The first night of the farewell in Barcelona gathers 15,100 people at the Palau Sant Jordi

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Dojo-sensitive material in the first of three nights of Joan Manuel Serrat at the Palau Sant Jordi. It was the beginning of the end of his farewell to the stage, and logically he had to command the emotion, certainly more than in the previous seventy-one performances of this tour entitled For the vice of singing . After all, the date is in Barcelona, ​​in Montjuïc, not far from the steep Carrer del Poeta Cabanyes where it all began. "Round the world and come back to Born. As Josep Tarradellas said, I'm here!" Serrat proclaimed at the beginning of the concert.


The 155 bus that goes up to Avinguda de l'Estadi was full of people, many peers of the Poble-sec boy's generation, others younger, most of them chatting about small worldly things and what an illusion to be able to participate in this farewell. Like two friends from Lebrija, who ran out of tickets for the concert in Seville and decided to buy them for yesterday, fly to Barcelona, ​​see the performance, sleep in a hotel in Paral·lel and return home The next day.



At the Palau Sant Jordi, 15,100 people, all seated, waited for the man who has written much of the existential soundtrack for so many people. Serrat says goodbye with songs and the audience gives him back ovations that sound like hugs, like the one he dedicated to him as soon as he appeared on stage at 9.20 pm while the band introduced Temps era temps . It is important to mention the solid warmth of the band, with accomplices in a thousand adventures and arrangements such as Ricard Miralles (piano) and Josep Mas Kitflus(keyboards), in addition to David Palau (guitar), Vicente Climent (drums), Raimon Ferrer (double bass), Úrsula Amargós (viola and voice) and José Miguel Pérez Sagaste (sax, clarinet and accordion), all indispensable on the tour , and even more in these three concerts in the palace of emotions that the Palau Sant Jordi has become this week.



The ovation was repeated when they played El carrousel del furo , It would be fantastic , I'm leaving on foot , Meu carrer ... With a songbook as huge as his, in quantity and quality, Serrat has been able to choose and mix according to the place where he was playing. For this reason, as in other concerts of the tour in Catalonia, the repertoire in Catalan had more presence, until parity. The chronological range was very wide, going through all eras, including that of the remarkable album Mô from 2006, and with particularly plethoric moments such as Cançó de matinada (filling the refrain with generosity), Para la libertad (with works by Banksy projected in the background ), Words of love(sung by the audience), Hoy puede ser un gran día and a Mediterráneo rewarded with an outburst of enthusiasm that linked with the ecological Plany al Mar that is now also for "a sea turned into a sarcophagus".



Within an anthological repertoire of sorts, it's easy for everything to stir up nostalgia for loves and absences, but Serrat wanted to dust them off. "I have come to say goodbye to you in person, but with joy. My life in music has been a joy, and I want to say goodbye joyfully, gratefully and happily. Don't wipe your tears with your neighbor's sleeve." she said with emotion in her voice before singing Lullaby with enough power . The darkness keeps the secret, but it was easy to sense wet eyes while applauding Me'n vaigo a peo , listening to the verses of Miguel Hernández in Nanas de la cebolla , chanting No hago otra tha panser en ti or while Serrat Father sangfrom the lamentation of those who warned almost 50 years ago that we were headed for the climatic cliff. "I have to confess to you that it's been almost 50 years since almost everything", he pointed out, trying to add a bit of humor, but without forgetting that "climate change is the biggest threat we have as a species".



Night of emotions, we insist, with Serrat "moved and satisfied", as he admitted. Night of joy recognizing the vibrato and the neighborhoods of Barcelona and I , which the public applauded with special affection. A night of managing various sorrows with La tieta , who sang not with the tenderness of a nephew, but with the twilight velvet of someone who already knows that he must die like everyone else. Night to ignite the heart with Cantares , the Machado that revives everything verse by verse, and that Serrat and Sant Jordi entered with all their soul. And night, of course, of Fiesta , which he had already said, that he wants a joyful and happy farewell, which continues Thursday and Friday.