The second edition of Miradas Flamenkas will take place between November 19 and December 11, 2021 in Madrid. The festival displays eclectic and electric Flamenco and promotes the Vallecas neighborhood as one of the musical centers of Madrid. Organized by the Madrid regional government, the festival will take place at the Pilar Miró Cultural Center.
Miradas Flamenkas is directed by Paloma Concejero, who has programmed a variety of shows where Flamenco is combined with other types of music. Concejero underlines that Flamenco is “not alien to new paths, many paths; where electricity will come from guitars and amplifiers as well as from zapateados, falsetas, turns and poems”, as the Eclécticos y eléctricos (Eclectics and Electric) festival motto makes clear.
According to Concejero, this is a program that highlights pride of the suburbs. ”Vallecas is one of the most traditional Madrid districts. Many of these artists live here or resided here for a long time”.
Madrid-born cantaora Aurora Losada will open the festival on Friday, November 19 with the premiere of Diferente, an allusion to a new sound sought by the artist and the title of her sixth album, which she released in 2019. It is a renewed form of cante with current airs.
On Saturday, November 20, Madrid-born cantaor Paco del Pozo will present his show “Una copla por recuerdo”, a bouquet of Flamenco songs (milongas, soleares, bulerías, tientos, fandangos) written by essential Spanish copla songwriters such as León, Quintero and Quiroga.
The following weekend, Miradas Flamenkas has scheduled a double “historical” program. Friday, November 26th will bring back the innovative and vigorous Andalusian rock movement of the 1970s with a concert by one of its most prominent groups, Guadalquivir. Celebrating Guadalquivir’s 40th anniversary, the band from Seville will update the songs that were part of its first album, four decades after its release.
Another historical figure, Flamenco rumba artist (rumbero) Manuel Malou will deliver 100% rumba on Saturday, November 27. Malou indicates that rumba is “the real Spanish pop.”
The second debut of the festival will take place on Friday, December 3. Seville singer Esperanza Fernández, will perform a renovated version of her album Oh vida. Her show titled Memorias de Beny Moré y Manolo Caracol, will feature a reinterpretation of Cuban and flamenco songs by Cuban singer and composer Beny Moré and Seville singer Manolo Caracol.
On December 4, Cordoba-born musician and singer Lin Cortés will premiere Romancero, based on Federico García Lorca’s Romancero gitano (Gypsy Ballads). This narrative poetic form, originally from the 15th century and orally rooted, will be transformed by Lin Cortés with a concert in which flamenco and rock seemingly are the same thing.
The Miradas Flamenkas festival will conclude with two dance shows on the second weekend of December. Barcelona dancer Jesús Carmona will premiere in Madrid the avant-garde Flamenco show Baile de bestias on December 10 and Malucos Danza will present Lady Mambo on December 11, where Flamenco meets danzón, electronica and heavy metal.
Tickets will be available at Centro Cultural Pilar Miró
Author: World Music Central News Room
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