Taylor Swift (West Reading, Pennsylvania, 1989) is the artist of the moment. Author of celebrated anthems that appeal to heartbreak, the singer and songwriter dominates all facets of the music industry. But, in this world in which Beyoncé, Rosalía and Dua Lipa also shine, there is another emerging artist who aspires to reach the top. It is Solána Imani Rowe, (Saint Louis, 1989), who even surpasses her contemporary Swift in nominations (9 to 6) at the Grammys that will be awarded in February in Los Angeles. With only two studio albums, Sza is projected as a global phenomenon.
Good news is that both Taylor Swift and Sza will perform in Spain this year. The first will be at the Santiago Bernabéu in Madrid on May 30 and the second, just two days later, at the Barcelona Primavera Sound festival.
Once again, Barcelona and Madrid can be seen as complementary cities, like that budding megalopolis that, in the style of other global realities such as Boswash (system of cities between Boston and Washington) or SanSan (from San Francisco to San Diego), could be called Madbarna or Barnamad: two poles of the same city linked by an air bridge and an ultra-fast train.
But, beyond this little-explored and unfairly maligned complementarity, the fact is that Madrid has taken a giant step to compete with Barcelona as a venue for large concerts after a 2023 in which the Catalan capital dominated the scene. The renovated Santiago Bernabéu is proposed as a very serious alternative to the Olympic Stadium.
If it is confirmed that the new Bernabéu improves the acoustics that ruined many concerts in the past (the challenge will be indoor performances); There is peace with the neighbors (how will they react to so many macro-concerts?) and the grass removal system works well, the Madrid stadium will be positioned as a privileged setting, although the proximity to the border and tradition in Barcelona will continue to play in Barcelona’s favor. the global scene.
Because, if the football simile is allowed, there is a game. In the field of large-format live music, Barcelona has other assets, such as the Palau Sant Jordi and, above all, its system of local and territorial festivals (Peralada, to cite an extreme example, is only 1.40h away car).
Sónar and Primavera Sound have no equivalent, each in their own style, in a Madrid that does not quite get this type of event right, as was seen in 2023 with the fiasco of Primavera itself (enthusiastically welcomed by the government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso ) and with a Madcool who has not yet found the ideal venue.
On the other hand, the Forum space, which hosts Primavera and a long list of festivals, is an exception in Europe due to its conditions and its proximity to the city, which allows, on warm nights, to return to the center on foot. That is why it would be necessary to protect its future both in urban planning aspects (preserving the large esplanade) and in the relationship with the neighbors. It is known that Barcelona usually puts local rest ahead of culture and leisure that take place at night with regulatory enthusiasm.
In this highly competitive scenario, the city is not in a position to give up on the Forum (also home to Cruïlla, Share, Reggaeton Beach festival…) nor to put a damper on the wheels of a Sónar that not only offers music, but also a authentic festival of art, technology and science. Nor to tolerate that the future residential use of part of the Fira in Montjuïc endangers live music on Maria Cristina Avenue. Nor to ignore festivals like the old Jardins de Pedralbes (now Alma) that is now opening in Madrid.
And it must, of course, provide all possible facilities so that the Lluís Companys stadium continues to host major tours.
The next step would be to assume that the foreign public cannot always be trusted to fill the concerts and that it is necessary to recover the fans of the rest of Spain, distanced from Barcelona in the years of the process. But that is another story.
