The summer festival Festival d’Estiu de Teatres-Sagunt a Escena will be rounded off with a performance by singer Martirio, playing songs from her 25-year musical career, including coplas and boleros, with touches of jazz and a flamenco flavour. The perfect concert for enjoying these late August nights.
Maribel Quiñones Gutiérrez entered the world of music to make a fresh start, to do something completely different. She decided to change her name to Martirio, which undoubtedly sounds more Ibero-Celtic —and ironic as it means ‘torment’ in Spanish— and set out to take the world by storm, complete with ornamental hair comb, which is more akin to the aesthetics of the Spanish La Movida movement than traditional folklore attire. To complete her set of props off her props, she dons big glasses in the style of La Niña de la Puebla (blind Spanish singer) and Andy Warhol and, with a cry of her song I’m ill (Estoy mala) swept the copla into poppy sounds and unchartered territory with humour and light-heartedness while, thanks to her, a young audience got to discover their musical heritage. When she started to find the copla and its boundaries a bit limiting, the singer decided to explore new sounds and came across the pianist Chano Dominguez, with whom she recorded memorable works such as Coplas de Madrugá and Acoplados. Her musical versatility, on the other hand, became evident alongside artists such as Kiko Veneno, Maria del Mar Bonet, Compay Segundo, Omara Portuondo and the Italian, Mauro Gioia, covering songs by Nino Rota, musician and composer of soundtracks for Fellini’s La Dolce Vita and 8½. With a career spanning more than half a century, Martirio continues to make her mark on the artistic scene, beyond the constraints of current trends, and is guided by a nose for creativity and pleasure that takes precedence over marketing and the music industry. She has gone down a road that has certainly not been easy, but she has managed to walk it without losing her comb or selling her soul to the devil in the “Pound Shop” on the corner. Visitors to the Roman Theatre on 21 August will be treated to pure and natural Martirio, whose unique voice and exhilarating mix of copla and tango transport the listener from the shores of the Mediterranean to the shores of the Atlantic. And, if the night permits, there will be a backdrop of stars to accompany the musical evening.