Raoul Vázquez García (Montgat, Barcelona, 19 March 1997) is a Spanish singer, songwriter and musician. He began to gain renown at the end of 2016 when he competed in the fourth edition in Spain of the talent show The Voice. However, his launch to fame came a year later, on the last trimester of 2017, following his participation in the ninth edition of Spanish talent Operación Triunfo 2017. In December 2018 he made a musical collaboration with Belén Aguilera with a song that became his first published work, “Tus monstruos” (Your monsters). After that, in June 2019, he released his first solo single, “Estaré ahí” (I'll be there).
Early life
Raoul was born in Barcelona (Spain) and is the second son of Susana García and Manuel Vázquez. His older brother is the renowned football player Álvaro Vázquez. Due to his brother's work, Raoul had to move to Swansea (Wales) when he was fourteen years old. Although he always wanted to become a singer, it wasn't until he was 16 that a teacher encouraged him to take singing and interpretation lessons and to participate in different castings. He then embarked in his musical education and commenced vocal technique lessons, which he later continued once he was back in Spain.
Career
2016: Musical beginnings and The Voice
To make himself known while he improving his musical abilities, Raoul started publishing videos of his song covers to Instagram while working as a bartender. In October he was selected to perform at the “blind auditions” of the talent show The Voice, which was broadcast by Telecinco in Spain. He performed “Jar of Hearts” by Christina Perri and managed to get a chair turn from Melendi, who signed him up in his Team. Afterwards, Raoul battled his teammate Job Navarrete performing the song “Impossible” by James Arthur and succeeded in beating his fellow and moved to the next stage of the contest. He was finally defeated just before the quarter-finals with his performance of “I’m not the only one” by Sam Smith. In spite of being eliminated, Melendi asked Universal Music to transfer him Raoul's publishing rights so he could help him launching his first recordwork.
2017: Operación Triunfo
In Spring 2017, while he worked as a bellboy and singer in a hotel in Ibiza, he attended the castings for Operación Triunfo 2017, a reality talent show that is the original Spanish version of the Star Academy franchise. After a long selection process, in October, Raoul was chosen to enter the academy following his live performance of “Catch and Release” by Matt Simons during the OT 2017 Edition's First Gala. During this edition of the contest Raoul stood out with his outstanding version of “Million Reasons” by Lady Gaga. Raoul was the seventh expelled contestant of the program with a 46% of the votes against the 54% of his fellow Cepeda. Once Operación Triunfo was over, the sixteen contestants began a national tour of twenty five concerts celebrated all across Spain, between March and December 2018, including emblematic places like the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium (where they performed in front of 60.000 people, or three times in the Palau Sant Jordi in front of 51.000 people). In those concerts Raoul performed coral songs with all the rest of his fellows, “Million Reasons” by himself and “Manos Vacías” (Empty Hands) by Miguel Bosé alongside his partner Agoney, a song that became a motto in the fight against homophobia.
2018–present: After Operación Triunfo
After Operación Triunfo, Raoul signed a contract with Universal Music for the launching of his career as a singer. During 2018's first semester he worked with three of his Operación Triunfo fellows - Mimi Doblas, Nerea Rodríguez and Agoney – considering the establishment of a band named “Delta”, a project that was discarded and eventually each one of them undertook a solo career.