Anyway, after several attempts with different songs, I thought about Bob Marley, a musical reference that was part of my life for a few years. I was at the concert he gave here at the Monumental on June 30th, 1980. The ticket cost 900 pesetas. I paid for it with my salary of 23.000 pesetas that I had started to earn a few months before. It was the first and last time he performed in Barcelona, as he died the following year -on the morning of 11th May 1981 at the age of 36- because of a cancer in his right big toe.

It was a very exciting, peaceful and "aromatic" concert, at least inside the Monumental because apparently outside there was some trouble between the National Police and some people who wanted to enter without paying.

As you can see, in my case I wasn't looking for a song, but for an artist. And the artist led me to the song. "Redemption Song" is from the album Uprising, the last one he released before his death. The song has some phrases taken from the speech that the pan-Africanist speaker Marcus Garvey gave in October 1937, and he said…

"We are going to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery because whilst others might free the body, none but ourselves can free the mind. Mind is your only ruler, sovereign. The man who is not able to develop and use his mind is bound to be the slave of the other man who uses his mind."

This song is considered Marley's seminal work, and like many of his songs, it expresses ideals of the Rastafarian movement and promotes freedom from our own mental impositions.

I like the message. I think it will be valid as long as there are minds that need to be free and people who want to control them.

Vídeo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yv5xonFSC4c
Lyrics:
https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/bobmarley/redemptionsong.html

 

So, in that moment I wondered which song I could choose for this assignment. And then I don't know why I thought about “They dance alone" by Sting. I decided, ok, it is my song. A few days later when I searched on youtube my chosen song I decided to change it.

 

When we search on YouTube  something  on the right side of the screen  appears:  other references which  have  some link with your search. In my case I had a thumbnail of Tracy Chapma, you know the preview of a video. In that moment I decided to change my song. In addition, I knew which song to choose: “Talkin’ about a revolution”

 

I remember the first time when I listened to this song. I was studying at the university in Havana. It was in 1989. A really significant year. In those years I, as other young people, dreamed about making the socialist system better. Every day we had long discussions about socialism, the perestroika, the glasnost, the reforms in the Soviet Union made by Gorbachev. I remember an evening when we were at a get-together, a friend sang a new song. None of us knew that song. Talkin’ about a revolution. For that whole year we were singing that song. So, for me, Talking about a revolution became a symbol of our social and political dreams.

 

It was really nice to listen to this song one more time, thirty years after, and feel and realize that I still have the same dreams, I still believe that we, as a society, need a revolution. Obviously, times have changed. Now, our society needs, in my opinion, a feminist revolution, an environmental revolution, a revolution that decolonizes the economic and human relationship between the Global North and the Global South.

 

 

 

When Manuela said we had to choose a song, I immediately thought  of my father and in dedicating this song to him.

My father is alive but unfortunately he has a type of senile dementia like Alzheimer and he has been living in a nursing home since last year. It has been so hard for me to accept this situation . 

Even though  he is losing a lot of memories from his life , he remembers several songs and when I visit him we try to listen to the music from my phone. Sometimes, he hums while he’s listening to them.

Two or  three years ago when we used to spend a part of our holidays with my parents, my sisters, my mother and me used to get angry with him, because he woke us up humming, very early in the morning. However, now I’m very happy when he does it.

It reminds me that when I was a child, at home on Sunday morning and at lunch time, my  family used to listen to jazz music, Frank Sinatra and The Beatles. 

It was my father who chose it. It was funny when he danced with us.

Although I continued that tradition  in my home, over the years it has been disappearing.

 It’s a pity. I should try to get it back again..

In the 60s and 70s most people watched the same films on tv. Do you remember Frank Sinatra’s films? Those movies used to be musicals which I loved (and I loved him too). I also loved his voice and those romantic funny arguments. 

On the other hand, we enjoyed singing inside the car while we were travelling with my sisters and  my parents . Do you remember huge cassette players like VHS ? Not young people of course, haha!

 We also listened to Barbara Streisand, Mina, Ray Conniff! And above all, a lot of jazz.

In 1992 Frank Sinatra came here and sang  in Palau Sant Jordi, I couldn’t believe it. Wow, I was there, I’ll never forget it!

I could have chosen many songs for this work but, why I chose “That’s Life”?

 I had just watched “THE JOKER” at the cinema. It’s a must!

 How a person who has been battered in life and, as a consequence, with serious mental problems, is ignored by society .The performance by the actor Joaquin Phoenix as the Joker is brilliant.

The main song of the film is “that’s life”, one of Frank Sinatra’s songs but in this case it's played by Shawn James. Excellent.
VIDEO SONG: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgH1uxF8tEo

 LYRICS: https://youtu.be/wBZxZB5PJBg

Dancing Queen, of pop group ABBA

Well, I know that this song, is not original, but I am going to tell you why I've chosen it.

