Flans

Flans is a Mexican musical group, originally made up of Ivonne Guevara García, Irma Angélica Hernández Ochoa (Mimí) and Ilse María Olivo Schweinfurth, who achieved success during the second half of the 1980s. The group is still in force as a duet with its original members Ilse and Mimí.

Trajectory

Musical beginnings

Vinyl disc of the simple "No controls", 1985

After a considerable investment by Mildred Villafañe, Ilse, Ivonne and Mimí recorded their first LP, Flans, in England, France, Spain, Italy and Germany under the production of Villafañe herself and by Mariano Perez.

1985: Self-titled debut album

The first single, "Bazar", created by the duet of Mexican composers Carlos Lara and Jesús Monárrez, captured the attention of the public, which placed the song in the first places of popularity among radio stations in Mexico.^{[citation needed]} For its promotion, an advertising campaign called “Flans is coming” was started.^{[citation required]} On the 6th of October 1985, in the program Siempre en domingo, its host Raúl Velasco made the official launch of the group.

Their second single was "No controles", by the Spanish author Nacho Cano, then a member of the group Mecano. Its music video entered the Anglo-Saxon market on MTV, and was placed in the first places of popularity on the Billboard chart.^{[citation required]} Later They began to promote the songs "Me gusta ser sonrisa" and "Ay amor".

1986: 20 Miles

In 1986, they released their second album, 20 miles, recorded in Spain, once again produced by Mariano Pérez. The album premiered with the song "Tímido".^{[citation needed]} To promote it, they toured Central and South America and part of the United States. ^{[citation required]} That same year a clothing brand was launched under the name Códice Flans.^{[citation required]} After "Tímido", the songs "Today for you, tomorrow for me", "20 miles" and "From the trench", among others, were released.^{[citation required]}

In the program Siempre en domingo, a special section was created that invited girls up to the age of thirteen to participate for the best imitation of Flans in the Let's Dance with Flans contest. The group was included among the 15 greats of Siempre en Domingo 1986 with the song "No controles", where they shared the stage with the small winners of the aforementioned contest.^{[quote required]}

1987: Light and Shadow

In 1987, they recorded their third album entitled Luz y sombra, presented in a hotel in Mexico City. From this album came the first single "Run, run", followed by "I have fallen in love with a fan", "Luz y sombra", and "A thousand and one nights".^{[citation required]} They record the video clip for the song "I have fallen in love with a fan" with an atmosphere of the 40s, recalling the golden age of XEW in their facilities, with a retro style.^{[ citation required]} The song "Luz y sombra" by the composer Amparo Rubín was chosen as the central theme of the Televisa telenovela of the same name starring Thalía and Alberto Mayagoitia.^{[ citation required]} That same year, he participated in a special program made by Televisa in favor of the victims of the 1985 earthquakes, with the video for the song "Count on me" which was recorded in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas in Tlatelolco in Mexico City.

They are invited to participate in a Christmas project called This Christmas sponsored by Coca-Cola in which along with Daniela Romo, Mijares, Fandango, Yuri, Amanda Miguel, Timbiriche among others; They put their voices together calling themselves La Fraternidad to launch the Coca-Cola Wave campaign, and Flans has to promote the song "The old woman is coming". Forget me".

1988: Soulmate

At the end of 1988 they released their fourth album Alma gemela, which was made in Milan, Italy; in London; in New York and in Mexico, whose production and arrangements were in charge of Mildred Villafañe and Roberto Colombo. This production opens with a voice-over of the song "Alma mía" by the composer María Grever giving an introduction to the first song on this album "Alma gemela". Songs such as "Tiraré", "Alma gemela", "Giovanni Amore", "Detrás de tu silencio" and "I'm not so strong" were released for its promotion.^{[citation required]} They record the video for the first single "Tiraré" in which they have the writer Carlos Monsiváis as a guest.^{[citation required]}

They are invited to participate in the Yamaha Popular World Song Festival in Tokyo (Japan) that same year, for which they record the song "Alma gemela" (in English, "Twin Soul"), which unfortunately they could not attend. attend since this was previously canceled because the Japanese emperor was in poor health. Even so, they promote the song in English on television, editing the single on a special 45 RPM disc, playing on the radio in its Spanglish version.

