Music on television has always been like a boomerang back and forth. Sometimes it's there and sometimes it's gone. It has almost disappeared for some time. Live music has once again disappeared from television programs and we have returned to the catacombs, where songs that give us hedonism and understanding seem to be forbidden. In this dire situation, it is particularly worrying that music is not shown on TVE, the only channel that, through La 1 and especially La 2, usually has the purpose of promoting the public cultural service. Because the remaining private companies, with the exception of the payment chain Movistar+, developed decades ago into cheap supermarket products and modified food to distort health and intelligence. For this reason, Cachitos Nochevieja is very appreciated: the gala, the special end of the year, was shown on La 2 this New Year's Eve.
Cachitos is already a brand in itself. Or a tradition. That doesn't matter. Cachitos, as the program “Cachitos de iron y chrome” is popularly known, returns every Christmas to remind us that music is part of our lives as a sentimental vehicle of the first order. Songs are the soundtrack of societies and therefore shape both who we are and what we want to be. This year, Cachitos has doubled down and, in addition to its three hours of visual archival pieces with funny captions from old public television programs spanning decades, offered an old-fashioned gala, a real variety show in an hour-long program, recorded in its entirety at the iconic cabaret El Molino in Barcelona.
The result couldn't have been more pleasing. Finally on television, the show co-directed by Jero Rodríguez and Arantxa Soroa has focused on the music, although everything happened under the roofs of El Molino. In the colorful game of the show we must highlight the humor of Los Gandules, the inclusion of the drag queen Sharonne with her disappointing ventricle and the magic of Jandro with bombproof self-confidence. Pep Plaza's appearance with his imitations of Sabina or Serrat also provides a humorous touch.
In this series where feathers, bow ties and glitter are important to say goodbye to the year, we must celebrate the participation of Lita Claver La Maña, legendary director of El Molino and vaudeville diva of the Parallel of Barcelona, and Fernando Esteso, Actors of the silliest party on post-Franco television. And above all we praise the choice of Ángel Carmona as presenter. When he jumped out of the radio microphones on television, he showed that he can create great communicative moments.
We've been watching trashy reality shows for so many years that, honestly, all we can do is applaud anything that has nothing to do with the screaming of roosters and chickens all over the TV farm.
The entire gala was about one goal: to restore a longed-for, perhaps lost universe. In addition, the faces and their star performances offered their own cosmos, that of television as a place of escape with a certain style, a place where all the things that happened on the other side of the kitchen door, where the characters were not the same as always and Of course her smart brother-in-law would complain. We've been filming trashy reality shows for so many years that, to tell the truth, all we can do is applaud anything that doesn't involve the screaming of roosters and chickens throughout the television farm.
There is no music played at all on this farm. And if so, it would never be the music that Cachitos chose for New Year's Eve: the gala. It was wonderful – and it was so easy – to see Sidonie, Carlangas y los Cubatas, Amaia or Lori Meyers perform their songs in their entirety, without cuts or tariffs. The same goes for seeing and listening to new, little-known proposals broadcast on prime time television on New Year's Eve, such as “Adiós Amores”, “La Prohibida & Algora” and “Joe Crepúsculo & Aaron Rux”.
It's not that difficult, and yet it's because music has disappeared from television. Another time. Cachitos reminds us once again that music makes us happy and that to do this we need programs that promote it in our visual memory, which is almost the most important thing in the age of screens.
You can follow EL PAÍS Television on X or sign up here to receive our weekly newsletter.
Get the TV newsletter
All the latest news from broadcasters and platforms, with interviews, news and analyses, as well as recommendations and reviews from our journalists
LOG IN