Agenda Barcelona

Mil veus per a Víctor Jara” [Thousand Voices for Víctor Jara]

Memory and future 50 years after the coup d’êtat

Anna Tijoux, Javiera Mena, McMillaray, Rusó Sala, Sílvia Tomàs

+ a band led by Marina Alcantud and Borja Penalba. Special guests:

Inti Illimani Histórico

Víctor Jara repertoire

Avinguda de la Catedral will be the setting for one of the most special nights of La Mercè, with a production that has benefited from the collaboration of the Generalitat de Catalunya and the Government of Chile. It serves as a reflection of the harmony between the two countries, of a relationship based on the common defence of progress and freedom, and on the need to remember the people who, in different places and situations, fought against authoritarian and repressive regimes.

Víctor Jara is an internationally known for his protest songs from the 60s and early 70s and is one of the pillars of Latin American music. A cultural ambassador for the government of Salvador Allende, Jara put voice and music to the demands of the Chilean people; an audacity that would condemn him when the Chilean Armed Forces occupied the Palau de la Moneda, in Santiago. The composer of songs such as El derecho de vivir en paz was tortured and murdered in the former Estadio Chile, which was renamed Estadio Víctor Jara with the return of democracy two decades later. On the 50th anniversary of that terrible coup, Mercè Música pays tribute to Jara in a concert that will bring together Chilean and Catalan singers, a seven-muscian band created for the occasion, and a number of exceptional guests who representatives of that historical generation.

Mil veus per a Víctor Jara features artists with diverse profiles. Anna Tijoux , a Chilean daughter of exiles who lives in Barcelona, singer, songwriter and rapper, has accumulated awards and nominations with songs that speak of truth, justice and memory. The Chilean Javiera Mena , a resident of Madrid, is a singer, composer and producer and a queer pop icon; she plays piano, bass, guitar and flute and does indie electropop , while Mc Millaray , a young Chilean and the daughter of rappers, declares herself a Mapuche rapper and an activist for the rights of her people, who are the most numerous indigenous group in Chile.

The Catalonian Rusó Sala will also perform , a singer-songwriter and choir director who defines her music as Mediterranean and indebted to Rosa Zaragoza, and who at Barnasants 2017 performed a concert featuring the entire repertoire of Víctor Jara; along with Sílvia Tomàs , a singer-songwriter born to a Chilean family who writes poems and songs about injustice, nature, humanity and love. Tomás acknowledges the influence of Atahualpa Yupanki in her work.

The voices of these five women will be accompanied by the band assembled by Borja Penalba (guitars, minor percussion, accordion and vocals) and Marina Alcantud (piano, keyboards and vocals) for Mil veus per a Víctor Jara , rounded out by Moi Bautista (electric bass, mini-acoustic bass and vocals), Tere Núñez (guitars, percussion and vocals), Jordi Ortolà (drums, pad and percussion), Tobal Rentero (guitarrón, charango [Andean stringed instrument], lute, moxeño [Andean wind instrument] and flutes) and Lucía Zambudio (electric guitar and vocals).

Inti Illimani Histórico will also pass through Barcelona to join the tribute to Víctor Jara. With Horacio Salinas (voice and guitar) at the helm, this line-up, close in soul and repertoire to Víctor Jara, consists of Horacio Durán (guitar, charango), Danilo Donoso (voice, drums, percussion), Fernando Julio (voice, bass, double bass, guitarrón), Camilo Salinas (accordion, keyboard), José Seves (voice, guitar, percussion) and Hermes Villalobos (voice, flute, quena [Andean flute]). If the five singers of Mil veus per a Víctor Jara represent current Chilean society, than Inti Illimani Histórico represents the Chile of Jara and Allende. The memory and voice of a courageous generation that repression could not silence.