 

I don’t have a special song in my life, neither a special group of music. I like music, different kinds of music, and it was a little difficult for me to choose one … but suddenly I remembered an actress who I like very much … she is Meryl Streep. I think I have seen all Meryl Streep films’, Kramer vs Kramer, Out of Africa, The Bridges of Madison Country, etc. We would need another day for speaking about her filmography. On the other hand, I have also seen some interviews and I think her opinion is sometimes interesting. Politically, Streep has described herself as a part of the American Left.

 

Well, focusing on the subject, in an interview on August 31st, 2008, Streep explained to us the story about the film Mamma Mia!. She explained that she had seen the musical Mamma Mia seven years before when she was living in New York. It was right after September 11th and at that moment everybody was feeling kind of low and coinciding with her daughter’s birthday she took a group of 10 year-old kids to see the Mamma Mia musical, and when they left the theatre all the kids were dancing down the street and she thought something had made them alive again and although the moment was very sad, she thought that it was necessary an infusion of joy and because of that reason, it could be great to make this musical into a film … 

 

“The film is about living joyously and we can only do this if we really have fun”, said Street. Mamma Mia! is a film about women and all their experiences, about being hopeful and youthful and older and suffering the regrets that you have over a long life. I don’t like musicals but when I saw the film, I enjoyed it very much!

 

When you are listening to Abba you realize that Abba has fans across the globe. For example, it says something about the power of the song Dancing Queen. I remember when Theresa May, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom danced this song on the stage at the Tory party conference. A lot of people thought she was ridicule dancing, but different journalists said that by using Dancing Queen she ensured that the song’s power to sway emotions and turn heads remained center-stage.

 

I think I’ve listened to this song all my life, I’ve danced this song with my friends, and If you ask me what memories it brings to me, I think all of them are good memories!

 

Well, like the song says: you can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRoWiTcO7dk

Anyway, for me the award isn't important, the most important thing is to be able to create a dance and be part of that show, because it means that I can be good in other sport after my injury that made me retire from all sport activities that I was having before.

So, my teacher plays this song to warm up every day, and now when I listen to it, it reminds me of the warm up in the gym, it reminds me as well that I have to work hard to achieve what I have set myself to achieve. 

However, since I was young I have always wanted to be a gymnastics teacher so this year I got the job, and I’m really happy for that. So because of everything I have explained, I play this song too in my gymnastic classes when I start the warm up, with the idea that one day my pupils will listen to the song and will be able to remember me and the classes. 

In addition, these days that we have to stay at home I can’t do aerial dance, so when I play this song it motivates me to train at home doing exercises to increase my strength. Also, I hope that when we come back to classes, I would be delighted if my pupils had done the exercises at home that I taught them. 

I like this song very much because it has a deep sound that mixes with some cosmic rhythms and the overtone of the two different voices, transport me to another state of mind. 
One of them is a woman whose voice is soft and delicate sometimes even like a whisper. The other voice is from a man whose voice is stronger, powerful with an African influence. Although back at that time when I started to listen to this song I didn't have much knowledge of the English language. And, to be honest, I didn't understand anything about it. 

If you read the lyrics, it may have different meanings for everyone. And for every person, it could fit at different times of their lives. Basically, I like it for its mystical sounds. But there was a particular moment in my past, in which I began to organize several aspects of my life in a positive way. Also it involved many experiences, some of which were pretty nice but others weren't so nice. In addition, this song has inspired me to continue with my pert growth and encouraged me to reach some goals. However, I still continue in this process. 

The first time I heard this song was in my home country when I was living there. It's been over 13 years since that. It was a popular song at the time. We could hear it in every radio station dedicated to contemporary music. There are a few parts of this song that I specially like. Such as when it says "Don't be afraid to be weak, don't be afraid to be strong and listen to your heart, and so on"

My own opinion about that part of the song is that we have to have a balance in our lives, a message about erasing all kinds of stereotypes that society has imposed on us. And also about not being afraid to show our true emotions because we are continuously evolving. I still listen to this song, most of the time when I'm feeling in a chill mood, thoughtful, or when I'm stressed at work. It keeps me calm. 

VIDEO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk_sAHh9s08

 

First of all, it is a love story, my first platonic love for a handsome young Portuguese child who was staying there on holiday too with his parents and his sister who seemed a little older than him. 

The first time that I saw him was in the swimming pool, I was there with my cousin when suddenly I saw him going through the pool. He had dark skin and intense, brown eyes and a careless way of walking. At that moment I felt something that I had never felt before. After that moment I couldn't think of anything else. A kind of spell, all of you know what I'm talking about, don’t you? Summer love in adolescence.

