Liuba performed in Barcelona at the Barnasants festival

March 12, 2023

Good news came from Barcelona: the concert performed just days ago by Liuba María Hevia at the Luz de Gas venue rekindled the desire to properly savor the Cuban offering at the Barnasants festival, an encounter aligned with the so-called singer-songwriter movement that in its 2023 edition dedicates its schedule to honoring the legacy and current state of troubadour music on the Caribbean island.

A good portion of the presentation reviewed the songs included in the singer-songwriter's most recent album, Para volverte a ver, with which she confirmed her creative spirit before the peninsular audience, who supported her last year in Madrid, Gijón, Cádiz, Valladolid, Zaragoza, Lanzarote and Santander.

In Catalonia, where she is highly appreciated, Liuba María established warm communication with the audience. The cultural section of the newspaper El Periódico highlighted her significance as one of the most important voices of the New Troubadour Movement, distinguished for being the author of El abuelo, a song that recalls Hispanic ancestors.

In promoting the concert, the publication predicted it would be an "elegant, intimate and emotional" evening and it was not wrong. Suggestive melodic turns and an expansive vocal line touched the hearts of those attending, who recognize in Liuba María the consistency of the updating of the country songs of her land.

"It was an honor for me to be the first to inaugurate the cycle before a public that filled the hall, and whom I felt engaged throughout the concert," commented the composer and performer. "Thank you for the applause, for the signs of affection and for defending singer-songwriter music."

A surprising and gratifying moment was the duet of Liuba María with Colombian Marta Gómez, a singer-songwriter of refined sensitivity and strong roots in recent Latin American musical culture, for pieces such as Para la guerra nada. The Cuban invited Gómez to share the performance of Tu amor es el canto mío.

The Cuban program at Barnasants will have its next performances this same March and especially from April onward. On the immediate horizon is Tuesday the 28th with the performance of Pedro Luis Ferrer at the Gabriel García Márquez library in the city.

The concert promoters speak of their pride in having at the festival an artist of such high caliber, combining the most rigorous mastery of musical forms with the display of vast poetic resources. On this occasion he will be accompanied by his daughter Lena Ferrer, musician and poet, regarding the launch of her notebook Poemas sin libro, by the editorial Media Vaca, illustrated by Valencian artist Marta Piña.

The island lineup plans upcoming performances by Irina González, Yadira Ferrer, Heidi Igualada, Marta Campos, Inti Santana, Leonardo García, Fernando Cabreja, Raúl Marchena, Edelis Loyola and Yaima Orozco, so that festival attendees will be able to access diverse styles cultivated by more than one generation of troubadours from various Cuban regions.

Among the focal points of the programming is the concert by troubadour Karel García, entitled A flor de calle, like his most recent album, which will take place on April 16 at the Barradas auditorium, in the Barcelona area of L' Hospitalet de Llobregat.

The channels of communication between Cuba and Barnasants have widened since almost the very beginning of a festival that reaches its twenty-eighth edition. Vicente Feliú, whom people remember these days at the festival venues, was one of the mainstays of such a cherished bond.

With an extended format—between January 28 and May 18, not only in Barcelona but also in Valencia, the Balearic Islands and the town of Alghero in Sardinia, known as the Sardinian Barcelona—Barnasants hosts 80 concerts, among which stand out those by founders and followers of nova cançó—such as Francesc Pi de la Serra, Miquel Gil, Sílvia Comes, Tomeu Penya, Enric Hernàez, Joan Isaac, Quimi Portet, Toti Soler and Xavier Ribalta—, and singer-songwriters from Argentina, Colombia, Chile, France and Italy.