The prejudices were left outside the fortified enclosure of the Huerta del Obispo at 9:06 p.m., the moment when the first notes sounded and Isabel Pantoja set foot on the Alcalaïno stage in the series Les Concerts du Mur . This sometimes haughty, cold and even Machiavellian image that Tardón has carried for forty years in his personal aspect has also been left aside. What was experienced this Friday, or at least that’s how someone who had never attended a concert of her or a tonadillera before (with the exception of Rocío Jurado during a gathering sharing the bill with Nacha Pop, in the socialist party). Seville 1986), it was a total spectacle.
“I am the only girl in folklore who dresses like John Travolta,” she said to the Madrid audience, performing a fragment of the song “El Señorito”, even though she was not dressed as such and that she didn’t need it. . Yes, she is probably the last great one left, at least of the golden generation of Spanish song. Even if there was little (or almost nothing) of copla in the vast journey he made in the 42 songs that he unfolded over two and a half hours (several in what we call today hui “abridged” versions, which are nothing more than “just remembering them”). or, in Roman paladin, interpreting them partially).
The one who waited for him dressed in black, from the mourning that occurred barely 40 years ago following the death of Paquirri and which also coincided with that of another of his ex-companions, Julián Muñoz, was hit hard . Because Pantoja wore a printed dress throughout the concert, and at the end of the first part she threw an orange shawl over it, because the cold in Alcalá de Henares was evil. Twelve degrees in the open air which did not seem to affect the approximately 1,600 people (out of a capacity of 2,500 places, it was not full) who accompanied him: the Trianera audience deserves a separate mention. If during this tour he celebrates his half-century on stage (there are in fact more, since he recorded his first songs when he was 15 and he is 68), the amalgamation of the ages of his fans is surprising, devoted like few others, since there were marriages between octogenarians and twenty-somethings.
It went as expected, with “Bewitched by your love” and undeniable craftsmanship behind it. The voice is incredible, his management of the numerous improvisations is majestic, he fought halfway through the first part with a rebellious microphone with mastery and a lot of spontaneity. Throughout the evening she was seen as exquisite in her performances, also with an enormous capacity for communication with the audience, with whom she never stopped talking and using Sevillian jokes. Yes, a lot is understood now: she is a total artist with enormous achievements behind her, both in her singing and in the way she moves on stage. He doesn’t step on it, he parades around telling him who’s the boss over there.
When someone shouted at him from the chairs: “So they can then say it’s not live!”, he replied mockingly: “Even though it’s cold, it’s live .” Much of the success of Alcalá’s evening must be attributed to the excellent orchestra that accompanies it. In the era of singers with a pre-recorded musical base, it is a luxury to bring in more than 30 musicians, among the usual quintet of piano, rhythm and guitars; a choir of twelve mixed voices; another brass quintet that gained particular notoriety with its solos in “Así fue” and, of course, the extensive string section that not every artist can afford. For this and many other reasons, the 120 euros for the most expensive seats are justified.
The first 50 minutes of the evening revolved mainly around songs from his early days, from the time when he still lived at number 8 Juan Díaz de Solís, next to the school where he studied and sang with the neighbors from the balcony of his very humble apartment. The Tardon. “It was because of your voice”, “The green bird”, “I want to sin with you” or some beautiful verses by the great poet of 27 Rafael de León, set to music for the occasion with the title “My friend’ and which were among the best intimate moments of the evening.
Then came the block of sevillanas, four pieces of Triana that he lifted from his 1982 album, with postcards of Seville recorded from a bird’s eye view (or drone) of the Church of Santa Ana, the Plaza de España , Calle de Calatrava or the majestic cathedral with its guardian Giralda.
María Peláe, in ‘Garlochi’
He leaves the stage during the choir’s performance of an instrumental interlude and two of his songs (“Cambiar por ti” and “Pasó tu tiempo”), and returns with a group of greatest hits: “Nada” , “Caballo de rejoneo”. ‘, a small piece of ‘Pobre mi corazón’ and the excitement of ‘Veneno’, among others, where the audience was already getting up, forgetting their chairs and dancing without letting go of their cell phones, which the recording of the concerts did not know age.
Then he presented María Peláe from Malaga, with whom he performed the famous “Garlochí”, with the “tiktokera” choreography included. There were boleros (“If you tell me come”, “Dos gardenias”) and a parenthesis for the conceptual “Marinero de luzes” (“The only album that I dedicated to someone”, he said). he clarified), with the song that gives it its title, “I think of you”, “He was my life” and “Today, I want to confess it”.
There were already two hours of non-stop music and it was time to do the rest: “El moreno” and “My soul falls in love”, which the audience sang first, because Pantoja could not do it out of emotion, because she couldn’t stop crying, until someone managed to bring up the subject again. They were the prelude to the finale, signed with the inevitable “Así fue”, by Juan Gabriel, and “Enamórate”.
A gala, as we have already said, without equivalent for a true artist. A total performer who is a musical genre in its own right, of undeniable quality, and who knows that those of her stature grow even more if they know how to surround themselves with extraordinary musicians, no matter the price to pay to bring an orchestra so complete. on tour.
Let me take it in the first person: the Concerts of the Wall of Alcalá, it was the first time with her live on stage, beyond when we passed each other in the neighborhood, I went to my neighbor’s house on the third floor or at Parque de los Príncipes while she walked her son, alone, in the stroller of a recently widowed mother. 40 years have passed since all this. And yes, her followers are right: Pantoja is what she is. And this for a long time, because Spain already lacks a lot of racial artists. May we not miss it.
INTERPRETED REPERTOIRE
First part
BE HAUNTED BY YOUR DESIRE
Have compassion for me
IT WAS BECAUSE OF YOUR VOICE
THE GREEN BIRD
WHAT TO SAY AND TELL HIM
I want to sin with you
THE LORD
MY FRIEND
I WOULD LIKE TO SAY NO
WHERE THE HEART TAKES ME
FORAIN
Sevillians
IN YOUR SILK CAPE
AMONG THE OLIVE TREES
THE CORRERAS OF TRIANA
PROMISES OF THE DEW
musical interlude
choir ballads
CHANGE FOR YOU
YOUR TIME IS OVER
Last block
NOTHING
REJONEO HORSE
POOR MY HEART
ETERNAL LOVE
BUT YOU WILL MISS I
SINCE I LIVED WITH ANOTHER
BECAUSE I LIKE TO DIE
POISON
GARLOCHÍ (with María Peláe)
I’M STILL HERE
I FORGOT AGAIN
TELL ME
UNTIL THE SUN GOES OFF
IF YOU TELL ME COME
TWO GARDENIAS
VIRGIN OF DEW
SAILOR OF ENLIGHTENMENT
THINKING OF YOU
HE WAS MY LIFE
TODAY I WANT TO CONFESS
WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WITH YOU
THE MORENO
My soul falls in love
SO IT WAS
FALL IN LOVE
