Not even the pandemic managed to stop the Spanish singer Raphael from returning to Christmas on the main stage in Madrid for another year, this time to celebrate his 60-year career on Saturday, a concert with everything sold and 5,000 participants and first-rate guests, as well as colleagues Manuel Carrasco and Pablo López.
Since March last year, the same stands of the Wizink Center in the capital have received 10,000 souls to enjoy the Spanish duet Camela, no other musical event in Spain has received such a large audience, yes, with all the health measures and precautions .
“What great happiness to have in front of you. Tonight is very important for me and I know that for many of you, this is starting to roll,” the protagonist of the previous night certified a general feeling and a panoramic view of the place. which encourages hope to restore the normalcy of past times.
The excuse was well deserved, the 60 years of profession of the international artist, an anniversary that just a few weeks ago motivated the release of the album “Raphael 6.0”, which covers foreign songs as legendary with duets as “Resistiré” , “We broke our love” or “I forgot to live” popularized by Julio Iglesias.
Like a phoenix
He never forgot to live, this incombustible singer, named Rafael Martos, born in 1943, specified in a discussion with Efe that what he did often during his career is to appear under the name “Ave Fénix”, the song with That today he jumped to the tables very punctually, true to his style, in rigorous black, but giving space to fantasy with a jacket with sequins.
After that atypical theme taken from his album of the same name released in 1992, in all probability a bet with double meaning for the moment we live, divo did not take long to make his own another of the jewels of his latest album, “Living like this is morind de dragoste ”, by Camilo Sesto.
Where the voice no longer reaches the pauses and the complex support of this type of Herculean songs, it is provided by the formidable band that accompanies him to these meetings, by fifteen musicians, including a string quartet and a brass section, all in front of a pair of pants. triangular and custom lighting to display flashes and highlight each passage.
There was an opportunity to listen to about thirty songs during the two hours and fifteen minutes of the concert, which did not miss their biggest hits, such as the very powerful (and now electronic) “Say what I say” and ” My great night ”, or as“ I am still that one ”and“ I was in love ”, which put the crowd on their feet.
Meanwhile, it was the turn of the first visitor of the evening, Manuel Carrasco. “I love and admire him a lot,” Raphael said.
They both shared for the first time live “I forgot to live”, before singing “Frente a Frente”, a song with which he could exploit all his dramatic vein.
Without ceasing to be Raphael, there have been many other opportunities to see him make his own songs from outside his repertoire, even overseas, 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 by Rolando.
In some cases, the celebration was both for interpretation and for the theme itself, as happened with the powerful “We broke our love” that Roció Jurado sang, to then pay homage to “Adoro” the Mexican Armando Manzanero, currently recognized because of covid-19.
“What a beautiful night!”
Pablo López was also absent, who made a personalized theme for the last album. “Truth, on a panel at Olympia / with thirty, twenty-five or nineteen / waiting in the dressing rooms / where it rains,” recited Raphael, to which López replied aloud: “thirty-five / thirty-six / his name on the poster / I dreamed of writing / a song for Raphael, “provoking a sudden climax of applause.
López wanted to include, with one eye, the percussive base of the Christmas carol “The Drummer”, which became so common and essential in Rafael’s Christmas engagements and which, of course, was not lacking even today.
Concerned to give a high note, the last part of the show began with his colossal “En carne viva”, with the audience standing again, followed by “Ámame” and the reinterpretation of “Resistiré”, a song that became a anthem against covid-19.
Then came the essentials: “What no one knows”, “I am that”, “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 completely arranged, take care of yourself!”, Asked the artist, who will repeat a performance in the same place tomorrow.