Even the pandemic hasn’t stopped Spanish singer Raphael from returning to the Madrid main stage for another year at Christmas, this time to celebrate his 60-year career next Saturday, a concert with everything sold and 5,000 first-class visitors and guests, such as colleagues Manuel Carrasco and Pablo López.
Since March last year, the same stands of the Wizink Center in the capital welcomed 10,000 souls to enjoy the Spanish duo Camela, no other musical event in Spain has received such a large audience, yes, with all the health measures and precautions.
“How lucky to have for you. Tonight is very important to me and I know that for many of you too that this is starting to roll”, the main character from the night before stated a general feeling and a panoramic view of the location. that encouraged hope to restore the normalcy of earlier times.
The excuse was well deserved, the 60 years of the international artist profession, an anniversary that just weeks ago triggered the release of the album “Raphael 6.0”, in which he covers equally mythical foreign songs with duets such as “Resistiré”, “We broke our love” or the “I forgot to live” popularized by Julio Iglesias.
Like the phoenix bird
He never forgot to live, this incombustible singer named Rafael Martos, born in 1943, specified in a conversation with Efe that what he has done many times during his career is to appear as the “Ave Fénix”, the song with the die came on stage very punctually today, true to his style, in sleek black, but gave room to fantasy with a sequined jacket.
After that atypical theme from his eponymous album released in 1992, in all likelihood a double meaning bet for the moment we’re alive, it didn’t take long for the divo to create his own gem from his latest album, ‘Living like this is dying of love “, by Camilo Sesto.
Where the voice no longer achieves the complex pauses and supports of these kinds of herculean songs, it is provided by the formidable band that accompanies it in these appointments, fifteen musicians, including a string quartet and a wind section, all for a triangular pantallion and adapted lighting to flashes and mark each passage.
During the two hours and fifteen minutes of the concert there was an opportunity to listen to about thirty songs, which included their greatest hits, such as the very powerful (and now electronic) ‘Say what they say’ and ‘My great night’, or like “I am still that” and “I was in love,” bringing the crowd to its feet.
In between it was the turn of the first visitor of the evening, Manuel Carrasco. “I love and admire him very much,” said Raphael.
Both shared the aforementioned “I forgot to live” live for the first time, before singing “Frente a Frente”, a song that allowed him to exploit all his dramatic veins.
Without ceasing to be Raphael, there were many other opportunities to see him create pieces from outside his own repertoire, even from beyond the seas, such as ‘Vida Loca’ by Cuban Pancho Céspedes and, from Argentina, ‘Nostalgias’ by Andrés Calamaro, “Alfonsina and the Sea” by Mercedes Sosa and “La March” by La Mancha de Rolando.
In some cases, the celebration was both for the interpretation and for the theme itself, as happened with the powerful ‘We broke our love’ that Roció Jurado sang, then with ‘Adoro’ paid tribute to the Mexican Armando Manzanero, who is currently is allowed. because of the covid-19.
“What a beautiful night!”
Tampco was absent from Pablo López, who created a custom theme for him for the last album. “Truth, on a billboard at Olimpia / with thirty, twenty-five or nineteen / waiting in changing rooms / where it rains”, has recited Raphael, to which López responded in a loud voice: “thirty-five / thirty-six / his name on the poster / I dreamed that I was writing / a song for Raphael, ”caused a sudden climax of applause.
López wanted, by way of a wink, to record the percussive basis of the Christmas song “The Drummer”, which has become so common and essential in Raphael’s Christmas obligations and which of course was not missing today.
Preoccupied with giving it a touch of height, the last part of the show started with his colossal ‘En carne viva’, with the crowd back on their feet, followed by ‘Ámame’ and his reinterpretation of ‘Resistiré’, a song that in a national anthem against covid-19.
Then came the essence: “What nobody knows”, “I am that”, “Scandal” and “How I love you”, the great climax.
“What a beautiful evening! Thank you very much. And that we will see each other again next year with everything arranged, take care of yourself!”, Asked the artist, who will repeat a performance at the same place tomorrow.