Tag: sheila devil

The Transformation of Camilo Sesto’s Daughter: From Camilín to Sheila Devil

Sheila Devil, the artist formerly known as Camilo Blanes Jr, has been worrying her family for a long time.

In the midst of 2023, that a trans woman should finally decide to come out of the closet and show herself as she is should not be news. The problem is that Sheila Devil, the artist formerly known as Camilo Blanes Jr, has been worrying her family for a long time. She tries to call for calm, but every new image she uploads to Instagram is like the captain of the Titanic trying to reassure the crew by helping to sink the ship himself with a pickaxe.

Disclaimer: To clarify the reading, in the moments of his life when he answered to the name “Camilo” we will name him in the masculine.

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Camilín

However, it has not always been like that. When he was born, from the fleeting relationship of Camilo Sesto and Lourdes Ornelas, the singer described him, as soon as he got off the plane, as “his happiness”. He must have been very happy, because, despite Ornelas’ attempts to get him back, he clung more and more to his father, who at that time was triumphing all over the world with international tours and even had the courage to release an album in English. It was clear to him since he was a child: that’s what he wanted, what he needed, what would complete his life. Music.

But of course, being Camilo Sesto’s son puts one more handicap to the already difficult career of dedicating oneself to music: you have to live up to your father, a Camilo Sesto who was losing more and more communication with him and who ended up allowing him to go to Mexico to live with his mother. It is then that this misunderstood introvert continues to train his vocal cords looking for his chance.

Camilo Sesto was incredible, a voice that made him an idol in a late-Francoist Spain accustomed to the Dúo Dinámico and Los Pecos, the Rosalía and Bad Bunny of the time. He single-handedly unleashed a whole Camilomania that could not last forever, of course: in 2014, at 68 years old, Camilo Sesto had already released what would be his last album (the live ‘Todo de mí’) and, although he was still performing, his life was more decadence than anything else. It was time for his son to finally let his voice be heard.

Dental veneers and alcohol

Said and done: Camilo Blanes releases ‘Todo de mí’, his first album, at the age of 29. It goes unnoticed, yes, but his vocal cords promise that his father will have a legacy… that remained just that, a promise. Addicted to various substances and with the traumatized head that only the withdrawn son of a celebrity constantly pursued by the cameras can have, Blanes marries and divorces fleetingly, puts on dental veneers to avoid showing the ravages of drugs and tries not to get carried away by the quicksand.

Camilín managed to be more or less out of the media eye and live quietly until September 8, 2019, a kidney failure ends with Camilo Sesto at 72 years old. The singer named his son as the sole heir to his entire fortune, setting up the most explosive cocktail in the world: a person with addictions, all the money in the world and media noise around him. What was to come, in the end, surprised no one.

Since his father’s death, he has only had one moment of lucidity: the recording of a tribute album to his father entitled -oh, surprise- ‘Tributo’. The problem is that, no matter how well trained your voice is, if you want to live up to the best Camilo Sesto, it’s not enough to be his son. Not only was the album a failure (on all levels, believe me: it’s on Spotify and you can check it out for yourselves), but he also closed the doors of the music industry himself by refusing to sign several contracts he already had agreed upon, allowing the filming of a series about his protenitor or the preparation of a musical-homage. Instead, he locked himself in a hecatomb of alcohol, drugs and bad ideas. Spoiler: it goes wrong.

Instagram is the devil’s work

No matter how much his mother warned the media about the state of health of her little one (“He is sick and needs help,” she said): until we saw him live on his Instagram with a whiskey in one hand and a cigarette in the other, eating pasta with his hands and babbling incoherently until his girlfriend tried to take his cell phone to stop the self-humiliation: “Don’t take my phone or I’ll take your hand off in one blow. I’m a macho man”, he assured, as if a time machine had taken him out of the worst episodes of ‘Cuéntame’.

By then he had already kicked his mother out of the house and squandered a large part of the inheritance on alcohol and various vices. When Ornelas returns home, after the Instagram direct, he is found claiming that he is “the chosen one” and that Satan has nothing to do against him. You’d think you couldn’t get any lower, but sometimes basements surprise with more subway floors. And the fact is that at the end of 2021, after celebrating his birthday, he ended up admitted to a hospital in Madrid on the verge of death due to a lung condition: some say as a result of five days of sleepless partying. His relatives say it was the result of a bicycle accident. The truth is probably somewhere between the two.

The next step in her life, a year later, was to come out as a trans woman to her family first and to public opinion later: her name was Sheila Devil (which she had already used at other times in her musical career) and she didn’t want to show anything about her that wasn’t true. Goodbye to dental veneers and pictures on her Instagram as Camilo Blanes. Hello to stardom (sort of). Her photos show a worrisome spiral (with phrases like “say dro to the nogas”) and let it be seen that her life is a chaos of partying and, once again, bad decisions.

Ornelas believes she has gone into “self-destruction mode”, her ex-partner can’t talk to her, bad company surrounds her and everyone wonders what the next step on the road is: Is there an end down the line for someone who has everything but wants nothing? Is it too late for Sheila Devil or is it the first step towards being who she really is? So far, the seemingly reassuring skateboard rides near her home have reassured no one. It won’t be long before we know the next episode of this soap opera.

The incredible spiral of self-destruction of Sheila Devil, the daughter of Camilo Sesto who was once known as “Camilín”

Camilo Michael Blanes, better known as “Camilito”. In other words, the daughter of Camilo Sesto, who currently calls herself Sheila Devil. Ok, we see your faces of bewilderment at the course of events. It is better that we start from the beginning.