 

These days, my cousin and I made a lot of friends there, most of them were from other countries so we needed to speak with them in English, something that was for me very difficult because I hated this subject in school, specially the teacher, Mamen I hated her as if she was the devil. In conclusion, I didn’t speak English very well, worse than now to give you an idea. I survived with a little vocabulary

 

We were in a kind of apartments where there was a bar, and one night we went to the karaoke party, and, of course, he was there with his sister, and they were preparing to sing a song, And as you might well imagine this song was “I love you baby” When they were singing it was my turn to photograph this scene to remember it. I have tried to find the photo so you could see it but I don't know where it can be.

That night we exchanged a few words, a little English, Portuguese and Spanish, enough to understood each other.

 

But the summer as you know is always short and I came home without telling him how much I loved him. 

 

After a year my uncle went to the apartment and found a letter with my name, but, unfortunately, I never knew who had written it and neither what it said. 

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=i+love+you+baby+lyrics

One day, when I was doing homework I was listening to music and “Fantastic Shine” from Love of Lesbian came up. This song was the song of the Estrella Damm Summer advertisement in 2013. 

This type of Estrella Damm advertisements started in 2009 when I was 10 years old. I remember that when I saw the first advertisement, I liked it a lot and also, I remember that I learned to play Summercat (the song of that year) with the flute. Since then, every year I fancy to see the new advertisement.

The Summer of 2013 was the first Summer that I did a trip with 3 friends. We went to one of my friend’s grandmother’s house in Sagaró. I remember this trip with love because it was the first trip that I did with friends and although we were young, we made a lot of funny interesting plans.

Finally, from that song I discovered Love of Lesbian’s and now a days I listen to a lot of songs from that group.

VIDEO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJb4XtQz73Y&feature=emb_title

LYRICS:
https://www.metrolyrics.com/fantastic-shine-lyrics-love-of-lesbian.html

But there’s a song that every time I listen  to it makes me feel very happy: La Bilirrubina by Juan Luis Guerra.

I know!! Is an old song but it reminds me of my childhood and my summers with friends and family. When I was a child my family and I spent the summer in an apartment in Sitges near the beach. It was very funny because I could play in the street with all my neighbours and cousins. 

But my favourite hobby was dancing all the hits that we had listened to on the radio. The 90’ was the decade of Juan Luis Guerra, he was very famous in those days and I was a huge fan of his! I know all his hits but the most famous was La Bilirrubina, of course! I was a very joyful child and with a lot of imagination so it was very common for me to make some choreographies about all the songs that I loved. In fact I keep doing this because it is part of my profession…. :)

I have prepared the clothes and the choreography for days of the song that I had chosen before. And then I played it to my parents and sister. It was very exciting and funny! Sometimes I made a duo with some friend or a cousin, it was more complicated because we needed to rehearse more…

This is why every time I listen to La BIlirrubina my body starts moving, I can't avoid it, I swear! It is like magic, my hips start dancing and I feel happy automatically. It's like medicine so when I have had a bad day I’ll play La Bilirrubina and suddenly I’m ok!

It works also with all the other songs by of Juan Luis Guerra but it’s a pity I can only choose one of them!

 

First of all, it is a love story, my first platonic love for a handsome young Portuguese child who was staying there on holiday too with his parents and his sister who seemed a little older than him. 

The first time that I saw him was in the swimming pool, I was there with my cousin when suddenly I saw him going through the pool. He had dark skin and intense, brown eyes and a careless way of walking. At that moment I felt something that I had never felt before. After that moment I couldn't think of anything else. A kind of spell, all of you know what I'm talking about, don’t you? Summer love in adolescence.

 

These days, my cousin and I made a lot of friends there, most of them were from other countries so we needed to speak with them in English, something that was for me very difficult because I hated this subject in school, specially the teacher, Mamen I hated her as if she was the devil. In conclusion, I didn’t speak English very well, worse than now to give you an idea. I survived with a little vocabulary

 

We were in a kind of apartments where there was a bar, and one night we went to the karaoke party, and, of course, he was there with his sister, and they were preparing to sing a song, And as you might well imagine this song was “I love you baby” When they were singing it was my turn to photograph this scene to remember it. I have tried to find the photo so you could see it but I don't know where it can be.

That night we exchanged a few words, a little English, Portuguese and Spanish, enough to understood each other.

 

But the summer as you know is always short and I came home without telling him how much I loved him. 

 

After a year my uncle went to the apartment and found a letter with my name, but, unfortunately, I never knew who had written it and neither what it said. 

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=i+love+you+baby+lyrics