The appointment was at 1:00 p.m., but Andrea Obregón arrived at 11:00 p.m. on Friday. Obregón is from Cali (Colombia), he has lived in Europe for 23 years and flew from London to Madrid to see the Colombian artist Carlos Vives. “I wanted to see it up close,” he says. “I spent the night waiting in line. It even rained early in the morning for me! But it was worth it because they gave this to me.”
Like Obregón, many in Madrid rose early to grab the best seats at a vallenato party in the Puerta de Alcalá. The Colombian artist Carlos Vives (Santa Marta, 62 years old) attracted a huge audience this Saturday to the free mega concert of the Fiesta de la Hispanidad, organized and financed by the Community of Madrid in collaboration with LOS40.
Obregón shows a yellow handle that gave him access to the VIP area. “I had seen it in London, but I am very happy to see it in Madrid, which I think is the capital of all the Latin Americans who have come here,” she said forcefully.
At 10:45 a.m. he received an unexpected reward. During sound checks, Juanes came out and played The Black Shirt. It was the surprise of the day and she was only scheduled to arrive at the end of the concert to perform Vives’ latest collaboration: “Las Mujeres”, a song originally composed by guitarist Carlos Huertas (Dibulla, Colombia, 1934-1934). 1999). When Obregón saw Juanes, he screamed, clapped and danced. Nothing revealed that he had waited almost 12 hours.
Katherine González, also Colombian and a resident of Spain for seven years, had not seen Juanes or Carlos Vives, who also came out during rehearsals to greet his most loyal supporters. González arrived at 6 a.m. to be in the front row in the public area. “I work as a nurse and left my shift at the hospital right here. “I didn’t even go home, I didn’t sleep at all,” he confessed. “I did it because I really miss the small country. But music makes you feel closer to home,” he added. González clung to the security barrier and celebrated with other Colombians, Peruvians and Ecuadorians as the real party began. After 12:00, announcer Dani Moreno turned on the music and prepared the atmosphere with the help of other LOS40 presenters in Latin America: Sheby García Franco (Colombia), Martina Orrego (Chile), Cris Vanadía (Argentina) and Alex Garza (Mexico ).
At 1:00 p.m. the sound of an accordion sounded and a Peruvian family eating four spoonfuls of chaufa rice from a container stopped their feast and began dancing. “We arrived in Madrid a year ago and we couldn’t miss it,” said the mother, disappearing into the audience to sing Pa’ Mayté, a song that Vives recorded for the album La Tierra del Olvido (1995). had composed. Back then, Madrid sounded like Vallenato and the Colombian Caribbean.
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Vives continued alone with songs like “Let me enter” and “Ella es mi fiesta”. He then gradually integrated the invited artists into the almost two-hour concert. In the performance of “The Bicycle” he was accompanied by the Andalusian artist Ana Mena, Fruta Fresca sang it with Niña Pastori and Nota de amor with Rozalén. “Music tells everything that connects us, today we bring two continents together,” celebrated the singer from Santa Marta.
Oneida Núñez, born in the same region as Carlos Vives, let out a scream as La gota frida played, one of the classics of Colombian vallenato, composed in the 1930s by minstrel Emiliano Zuleta and reinterpreted by Carlos Vives in 1993, as he published his work album Classics of the Province. “This is the music of my roots,” said Núñez, one of the people who got a VIP ticket by getting up early. It was also a special moment for Vives, because this year he celebrates 30 years of Classics of the Province, one of his most famous works because he took up classics of Colombian Caribbean folklore with cumbia, rock and pop instruments. He brought the same album to Spain for the first time in 1995, touring Madrid, Catalonia, the Canary Islands, Andalusia and Galicia. “When we made the album the industry didn’t see it, they told us it wouldn’t work. But suddenly we arrived in this country through the front door: we played, for example, at Las Ventas in Madrid and at Pueblo Español in Barcelona,” recalled the artist in a telephone interview with EL PAÍS days before the concert in Puerta de Alcalá. “This tour showed me that there is a very deep relationship with Spain and that our success is due to more than just marketing and musical hits. I have been part of the Hispanic American imagination for 30 years. “I am lucky that Vallenato came to Spain to stay 30 years ago,” he commented.
Vallenato stayed and Vives, one of its modern exponents, left Spain, returning three decades later with a concert covering several of his most popular albums. He also performed the songs with other Latin American artists: with the Venezuelan Carlos Baute he sang Canción Bonita; with the Argentinian Diego Torres, Un poco and with the Dominican Prince Royce, Volví a Nacer. He reserved special songs for Colombian singers. Ryan Castro, known in the world of reggaeton, sang Los Sabanales, a Colombian cultural anthem composed by Los corraleros de Majagual. For his part, Juanes was able to sing La camisa negra before accompanying Vives in Las Mujeres.
Vives closed the event with classics such as La Tierra del Olvido, Carito and El rock de mi pueblo. And he added other newer songs like “Volví abirth” and “When we meet again” from the albums “Corazóndeep” and “Más corazóndeep”, which made him the winner of several Latin Grammy Awards and a Grammy. “See you soon in America. Thank you for working honestly, with love and joy for this country,” Vives said goodbye. However, he will first return to Spain in November to celebrate the Latin Grammy Awards in Seville. He’s nominated in the Album of the Year category for Escalona: Never Had It Been Recorded Like This, his latest project that pays tribute to classics by Vallenato minstrel Rafael Escalona.
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