Between the sound of the entrance doors to the Hospital Clínic station and the conversations of passengers passing by, you can hear Speak softly, love, the emblematic song from the soundtrack of The Godfather (1972), the multiple award-winning film by director Francis Ford Coppola. This time it is not performed by the Italian Nino Rota, but by the violin and cello of Alex and Mario, two musicians who use one of the 52 spaces designated for artists in Barcelona metro stations. The initiative – in addition to the exhibitions, stalls selling second-hand books and records or the story contest – aims to sprinkle the city’s transport network with small doses of culture.
Mario Preciado has been playing with Alex Aykaeva in the metro since September, under the name Impromptwo Strings. Between the two of them they have more than 30 years in music, and their repertoire includes Somewhere only we know, by Keane; Diamonds, by Rihanna; Talking to the moon, by Bruno Mars; Let her go, by Passenger, and Viva la vida, by Coldplay, as well as classics. While they do their show, more than one passenger stops to take a photo, congratulate or simply listen. Mario has even been hired to play at events after being seen on the subway. “They have asked me and hired me thanks to playing in the metro,” says the cellist, who also studies at the Liceu conservatory. The musician was accepted into the Association of Street and Metro Musicians of Barcelona (AMUC-BCN) after going through auditions more than a year ago. “I saw people playing on the subway and I asked them about the permit,” he adds.
Currently, there are more than 600 musicians registered to play at the metro’s music spots. These spaces were born from a collaboration between the TMB Foundation and the AMUC, which have worked since 2001 to regulate music in public transport spaces. “This project has meant greater order and regulation, but at the same time it has dignified and professionalized the musical proposals, it has increased the quality of the proposals and it has valued street and subway musicians,” comment the spokespersons for the TMB foundation.
Every year auditions are held to obtain one of the permits that authorize you to play legally in subway spaces. There the applicants must present part of their repertoire in front of a jury. “In the test, each candidate performs some songs chosen at random by the members of the jury among the 20 or 30 songs from the repertoire presented by each musician. The jury evaluates criteria such as the interpretive quality and the variety of repertoire, originality and creative richness of the proposal and the cultural, stylistic and instrumental diversity,” they add from the foundation, which in 2023 included 20 new musical points.
Beatriz Fernández today is the president of the AMUC, but before she was one of the artists who give sound to the subway corridors. “One day I discovered that they were opening places to sing on the subway. I found out how it worked, I took the exam and I passed,” says Fernández, who joined the association in 2010. “I got my license to play on the subway, I went from time to time and then one day I made the decision to make it my profession,” adds the singer, who has been president of the AMUC for three years.
To establish the musical points, the visibility of the place was taken into account. Also that this was optimal for the interpreters and that it did not interrupt the passage of subway users. The points that meet these criteria are marked with a small sign that says “Músics al metro”. In these spaces you can see soloists, duos, bands that give musicality to the station corridors. Being able to play where so many people travel also benefits the artist, who can gain visibility, in addition to donations from passengers, which do not provide them with a living, he says, but do serve as extra income. “Being on the street is a good springboard. Many times they have hired me because they have seen me playing on the street and in the subway,” says Beatriz Fernández, who values ??the importance of music. “Music is something we carry inside us. Everyone vibrates with music, one or another. Singing and listening to music is therapeutic.”
Not far from Hospital Clínic, the corridor that connects lines three and five at the Diagonal station has been converted into a space for exhibitions. Images of animals and nature fill the walls of this lobby to reflect on caring for the environment. These 25 images and 10 videos were finalists in international nature competitions and also participated in COP28 in Dubai.
The place, where they will be installed until February 15, is the Espai Mercè Sala, named after the first woman to direct Renfe and president of the TMB Foundation between 1980 and 1991. “The Espai Mercè Sala has hosted TMB’s own exhibitions, about the 90 years of the metro, the history of its advertising and old photographs, and also about other entities such as the Museu Picasso, AMB, Open House and about different topics,” comment the spokespersons for the Foundation.
Although the musical points and the Espai Mercè Sala are the most present, they are not the only cultural initiatives in the metro. Every year, short story competitions and Subtravelling are organized, a short film festival that since 2016 has achieved an alliance with the Seoul metro International Subway Film Festival, where the winning short film is also presented. Competing shorts cannot exceed 3.5 minutes, and must include part of TMB’s infrastructure. Both projects have already exceeded ten editions and are part of the initiatives that integrate public transport into the city’s cultural panorama, in addition to promoting new talents.
