After Years Apart, La Oreja de Van Gogh Reunites With Amaia Montero

There are bands that age with their listeners, and then there are those that become a memory of who we once were. La Oreja de Van Gogh has always belonged to the latter. Their music lives in the quiet corners of cafés, in the early morning drives, in the moments when love felt both impossible and infinite. Now, after years apart, the voice that first carried that feeling has returned. Amaia Montero is back.

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The announcement arrived quietly, through a video that felt more like a reunion among friends than a formal declaration. In it, Montero stood in a rehearsal room, surrounded by Xabi San Martín, Álvaro Fuentes, and Haritz Garde, singing as if time had never passed. The guitar of Pablo Benegas, however, was missing. His absence was explained in a statement confirming that he remains part of the group but has chosen to step away temporarily to spend time with his family and explore new directions. After three decades of constant travel, he wanted silence for a while.

The Return of the Voice That Defined an Era

Montero spoke about her return with a kind of awe, as if rediscovering an old part of herself. “To go back, turn on the microphone, and feel the magic of our songs alive again made me infinitely happy,” she said, her words capturing the weight of memory and the lightness of renewal. Her voice, once the anthem of adolescence across Spain and Latin America, had been silent within the band since 2007, when she left to pursue a solo path that produced four albums, each shaped by introspection and the constant search for self.

During her absence, Leire Martínez became the new face of the group for seventeen years, guiding them through another era of success. Her departure in 2023 reignited a question that never quite went away: would Amaia ever return? Earlier this year, when the band posted a simple image of a blank sheet of paper with the words “only together makes sense,” fans understood what was coming long before it was confirmed.

A Reunion Written in Time

Montero’s gradual return began in the summer of 2024 when she appeared unannounced on stage at Karol G’s concert in Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu Stadium. It was a fleeting moment, but for those who had grown up with her voice, it felt monumental. That appearance, paired with Martínez’s exit months later, brought speculation to a fever pitch. The idea of a reunion became something fans began to expect rather than merely dream about.

Behind the scenes, the band had already started to revisit their shared past. In private rehearsals, they sifted through melodies that once defined a generation, writing new ones that could speak to the present. Theirs has always been music of everyday poetry, songs about bus stops, chance encounters, and promises whispered in crowded rooms. That simplicity — honest, emotional, grounded — is what keeps listeners returning to them, decade after decade.

A Familiar Melody, A New Beginning

For Pablo Benegas, who co-founded the group and shaped its lyrical soul, this new chapter arrives as he steps away to rest. His creative presence lingers over the project, much like the sound of a fading chord that refuses to disappear completely. His decision to pause, rather than end, carries the same maturity that defines this new era of the band.

La Oreja de Van Gogh’s reunion with Amaia Montero feels less like nostalgia and more like alignment. Their songs have always belonged to the emotional landscape of ordinary life. The band has always written about time, and now time has written them back together.