If you do things right, you can get some truly unexpected insight into fields that seem far, far, far apart from your original point of
departure. For instance, you start researching one of the worst singers that have ever graced this planet – and end up musing whether the
Putin regime is more on the dangerous or more on the laughable side.
Ignacio Gomez Urra's career is almost exclusively a Social Media matter. From a well-off family in Chile's far south, he decided already as a
child that he would become a musician. Well... whether or not he really became one, is a legitimate subject for debate. Let's put it this way:
he felt and acted like a musician, and was not shy of letting the world participate in his efforts: in 2007, he started his Youtube channel,
where he would upload tons of videos in which he has the courage of butchering music from opera to Heavy Metal with his squeaky, wobbly voice
that is not even ill-placed since it isn't placed at all. An amateur in the wake of Florence Foster-Jenkins, and nothing superior to her.
His early videos (he went just by Ignacio Gomez at the time) were simple and homemade, in spite of all the fuss about contacting Gomez'
international management for concerts and TV shows: this was obviously just a young man with nothing useful to do, who sat at home and dreamt of
being a star. Over time, the videos grew more and more professional, until arriving at internet TV quality; Gomez Urra would not only sing but
talk (a whole lot!), as well, and instead of simple sound clips, he would now also produce one-and-a-half hour "TV shows" (of course with just
one guest, himself). Gomez Urra had become an influencer tenor (presenting himself in turns as "tenor", "rock star", "rock tenor" or "Christian
tenor").
The improved video quality (his singing always remained the same disaster) evidently had to do with his Russian girlfriend (and later wife), a
photographer – and it got a boost when they relocated to Russia in 2017. The pathetic squeaker from antarctic Chile, who had long posed as
a "star" without having gone far beyond the boundaries of his child's room, all of a sudden led a completely different life: really long
interviews on regional Russian TV programs (notably in Sevastopol, Crimea, where he was particularly active, living in nearby Krasnodar),
public appearances (at concerts, but also at beauty contests both as a singer and a juror), plus he was awarded several "international prizes"
(for what exactly? ugliest tenor singing in the world?).
Award ceremony of one his "international" prizes in Russia
And above all, his Youtube videos (now on two channels, one in English and one in Spanish): beyond singing; beyond his usual palaver about love,
peace and harmony and how music can make the world a better place; and beyond asking for donations for his "humanitarian projects" (which he
always fails to specify) – he now rambled on about his deep love for Russia and the Russian people, and his enormous admiration for
Vladimir Putin. He could use not only footage from his Russian TV interviews, but also Putin footage at considerable length: Putin at the gym,
Putin the judoka, Putin steering a boat, Putin fishing, Putin swimming, Putin petting a dog... in other words, Gomez Urra had enrolled in the
Russian internet troll army, and obviously made a living in Russia from it. He also gave interviews on the Chilean (online) media, where he
would again rave about Russia and Putin.
Gomez Urra singing for a Miss Sevastopol (and she has to smile in spite of it all!)
Although the applause on the above "Di quella pira" recording was obviously part of the karaoke orchestra rendition that he used, there are
pictures and videos that prove that Gomez Urra was allowed to sing to actual audiences, on a small and local scale already back in Chile. And
after moving to Russia and becoming an "international star", he appeared in concert in Belarus, Kazakhstan, India or Bulgaria. (Although he
won't have been able, in concert, to deliver the electronically prolonged acuti that he uses in his videos.) And he gives, shudder to think,
master classes in chant...
Bottom line, there cannot be the slightest doubt as to the criminal intentions of the Putin regime, and the dire consequences they have on
democracy and peace (in Ukraine and far beyond). And yet a country, whose secret service puts a freak and clown like Ignacio Gomez Urra on their
payroll, is doomed to fail. If they are even too stupid to realize the counter-productive effects of eulogies by a hopelessly ridiculous figure
like Gomez Urra, then Russia will perish, not because of any "Western aggression", but very simply because of the utter idiocy of the Putin
regime.
Reference 1, reference 2: Youtube "Ignacio Gomez Urra –
Channel in English", reference 3: Youtube "Ignacio Gomez Urra – Channel in Spanish", reference 4
Picture source 1 (bottom two), picture source 2 (top): Gomez
Urra's Facebook page