“At a time when neo-fascist winds are blowing through Europe we will shout April 25, always”, with these heartfelt words is how the director of the Barnasants festival, Pere Camps, presented this Wednesday the tribute concert to the fiftieth anniversary of the carnation revolution which will be held on April 25. It was in the early morning of that day in 1974 when the radio broadcast of Grândola, Vila Morena gave the signal for the captains of the Portuguese army to take to the streets to put an end to the Salazar dictatorship, an event that the festival has taken as its flag in its 29th edition by adopting the motto “O povo è quem mais ordera”.
The song composed by the singer-songwriter José Zeca Alfonso, forever linked to an event that opened the doors to democracy in the dictatorships of southern Europe, is one of those that will be played at the concert that will be held this Saturday at the Joventut theater in l’Hospitalet de Llobregat, a show coordinated by Núria Piferrer, Névoa, which will review through music the events that gave rise to the Carnation revolution. “April 25 was the spark of a situation that was already posed, the military was fed up with the poverty of their people and going to die in colonial wars,” explained the singer-songwriter, who has been in love with Portuguese music since its beginnings. musicals in the 90s. “They went through the towns to train people so that when the time came they could carry out agrarian reform and the collectivization of industry, this is what we want to demand.”
Divided into two parts, the concert will remember the repression on which the Estado Novo was based with the help of the political police, the PIDE, responsible for dozens of deaths, tortured and imprisoned, as well as the shock wave of the revolution, which arrived both to neighboring countries and to Brazil, which at that time was also suffering from the dictatorship. An evening planned in a positive way, “that we come out wanting to change things,” explained Névoa, who will be accompanied by Vicenç Solsona on guitar, Pau Lligadas on double bass and Ángel Rey on drums to perform songs from “Intervenção”, such as The Portuguese protest song was known.
In addition to Névoa, the voices will be provided by the Argentine Anna Rossi, who will sing Tanto mar by Chico Buarque, written around April 25. Rosó Sala will perform Abril 74, by Lluís Llach, while the singer Laura Guerrero will perform Luna de Abril, by Carlos Cano. Fados such as “Abandono” will also be played, a forbidden song that Amalia Rodrigues performed for making reference to the political prison of Peniche. And a lot of Zeca, the singer-songwriter par excellence of the Portuguese revolt, “there are many Intervençao singers with a very powerful message, but Zeca is the one that moves me the most inside,” Névoa acknowledged. Os vampires, translated for the occasion into Catalan, Redondo vocábulo, also in the same language, Vira virou, by the Brazilians Kleiton
“It will be an exercise in democratic memory in song, but there will be no nostalgia because the themes of the songs remain current,” wanted to highlight Pere Camps, director of the festival that this Wednesday presents the Artistic Career award to Jaume Sisa, who next 2025 will celebrate 50 years since the launch of Qualsevol nit pot soltir el sol. Julián Herraiz will also be awarded for his work running the Libertad 8 café in Madrid, as well as Ricard Peris, Carles Girbau, Maria Puértolas and Héctor López for their work within the Barnasants festival, also close to celebrating a birthday as significant as It’s 30 years of musical life.