In 1964, a band called Los Botines gets together in Madrid to play rock songs like ‘Hallelujah surf’ or the then trendy ‘Chico ye-ye’. The intention is to match the success of Los Brincos, but it doesn’t go so well. In fact, in 1966 their singer left to try an unsuccessful solo career and was replaced by a certain Camilo Blanes, thanks to whom they appeared in two movies and recorded great songs like ‘Eres un vago’. Three years later, this Blanes would be the idol of all of Spain and better known as… Camilo Sesto.

Note: For the sake of clarity, during the period in which Sheila Devil was known as Camilo Blanes Jr. or “Camilito” we have used the masculine form.

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After the Fifth and before the Seventh

Although a whole generation knows him for the deliciously psychotronic ‘Mola mazo’, Camilo Sesto has to his credit authentic wonders like ‘Jesucristo Superstar’, ‘Vivir así es morir de amor’ or ‘Sentimiento de amor’. Precisely the latter was recorded with a certain Camilo Michael Blanes, better known as “Camilito”. That is, his daughter, who currently goes by the name of Sheila Devil. Okay, we see your faces of bewilderment at the turn of events. We’d better start from the beginning.

Camilo Blanes Jr. was born on November 24, 1983 from his father’s relationship with his “close friend” Lourdes Ornelas. But as we all know from the pink world, Camilo Sesto was not a one-woman man (or a dozen, or a thousand, probably): after the breakup he got custody of his offspring and brought him to Spain, where he spent his entire adolescence. “I already have my son, and I don’t want to hide it for a second, I don’t want to hide my happiness,” the singer commented at the time. And of course, as a person glued to some loudspeakers and instruments, Camilín quickly grew up with the desire to make music.

Along the way, however, father and son drifted apart and Ornelas took advantage of the occasion to get closer to him (reportedly even harassing him). Meanwhile, from Mexico, Camilín’s musical career never took off, partly because, despite his name, the boy was shy and reserved. The problem with having had success by your side all your life is that you are not able to value yourself properly and your achievements seem less.

Blanes went on to record an album in 2014 titled ‘Es lo que siento’ with a record three songs ending in the word “Ti” (‘Háblame de ti’, ‘Para llegar a ti’ and ‘Yo sin ti’). Things as they are: it’s not a geek album in the style of Jesulín de Ubrique or Tamara, but a continuation of his father’s artistic style with a good trained voice. But, already in 2018, his few appearances in public let it be seen that he was not in good health, causing concern to grow in his environment. A year later, his father died, starting a spiral of decline.

To live like this is to die

If it is already difficult to deal with the death of a parent, imagine if that parent is the most famous singer in the history of a country, the cameras follow you everywhere you go and analyze your every word. Imagine, moreover, that you are very shy and everything overcomes you. Shake a little in a cocktail shaker and enjoy the biggest hangover of your life.

The artist (or son of an artist, as you choose) had another opportunity to relaunch his musical career by singing in Viña del Mar, but decided to turn it down, in addition to many agreed albums that he never got to record because, according to the story, he never showed up on the day of signing the contracts. In 2020 he released a tribute to his father called, coincidentally, ‘Tributo’, where the voice was less trained than in the previous one: comparing himself to his father was risky, but he loses out on all fronts. It would be unfair, in any case, to say that the album ended with neither pain nor glory: it had much more pain than glory.

Camilo Blanes Jr, with eight million euros just inherited, was offered to do a series about his father (which he turned down) and an international musical (which he also turned down). Instead, he disappeared from the map completely until he started uploading disturbing videos to his Instagram, with a glass of whiskey in his hand and saying barbarities while his girlfriend tried to stop him: when his mother showed up at his home, her son believed he was “the chosen one” to save humanity from Satan’s clutches.

At the end of 2021, he would end up in the ICU of the Puerta de Hierro hospital for fifty days with a lung condition. The media, always on the lookout for blood to go biting, speculated that it was the consequence of three days of partying celebrating his birthday, but the family clarified that it was the consequence of an accident while riding a bike on a rainy day and that he had been “a month away from toxicity”. Finally a faithful follower of Ibai Llanos’ advice. Toxicity out, bad vibes out.

It’s a devil

A year later, in November 2022, she would announce to her mother and friends her sex change: from now on she would be known as Sheila Devil, which, frankly and at this point in the 21st century, is not “worrying”, as many media have defined it. It will be worrying things to choose in Devil’s life. The artist has deleted all her Instagram photos and has left only those of her current identity, uploading images at a dizzying pace since two weeks ago. Her mother believes that she has gone into “self-destruction mode” but the truth is that her new name makes more sense than it seems.

“Sheila” can be understood as “Music” in Irish, indicating that she is still thinking about her career and giving her father’s voice and legacy a future. Meanwhile, to give a supposed image of normality (which has made the family even more uneasy), Sheila took a skateboard ride near her home in Torrelodones indicating that she was feeling “wonderful”. Apparently, her mother found her at the end of April with Christina Rapado (with whom she has a very rare friendship) naked in the kitchen, with glass on the floor and the safe where she keeps her father’s valuables open. Wonderful-wonderful he may not be.

In her Instagram you can see her new look, in which she shows off her lack of teeth and, at least (that yes) she is smiling. Where is the life of Camilo Sesto’s daughter going to lead? Will there be a stop to this spiral? We fear that she has not yet reached the bottom.