Flamenco and love come together in this romantic playlist for Valentine's Day
A mix of flamenco hits and great unknowns with love as a common factor.
Flamenco is like love. It has no clear origins and belongs to everyone. One and the other are mixed. Love could be Intangible Patrimony of Humanity and flamenco could be Sentimental Patrimony of Humanity. They are alike in the joys and in the problems. A quejío is a broken heart and a new love feels like a bulería. With work and love, both are perfected.
In ALL FLAMENCO we have been putting work and love to flamenco culture for more than five years, so many songs have passed through our ears. From the pure and ancestral flamenco to the most experimental melodies, there are certain songs that have that something that shakes you up. That's why today we want to condense this journey into a list of songs that, in our opinion, are the ones that delve deeper into romantic love.
No matter what moment of love you are in, because we have thought this playlist for a love that always has a place. The love for flamenco.
Lole and Manuel. La plazuela y el tardón.
Lole and Manuel have been the most iconic artistic and sentimental couple of the last years. Coming from two flamenco sagas, they renounced together, however, to keep pure flamenco intact and made their own flamenco, more poetic and bucolic, being considered in the 70's the absorption of the hippie movement by flamenco.
Manuel wrote lyrics to the air, to the sun and to Lole. Hence, among his albums are some of the deepest love lyrics of flamenco. Among so many, today we suggest La plazuela y el tardón (The square and the latecomer):
"My mouth on your mouth
crazy dance of joy.
My blood sang out loud
and the fountain laughed.
And when your mouth at last
parted from mine
the twice-black night
was clothed in the light of day".
The Mawi of Cadiz. Lía
El Mawi de Cádiz is bewitching. His face, like his deep black eyes, contrasts with the passion that colors his voice. That's why, when he reverses classic love songs, his staging is doubly absorbing. You can't stop looking at him or listening to him. For this reason, a love song sung by El Mawi de Cádiz is more like a love show. Here is the proof:
Niña Pastori. Oh, my goodness.
There are stages and stages of love. Some last a few seconds and others do not appear until decades pass. Among so many, there is a very specific stage, when love is formed, in which a universe seems to have been created for two. Private, secret and magical. Unpassable for others. There is no better song that captures that stage than Válgame Dios, by Niña Pastori:
"I want you to kiss me
and half-voice tell you that I love you,
and talk to me softly,
so that no one finds out what we tell each other".
Enrique Morente. Hey, that's no way to say goodbye.
Is love in every story different or are they all similar? That same question is asked by Enrique Morente in this song from his most experimental album Omega:
"Yes, many loved each other
before us.
I know we are nothing new.
In cities and forests
They laughed like us
But distance comes
And we have to try".
A way of saying that, although love is nothing new, each time it is tried as something new.
Juanito Villar. My God said.
Another of the great doubts of love is the following: Is it better to love or to be loved? Lola Flores, in one of her concerts, once said: "Love, love, is almost never reciprocated with the same strength by the other. One always wants more than the other. Now, if you have to choose, it is always better to love, always love, than not to let yourself be loved".
On the other hand, the mythical cantaor Juan Villar, gives a new twist to that answer, since he says it, not from pride, but from desperation:
"I'm not asking you to love me.
Nor do I ask you to try
I only ask you gypsy
That you let me love you".
Peret. Thinking of you
One of Peret's most unknown songs, but one of the most romantic. Although from the context of the song we don't know why Peret is thinking about that special person, we do know how he does it. From melancholy and tenderness.
"And your laughter, everywhere I go I think I hear it
And your figure in my thoughts I don't know how to erase.
The place where you slept is empty
And without you, and without you, every night is an eternity".
