put in the biography: “only together makes sense,” reported Agencia EFE.
Here you can see the video of Amaia Montero returning to ‘La Oreja de Van Gogh’.
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