Jorge Drexler Says It Took Him Until 45 to Feel Free Enough to Dance

Jorge Drexler says it took decades for him to loosen the inhibitions he carried from growing up in Uruguay during a dictatorship hostile to musicians and artists. The singer-songwriter, who once worked as a doctor, now brings dance rhythms to the stage and says making music helped him shake off the period’s lingering effects. At a Madrid music-industry event, Drexler opened with “Guitar y Vos” before performing “El Otro Lado del Rio,” the song he wrote for the film The Motorcycle Diaries. It won the Academy Award for best original song in 2005. Since Drexler was not invited to perform at the ceremony, he sang a short a cappella version instead of giving a conventional acceptance speech, according to the account. His newer album, Taracá, was nominated for eight Latin Grammys ahead of the awards ceremony scheduled for 12 November. At the event, he performed “Ante la Duda, Baila,” or “When in Doubt, Dance,” accompanied by drummers playing the Afro-Uruguayan candombe style. The performance turned a daytime industry gathering into a lively dance party. Drexler, now 62, grew up in Montevideo and spent his early years under military rule. He says the society around him did not dance, and that the dictatorship’s impact stayed with him long after it ended. He traces his later change to a record called Bailar en la Cueva, or Dancing in the Cave, and puts the turning point in his mid-forties: “I didn’t dance until I was 45.” His route into music ran alongside medical training. Drexler wrote and performed at night while studying medicine, then used money from clinical work to pay for his early recordings. He recalls concealing his guitar beneath his doctor’s coat at the hospital and hiding his white coat in his guitar case when he played in bars. As an ear, nose and throat specialist, he says his knowledge of sound frequencies still informs how he talks with engineers about levels at a show.