The most memorable moments of the last day of Sonorama Ribera have been focused on emotion and memory, especially of Robe, with everything coming together in the great concert of Leiva.
The prelude to the most anticipated show of the entire 29th edition of the festival already previewed part of its content. Just like last year, the names of everyone involved in organizing the event were projected on the screens, before proceeding with the impressive drone show to the tune of ‘Si te vas’. Robe’s eyes illuminated the sky of Aranda surrounded by a flowering tree. Shortly after, the word “ALWAYS” appeared adorned with all types of flags, from the Palestinian to the LGTBIQ+.
Surely the legendary composer of Extremoduro was also very attentive to the performance of one of his great songs during Leiva’s set, who dared with a solo version, just him and a guitar, of ‘The Bird Man’.
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“I have never played this song and I have never seen the right moment. He was so good that he had very complex compositions, but they seemed simple. I have considered singing it many times, but I have always backed out already on stage,” Leiva revealed before silencing the 40,000 attendees present. He also apologized in advance and warned that there was a possibility that he made a mistake or stopped the song in the middle. It was not only a technical challenge, but an emotional one. Without being Robe or pretending to be one, Leiva gave the greatest moment of the festival.
Surely the presence of this song in the setlist had to do with the confession he shared moments before: “I’ve had a horrible day, sleeping badly because of nerves,” he declared. It’s clear that for the rest of the set it wasn’t. Leiva is an artist who, at this point, is more than established as part of the history of recent Spanish rock. To get an idea of the spectacular repertoire of hits that the Madrid native has in his discography, you only need to know that ‘Terribly Cruel’ was played 15 minutes into his set. It was followed by ‘Superpowers’, ‘Breaking Bad’, ‘I Think About That Afternoon’, ‘Don’t Worry About Me’… And the list goes on.
Beyond the hits, which he finished off at the end of the concert with the biggest hits of Pereza and ‘As if you were going to die tomorrow’, you have to see Leiva to get an idea of the mastery he handles on stage. He is accompanied by a rock band with horns and his brother, Juancho from Sidecars, taking care of most of the guitar solos. Of course, he also showed during ‘Flecha’ that he is also a ‘guitar hero’. One also realizes the dimension of his solo career, capable of maintaining a great rock concert in which there is a little of everything. If his collaboration with Elsa and Elmar is an experiment rooted in disco music, ‘As You Have It’ allows a collective throwback in its last seconds to The Beatles’ ‘Hey Jude’.
Leiva was the perfect culmination of a day that began with Valeria Castro and Belen Aguilerawith both artists offering two very different shows in form and content, but tremendously similar in their very high quality. The Catalan popstar presents a show measured to the millimeter, fluid and with rhythm, and that does not feel prefabricated in any way. It has everything you would expect from a pop concert – choreography, hype, karaoke moments – but everything is done with superior grace, starting with Aguilera’s impressive voice. This shines especially in ‘Soledad’, greatly favored by the strings that accompany it.
While Belén navigated at all times between vocal virtuosity and the most advanced pop, Castro stood stoically in the field of the heart. With contagious energy from the moment she stepped on stage, the Canarian artist conveyed gratitude with every facial expression. The same ones that, together with her immaculate voice, are the ones that provoke a feeling that is difficult to explain: “I have seen some crying faces and I feel that I have to be the sensitive one at this festival,” she said with plenty of humor. No less is the merit of the compositions themselves, captured live with clarinet, violin, keyboards, drums and guitar. The union of all these elements is capable of causing the greatest thing in me and in the attendees around me, with some drying their tears and others about to produce them at the end of the performance of ‘warrior’.
FASHION They were the secondary protagonists of the day, despite the fact that today they have triumphed in style in the Plaza del Trigo, also with the presence of Leiva. David Ruiz said at the festival’s press conference that being scheduled on the big stage that night as the opening act for the main show is a testament to his own career. The first time they performed at Sonorama Ribera was in 2011, for “30 people”: “We have been going through all the stages, winning over the audience one by one, with the help of word of mouth,” he recalled.
If they achieved it, it is because of the great consistency of their concerts, never taking a wrong step with their particular anthems and very often lending their space to songs that almost no other artist would talk about on the biggest stage in Sonorama. If in Río Babel they defended public education, on this occasion they wanted to dedicate ‘Campo Amarillo’ to encourage those who can to allocate “more means and more money to what happens every summer in our land”, to not allow “it to be burned, forgotten and abandoned.” Performed almost a cappella, with a very light guitar and a sighing accordion, it was the perfect counterpoint to the Castilian party that took place during the rest of the concert. The thing about ‘Heroes of Saturday’ was totally true.
