La Oreja de Van Gogh

According to data from the Spanish Music Producers (PROMUSICAE), they have sold 3,260,000 certified albums only in Spain.Before Amaia Montero joined in 1996, the group had already been formed a year earlier in San Sebastián. Pablo Benegas played the guitar, Álvaro Fuentes the bass, Xabi San Martín the keyboard and Haritz Garde the drums. In their early days, they performed covers of well-known bands such as U2, Pearl Jam, Guns N' Roses and Nirvana.Pablo Benegas met Amaia Montero at a friends' dinner and, after hearing her sing, invited her to try out with the group. Everyone agreed that she should be the vocalist.With Amaia's arrival, they decided to find a name for the band.

During a conversation about the history of Vincent van Gogh and his ear, they chose to call themselves «La Oreja de Van Gogh».They participated in the Pop-Rock City of San Sebastián Contest, where they presented their first demo with three English tracks: «Don’t Let Them», «One of These Days» and «The Worst Nightmare», the last being an initial version of «Pesadilla», which would appear on their first album, along with the unreleased «Quisiera». Although they did not win on their first attempt, they tried again and in 1997 won the VI Pop-Rock City of San Sebastián Contest. The demo sent to the jury included «Viejo cuento», «Dos cristales», «Aquella ingrata» and «El árbol», of which the first two were included in their first album of 1998, and the last two in the reissue of Guapa, Más Guapa, released in 2006.Thanks to their victory, their songs began to play on local radios and they were able to record a CD with four tracks.

This motivated them to send demos to record labels. Although they prepared several envelopes, they only sent one song to Sony Music. The company contacted them, interested in their work, and asked how many songs they had. Although they only had three, they claimed to have composed 25. During the summer, in two months, they composed 18 songs for their first album, Dile al sol. In their early days, the band also had a sixth member, Luis Meyer, who did not continue when they became well-known.