Not even the pandemic has prevented the Spanish singer Raphael from returning for Christmas, once again, to the main stage of Madrid, this time to celebrate this Saturday the 60th anniversary of his career, a concert with everything sold and 5,000 first-class attendees and guests, Like colleagues Manuel Carrasco and Pablo López.
Since last March these same stands of the Wizink Center in the capital received 10,000 souls to enjoy the Spanish duo Camela, no other musical event in Spain had received so much public, yes, with all the measures and health precautions.
“What greater happiness to have them in front of me. Tonight is very important to me and I know that for many of you too, that this starts to roll,” the protagonist of the night certified in the face of widespread feeling and a panoramic view of the enclosure that encouraged the hope of regaining the precedence of normal times.
The excuse well deserved it, the 60 years of profession of the international artist, an anniversary that only a few weeks ago motivated the launching of the disc “Raphael 6.0”, in which versiona with pairs of height equally mythical other people’s songs, such as “I Will Resist,” “Our Love Was Broken,” or the “I Forgot to Live” that Julio Iglesias popularized.
Like the phoenix
He never forgot to live, said in a talk with Efe this incombustible singer, named Rafael Martos, born in 1943, that what he has done often during his career is to emerge as the “Bird Phoenix”, the song with which today he jumped very punctually to the tables, faithful to his style, of rigorous black, but giving space to the fantasy with a jacket of sequins.
After this atypical theme taken from his album of the same name released in 1992, most likely a double-sense bet at the moment we are living, the divo did not take long to make his another of the jewels of his latest album, “To live like this is to die of love”, by Camilo Sesto.
Where his voice no longer reaches the complex dodges and sustained of this type of Herculean songs, he is replaced by the formidable band that accompanies him in these appointments, a fortnight of musicians, including a string quartet and a section of metal wind, all in front of a triangular pants and custom lighting to deploy bursts and emphasize each passage.
About thirty songs had the opportunity to be heard throughout the two hours and fifteen minutes of the concert, in which they did not miss their great hits, such as the most powerful (and now electronic) “Whatever they say “and” My big night, “or like” I’m still that one “and” I was in love, “which put the crowd on foot.
In between came the turn of the first visit of the evening, Manuel Carrasco. “I love him and I admire him a lot,” he told Raphael.
The two shared for the first time live the quote “I forgot to live”, before singing already solo “Face to face”, a song with which he could exploit all his dramatic vein.
Without ceasing to be Raphael, there were many opportunities to see him do his pieces from outside his repertoire, even from overseas, such as “Vida Loca” by the Cuban Pancho Gespes and, from Argentina, ” Nostalgia “by Andrés Calamaro,” Alfonsina and the sea “by Mercedes Sosa and” La marxa “by Rolando’s La Mancha.
In some cases, the celebration was both for the interpretation and for the theme itself, as happened with the powerful “Love broke us” that sang Sprayed Jury, to then pay tribute to “I adore” the Mexican Armando Manzanero, currently admitted because of the covid-19.
“What a beautiful night!”
Pablo López was also missing, who made a tailor-made theme for the last album. “Truth, of poster in the Olympia / with thirty, twenty or nineteen / of waiting in dressing rooms / where it rains”, has recited Raphael, to which Lopez responded to full lungs: “Thirty-five / thirty-six / his name on the poster / I dreamed I was writing / a song to Raphael “, causing a sudden climax of applause.
In this issue López wanted to include, as a nod, the percussive base of the carol “El timbaler”, which has become so common and essential in Raphael’s Christmas engagements and which, of course, does not missing today.
Concerned with providing a high-waisted brooch, the final stretch of the show began with his colossal “En carn viva,” with the audience once again on foot, followed by “Ámame” and his reinterpretation of “I Will Resist,” song that has become an anthem against covid-19.
Then came the must-haves: “What Nobody Knows,” “I’m That One,” “Scandal,” and “How I Love You,” the big climax.
“What a beautiful night! Thank you very much. And that next year we will see each other again with everything arranged, not much!”, Asked the artist, who will repeat performance in the same place tomorrow.