There are strong women, who know how to defend themselves against the world. They are somewhat pirate in nature, they contradict each other, they make mistakes, but they learn to survive. Recently the singer Rosalía broke the mold with her performance at the Latin Grammys in Seville. He did a flamboyant and magnificent version of a song that has history. It was a way of talking about the heartbreak he had to live through. We already know that poems can be autobiographical as well as therapeutic. They serve to heal wounds of the soul. Rosalía covered a song sung by Rocío Jurado, Se nos rompió el amor.

I liked it for the intensity, the passion, the theatricality with which Rocío Jurado staged it: this tearing, a pure image of pain. She was also having problems in her marriage at the time.

Rosalía made a version with changes to the lyrics adapting it to her musical style. She was resplendent in a dress by the designer Schiaparelli that was inspired by Lady Di’s famous “revenge dress”, released just after her divorce and designed to stomp hard and try to be reborn. It was a long black design with a daring neckline to face the spotlight. You had to raise your head. When something as hard as loss is turned into music, we always win. It’s that simple thing that, if they give us lemons, we make lemonade.

Responding to heartbreak with music is not giving in to discouragement. Shakira did it that way too. With much less elegance than Rosalía, she sang songs that explained the rage of abandonment. Their love story was aired to the four winds. Then he decided to take advantage of the situation: “Women don’t cry, women bill”, he repeated on stage. It was a vindication of the woman who empowers herself, able to turn emotional defeat into euros. Obviously not all women in the world have the privilege of paying when their partner leaves with someone else. This is false. Most can only be resigned. Despite this, Shakira’s attitude became a song of self-deception and hope, consoling for many. Now the singer has just reached an agreement with the Treasury, probably cursing her life in Barcelona, ??as she has once again catapulted herself among the top-billing singers.

Shakira reminds me of the case of Lola Flores. A woman known as the Pharaoh seems to have to be above any earthly threat, but no one escapes the Treasury. It was the eighties, when he was fined 140 million pesetas (more than 841,000 euros) and sentenced to prison. Lola, who was a character capable of putting on shows beyond the stage, addressed the Spaniards from the TV screen. He asked that each one give him a peseta. This would add up to a portion of the amount due. She, who identified herself with the nickname Lola d’Espanya, called herself at that time Lola d’Hisenda.

Although the case ended without a prison sentence and with a reduction of the debt, he never forgot that he had sat in the dock for three days as a common criminal. I loved the passion that overflowed through her pores, her singing talent and that deep and naive conviction that she was loved by all of Spain.