Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Music & Dance
Barcelona's vibrant music and dance scene has been shaped by artists both
traditional and cutting edge. From Nova Cançó, composed during the dark
years of the dictatorship, to the hybridised Catalan rumba to hands-in-the air
rock ballads of the 1970s and '80s, Barcelona's music evolves constantly.
Today's groups continue to push musical boundaries, blending rhythms from
all corners of the globe. In the realm of dance, flamenco has a small loyal fol-
lowing, while the old-fashioned folk dance sardana continues to attract grow-
ing numbers.
Contemporary Music
Nova Cançó
Curiously, it was probably the Franco repression that most helped foster a vigorous local mu-
sic scene in Catalan. In the dark 1950s the Nova Cançó (New Song) movement was born to
resist linguistic oppression with music in Catalan (getting air time on the radio was long close
to impossible), throwing up stars that in some cases won huge popularity throughout Spain,
such as the Valencia-born Raimon.
More specifically loved in Catalonia as a Bob Dylan-style 1960s protest singer-songwriter
was Lluís Llach, much of whose music was more or less anti-regime. Joan Manuel Serrat is
another legendary figure. His appeal stretches from Barcelona to Buenos Aires. Born in the
Poble Sec district, this poet-singer is equally at ease in Catalan and Spanish. He has re-
peatedly shown that record sales are not everything to him. In 1968 he refused to represent
Spain at the Eurovision song contest if he were not allowed to sing in Catalan. Accused of
being anti-Spanish, he was long banned from performing in Spain.
Born in Mallorca, the talented singer Maria del Mar Bonet arrived in Barcelona in 1967,
and embarked on a long and celebrated singing career. She sang in Catalan, and many of her
searing and powerful songs were banned by the dictatorship. On concert tours abroad, she at-
tracted worldwide attention, and she has performed with distinguished groups and soloists
across the globe.
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