The three-month retrospective that has commemorated the figure of Núria Feliu at the Palau Robert is coming to an end, and it is being remembered by friends and colleagues in another Palau, that of Music, where the themes that have resonated turned the singer from Sants into one of the most relevant figures in Catalan music, between the endearing image of the tieta and the modernizer who dared to work with all genres. Laura Simó, Marina Rossell, Serrat, Els Catarres and Joan Fortuny among others were this time protagonists on the stage where Feliu performed so many times, accompanied by the big band Els Deixebles de la Feliu and the Ciutat de Girona cobla, with direction musical by Enric Melero.
Who is Nuria Feliu and what is she? Òscar Dalmau, curator of the exhibition, and the presenter Helena García Melero, masters of ceremony, asked themselves. To answer that question, the evening covered the multiple musical facets of the most famous neighbor of the Sants neighborhood, who died in 2022, who throughout her career brought the public closer to popular songs, jazz, cuplé or boleros. , adapting all genres to Catalan in a work that had both musical passion and an effort to demonstrate that his language was as valid as any other.
The recital was overflowing with emotion without affecting the rhythm of the performances, which began in a musical tone with the jazzy voice of Laura Simó and Què n’ha qué quet del nostre amor, a French root by Charles Trenet that connected with El clar País, by Brel , performed with feeling by Marina Rossell and on the piano by maestro Antoni Ros Marbà, the man who encouraged Feliu to take his first try as a singer.
Cris Juanico remembered that Feliu dared to do everything. And he did it by performing T’he trucat per dir t’estimo, a version of Stevie Wonder’s legendary song, and Joan Manuel Serrat returned from his retirement to take out of Sota’s bag a cirerer florit, which brought a tear to his face before he left, arm in arm. by Ricard Miralles, piano partner for the occasion. At the other generational extreme, Els Catarres dared with the cuplé Elvesti d’ en Pascal, a reminder of the popular tunes that Feliu performed throughout his career. Like Les caramelles and Ara mateix, which sounded with the voices of his nieces, Mireia and Lali Feliu respectively, while the cobla pointed to the Catalanism that he always displayed and which he joined with his tenor sax Joan Fortuny (Elèctrica Dharma) in El cant de la senyera, which brought the entire audience to its feet, in the same way that the free and jazzy version of La santa espina that concluded the concert drew applause, on the 64th anniversary of the Palau fets and Jordi Pujol being present among the public.
After the speeches by Luis Cobos – “Feliu was an icon who looked after the well-being of people” – and the actor Dafnis Balduz, it was the turn of the Escolta’m bolero by Carme Canela to go through the traditional La canção del ladre , with the accordions of Joan Garriga and Carles Bleda, and for the world of musicals, by the actors Annabel Totusaus and Enric Cambray. The trip ended at the beginning, with that Tot es gris que descubrió para el mundo del jazz together with Tete Montoliu, and with Cançó de Sants, interpreted by the big band and recited by Josep Cuní, because, as Cobos said, “Núria it’s Sants, and Sants is Núria”.