They return to the 15 Great of Always on Sunday where they were awarded for the song «Soul mate». They return to the second broadcast of the Verónica Castro program, Aquí está.^{[citation required]}

1989: Tell Me Dum Dum

In June 1989, their fifth production was published: Cuéntamelo Dum Dum, they carried out a different concept, by releasing a double disc dedicated to children: The story of Dum Dum, Novovipipo, Tajín and the 7 thunders, The fly, and The son of the rainbow, are stories narrated by the members of the group, each of whom has their respective song.^{[citation needed]} The central character is Dum Dum, the Duende de las Vueltas. The single “El mosquito bilingüe” is extracted from this production. to promote was "Vuelve al hogar". As well as two LPs dedicated to songs from the 1940s and 1950s.^{[citation required]}

1990-1991: The first separation and Goodbye

After rumors that Ilse, Ivonne and Mimi did not get along, Ivonne married the musician Fernando Toussaint and had to be replaced by another member, in March 1990 the group announced its disintegration in the program that saw them born Siempre en domingo by Raúl Velasco arguing that Ivonne was getting married but that at the same time they wanted to take a break from her career after five very intense years of work. Flans disintegrated with its original lineup because from the beginning they had proposed a friendship pact in which they would always be Ilse, Ivonne, Mimi and "the fourth Flans": Mildred Villafañe.^{[ appointment required]} Siempre en domingo performs a special program called Revelations hosted by Rebeca de Alba where each of the members of Flans narrates what they want to dedicate to in a near future (Ilse as a goldsmith, Ivonne as a painter and Mimi as a businesswoman) as well as the trajectory of the group from its beginnings and presentations on the Sunday program.^{[citation required]}

They release their sixth and last album that they would title Adiós, made by Mildred Villafañe and Roberto Colombo, in which Ilse participates as author of the song «Niña», Mimi of «Y no estás» and Ivonne of "El cuadro", in addition to the fact that it includes a version of the song made famous by the Spanish singer-songwriter Luz Casal: "A cada paso" which was the first single from this LP. This album includes songs such as: "A tenth of a second", "I can't stop anymore", "Pecesito", among others. Among the last commitments that they had even before the disintegration, Ilse, Ivonne and Mimi sponsored their former partner in the television project Pedro Marás, a youthful male release by Mildred Villafañe in which the Flans contribute their voices to do choirs on the first and only album by Marás.^{[citation required]} They join the Optimists and participate in the musical project Join the Optimists by Ma.Esther Aguirre de Rodríguez with the song La Torre de Babel.^{[citation required]}

Flans makes his farewell tour throughout the Mexican Republic, Central-South America and the United States.^{[citation needed]} They offer a press conference to say goodbye to the media and close with a concert at the Teatro las Torres in Ciudad Satélite Naucalpan, México.^{[citation required]}

1999-2000: The Return and Fairies

In 1999, Mildred Villafañe contacted Ilse, Ivonne, and Mimí to discuss the possibility of a reunion.^{[citation required]} They are interviewed in different media of communication and they are awarded by the magazine Eres for their musical career, they also offer 5 concerts at the National Auditorium in Mexico City.^{[citation required]} They publish their seventh production Hadas which they recorded in London and Los Angeles, and was produced by Mildred Villafañe, Aarón Montalvo, Luis Carlos Esteban and Ivonne, a member of the group; who wrote the song "One of many". The first single was "Hadas" by Juan Pablo Manzanero, followed by "Si te vas", "Tu eterna nightmare", "Rufino" and "Gracias", a Spanish version of the song "Thank You" by English singer Dido. ^{[citation required]}

They perform in December at Teletón 1999 and appear on various television programs, including the morning show Hoy and Otro rollo by Adal Ramones on the that for the first time after 10 years they reveal the true reasons for the disintegration of the group arguing the personal abandonment they suffered by their representative, the workload, the disorganization, as well as personal problems with the representative.^{[citation required]} Additionally, they perform at a special concert at the Hard Rock Café México.^{[citation required]}

2001-2006: Naming rights and second separation

In March 2001, Flans resumed her career together with Mildred Villafañe as a producer, this led her to demand a higher percentage of profits for being the owner of the name and concept "Flans" to which the trio opposes and they start a legal dispute around the name. Said dispute was exposed in a special program called El ojo del Huracán hosted by Aurora Valle de Televisión Azteca. So after several months, the General Directorate of Copyright decided to give the ruling on the ownership of the name "Flans" in favor of Villafañe.^{[citation required]}

After this, the trio decided to adopt the name of IIM (the initials of each one's name) with which they released the seventh production simply titled IIM under the Universal label, with themes in electronic versions adapted to the time of their previous songs. The lesbian-gay community recognizes them for the first time for their trajectory as an icon for the gay community.^{[citation required]}

To commemorate the group's twentieth anniversary, they reconcile with Villafañe and decide to celebrate with an Anniversary tour, which they named 20 miles later. They return as Flans in a series of concerts in Mexico and the United States sponsored by TV Azteca. The tour ends on December 15, 2005 at the Plaza de Toros México, with his classical repertoire, thus putting a new pause on the music scene.

