Believe it or not, it is almost 4 years since the release of ‘El Madrileño’, one of the great multi-platinum albums that this decade has left in our country. After a large macro project, C. Tangana’s musical drift is becoming unprecedented. He does not make significant collaborations, only some very anecdotal ones, and absolutely nothing is known about the rap album that he finished around 2020. He has already joked on occasion that he will only come out when he dies.
If in 2021 he rejected the name by which the general public knew him, and insisted that we call him “El Madrileño”, now he signs as Antón Álvarez to direct a documentary. There are those who have begun to talk about C. Tangana’s musical career in the past, but be careful because the artist is in the Goya race for ‘The Guitar of Yerai Cortés’, specifically in the categories of Best Song and Best Documentary. Which is not surprising because if there is one thing this artist has known how to do throughout his career, it has been to reinvent himself based on that, to document himself. All you have to do is remember the day you decided to sample Joselito.
Yerai Cortés was one of the best kept secrets in the music industry. He had performed in tablaos and theaters in Madrid and Seville. He ended up being booked for the ‘Sin canto ni afinar’ tour – from which other talents such as Pablopablo have emerged – and now he enchants with his guitar art on stages such as Monkey Week, where he served as nothing less than master of ceremonies.
C. Tangana wanted to dedicate ‘The guitar of Yerai Cortés’ to him, seduced of course by his ability to play this instrument, especially in this second or third stage of his career in which he focused on national folklore – another example would be his unexpected anthem for Celta de Vigo -, but also for a secret from their family history, which is really the center of the film.
If we have seen something in Antón Álvarez’s discography, it is that he knows how to tell a story. It may be a more ostentatious one, or it may be a more tender one, but the artist always knows how to catch your attention. In this film he achieves it, right from the start, placing Yerai Cortés in search of a tombstone of someone he loved very much and misses. A woman named Tania, like his girlfriend. From there, ‘The guitar of Yerai Cortés’ will take an exciting journey through Yerai’s parents – a tremendous pair of secondary children, each one more picturesque and charismatic -, which of course does not leave music aside. Among the best things about the film is, of course, its highlighting of flamenco and the gypsy tradition, reminiscent of Isaki Lacuesta’s previous work.
Álvarez has an absolutely enormous role in the shot, for a director. It seems that he wanted to ensure that his large audience does not miss any of this, nor any of his great models. Sometimes the impression is that the family talks to him, more out of their desire to convince him to feature on Yerai’s album, than because of his qualities as an interviewer or journalist. The good thing is that there was a lot of humor in this filming, which is not easy in the middle of such a gruesome story. The featuring they wanted has not been achieved yet, but if there is a Goya for Best Song, we will see Yerai and Antón collect it, hand in hand.
