In a different stage of his career, marked by recording independence and creative freedom, Russian Red has launched this year a series of intimate concerts that he defines as a kind of “mystical cabaret”, called ‘Relative Red’, in an unlikely reference to Tiziano Ferro’s 2004 success, although it does not seek to be a typical pop show. In fact, their own repertoire is reduced to a couple of songs and none of them is ‘Cigarettes’.
After its successful presentations at the Café Berlin in Madrid, a space that reflects the intimate nature of the show, in Barcelona it was El Molino that received Russian Red, just a month before its temporary closure due to neighborhood complaints about noise, two years after its reopening. The venue will reopen its doors in September 2027.
Hernández brings a character on stage, La Loca, who evokes a kind of vital disorientation and drunken existence. In contrast, the singer behind the character projects extraordinary vocal control, going from strength to vulnerability with astonishing naturalness. This duality is very well represented in the role that clothing plays on stage, where expensive shirts and second-hand rags coexist that Lourdes puts on and takes off as she pleases and that, on occasion, even falls off without realizing it.
The set, inspired by the European cabaret of the 20s and 30s, evokes a messy dressing room full of clothes and objects, including a cute high heel hanging from a microphone stand; a teenage room or the typical vintage flea market. All of this transmits an unmistakable energy of decadence that allows Lourdes Hernández to surrender to the improvised nature of the show, where she tries to “convert frustrations into something more magical or bearable, and also move between poles: transform beauty into sadness or vice versa,” as the artist explained.
The intimacy of the venue amplifies, of course, the emotional component of the show and the connection with the audience, something that Russian Red achieves thanks to a repertoire full of totally “people pleaser” classics such as ‘Cat under the rain’, ‘Volaré’ or ‘Hopelessly Devoted to You’. The trick is that Lourdes avoids any feeling of cliché by adapting all these songs to slower and more melancholic forms. His voice, which sounds like that of a nightingale hooked on bourbon, is the main attraction of the concert, also marveling with his own ‘I Hate You But I Love You’ or with unexpected versions of Camela and ‘Pretty Woman’, which Hernández performs almost whispering, with his head covered by a cloth.
His “speeches”, loaded with a philosophy somewhere between drunken and existential, disconcert as much as they entertain. The show also has a kind of common thread structured by the reading of a small book that contains supposedly spiritual phrases, such as “transforming dangers into powers”, and which serve to directly involve the audience in the concert. His experience is evident by attending improvisation classes in Los Angeles and even clown classes. The show is, at all times, an exercise against shame and the “cringe” that comes with exposing oneself to the public with one’s most vulnerable face. In some way, it also seems to reflect on that “clown” component inherent to the artist’s job: entertaining an audience to receive their applause.
Although ‘Relative Red’ loses points due to the lack of its own repertoire, it wins for many other reasons, especially for its enormous peculiarity, for how it claims the intimate concert and for how it demonstrates that Russian Red has earned the right to put on a different show that highlights its extraordinary voice and interpretive ability. She herself affirms that it is the best thing she has done and that, finally, she fully identifies with her artistic proposal. Anyone who follows her on social media and knows her most extravagant side will recognize ‘Relative Red’ as a natural evolution.