2012-2014: Second reunion and Front row: Flans

Taking advantage of the 25 years of the Pandora group, they are invited to record a new version of the song "The Thousand and One Nights" for the album De plata by Pandora, which is attended only by Mimi and Ilse. From this 3 live performances were derived at the National Auditorium in which they were invited by the Pandora group in their last concert of 2012, where they performed their song "Twenty miles". Later, they decide to meet at the project that they call Y si nosotras, which having as a framework the Puebla Fair on May 12, 2012, they present themselves with a concert that is based on the songs of Flans but also singing songs by them as soloists and other artists, along with their musicians and 2 choirs. In an interview they commented that the original idea was to organize a reunion for the trio, however they clarified that they once again faced Ivonne's refusal.^{[citation required]}

At the end of 2012, Ivonne surprisingly contacted Ilse and Mimi to let them know that she would be interested in a possible musical reunion.^{[citation required]} In this way, becoming call "Ilse, Yvonne and Mimi" They officially made their return on April 20, 2013, to the stages with the Hoy por ti tour, which took place in various parts of the Mexican Republic. During interviews they highlighted the making of a possible unpublished album for 2014.

Ilse Olivo Schweinfurth, During the Tour "Hoy Por Ti" 2013

On March 25, 2014, they announce the release of their new record album in the format Front Row for the following months. Front Row: Flans represented, In addition, the signing of a contract with Sony Music as the group's new record company. The new album contains four unpublished songs that mark a new stage in the group's history, one of them being "Yo no sería" their first single. The recording took place on June 11, 2014 and the release of First row was given on September 30 of that year.

As part of the promotion of their new album, they participated in several radio festivals and were godmothers of the plaque unveiling for 2000 performances of the musical "Lies". Subsequently, the trio announces their new tour: Tour Flans Primera Fila, with which they toured places in Mexico, the United States, Central America and some South American countries.

2015-2019: Flans 30 years and Tour as we are

On the occasion of the celebration for their three decades of career, they decided to end their Primera fila tour to give rise to a new series of shows, the Flans 30 years tour which began in September 2015 and continues its presentations throughout 2016 and part of 2017 mainly in Mexico and the United States.

In 2017 they began the Tour Así somos. The tour ended in 2019 in which Ivonne decided to take a break to dedicate herself to her artistic activities as a painter.^{[citation required]} Ilse and Mimi continue as a duo and join the 80s Pop and Rock Tour with various groups of the time.^{[citation needed]}

2020 - present: I would do everything for you Tour and Unexpected Tour

After Ivonne's departure from the group, Ilse and Mimi decide to remain active, and they also get permission to use the name Flans with which they present themselves to this day.

In 2020 they released 3 promotional singles: One More Year, This Christmas and Todo Haría Por Ti, the last single that gives the title to their tour on June 19, 2020. They also perform an Online concert to benefit the COVID-19 Pandemic.

On July 31, 2020, Flans offers the first Auto Concert in Latin America after the pandemic, it was held in Mexico City and had a great turnout.

At the beginning of 2021, a rumor of a supposed tour by Flans and Pandora began to spread, which had not been confirmed, a proposal that had been rejected in previous years, until June 2021 when both groups confirmed a tour called Unexpected Tour that began on November 26 at the Arena Monterrey, to the surprise of the singers, this tour was a complete success, generating Soul Outs on most of the scheduled dates, so it was decided to extend the tour not only to 2022 but the tour is still active with dates in 2023. On December 9, 2022 a CD-DVD called "Inexperado Tour (Live)" which reaches number 1 on iTunes in just a few weeks.

Discography

Albums of study

Live Albums

Simple:

Music tours

• 1986 - Promotional Tour Flans and Mecano
• 1986 - Tour 20 miles
• 1990 - Tour Goodbye
• 2000 - Nostalgia Tour
• 2001 - The force of the whole
• 2005 - Tour 20 miles later
• 2013 - Tour Today for you
• 2014 - Flans Tour Front row
• 2015 - Flans Tour 30 years
• 2017 - Tour
• 2020 - Tour Everything would do for you
• 2022 - Unexpected Tour Flans and Pandora