This Friday, Seville hosted the 24th edition of the Latin Grammy Awards. There were many national and international artists who traveled to the Andalusian capital to attend the great event, as was the case of Shakira, Karol G, Alejandro Sanz, Maluma, Pablo Alborán or Rosalía, among many others. The celebration of this gala coincided with International Flamenco Day. That is why La Resistencia welcomed three flamenco legends onto its set: La Húngara, el Canijo de Jerez and José Mercé. Precisely the latter was the most critical of the awards for the treatment that the genre receives, especially listened to and composed in our country.
The three aforementioned guests visited David Broncano and his team this Thursday to celebrate flamenco day and to highlight the difficulty that this genre manifests when composing songs. “Flamenco is very difficult. To sing flamenco you have to be born. When I talk about flamenco I am not referring to flamenco, flamenco is flamenco, it is singing flamenco, there are no more stories,” Mercé assured.
After these words from the artist, David Broncano took the opportunity to remember that at that same moment the Latin Grammys were being held in Seville, one of the places with the most flamenco tradition in our country. “The Latin Grammys are tonight,” said Broncano. “The Latin Grammys, what is that? Who gives those awards?” Mercé said then.
At that time, the singer from Jerez de la Frontera launched a criticism against the concept of flamenco held by the Academy critics who collect the nominations. “I’m going to tell you something… They are putting records in the Latin Grammys that have nothing to do with flamenco as ‘Best Flamenco Album’ so they can give it a Latin Grammy. What do I call that now? Do we call him Manolo or Mardaloro?” he began by saying.
Mercé took the opportunity to criticize the concept, because from her point of view, many of the songs that were nominated had little to do with flamenco. “There is a Latin Grammy for the best flamenco album and you listen to what is there and that is not flamenco. Where is flamenco? Why are they always putting flamenco in all the pots? I defend our music and our brand Spain,” expressed the singer
Precisely, this Thursday’s gala was inaugurated with one of the most iconic songs by a flamenco artist: Se nos roto el amor, by Rocío Jurado. Rosalía was in charge of interpreting the iconic song. The Catalan showed off her great voice and managed to move the audience, who couldn’t help but remember Rocío, who died at the beginning of June 2006. As for the award for ‘Best Flamenco Album’, the award went to Niña Pastori, a of the most prominent artists of the genre.
