Rodrigo Cuevas unleashes euphoria at the Nits de Tanit festival in Ibiza

IbizaRodrigo Cuevas can be refined as a dandy; an activist; the most involved neighbor in the village festivals and as sharp as a sparrow pecked on a toilet door. Last night Cuevas unleashed euphoria in his Ibiza debut at the Nits de Tanit festival, accompanied by his inseparable Mapi Quintana, Juanjo Díaz, Tino Cuesta and Rubén Bada. The first applause of the night was received by Massiel, a collaborator on the initial track, Un mundo feliz. Cuevas went down to the stalls to sing with her, and from then on he was unstoppable, until the apotheosis finale with the whole band and dancers singing the vitalist La fiesta among the audience, a Malagan verdiales that sound like makineros. "How can it be that a gay artist like Rodrigo Cuevas is liked by my parents," said a girl who had convinced her parents to go to the concert. Before the performance, the mother recalled a recital by violinist Ara Malikian. Afterwards, moved, she described Cuevas as "amazing".

In the show presenting his latest album, La belleza, Cuevas receives the audience as if he were at home: facing all those who attack the rights of women, the LGTB collective and migrants, the Asturian artist explains that he has founded his own cabaret, La Panoya Dorada, to talk with the audience, progressive like him, only about what he wants. In Ibiza, he took the stage, set up in front of the UIB headquarters at the old Comandancia, with his homework done: he said that the only thing he wanted to talk about was "corn" and beauty. But later he warned that anyone who had missed the main festival to go to his concert was "a hooligan", and praised the volunteers who make popular festivals possible.

A gathering of friends in a cider house

The cornerstone of the repertoire were the ten songs from La belleza. The concert was divided into four blocks, each with its own spectacular costumes, like the first, full of white feathers. After Un mundo feliz, another new song was played, BLZA, a reflection on beauty and its ravages. The second block is the most theatrical: the entire company appears gathered in a chigre (cider house), where Cuevas makes all sorts of sexual comparisons with flowers before performing the bolero Xardineru. Shortly after, he got the audience up to dance a pasodoble to Sácame a bailar. Cuevas culminated this part with his tribute to the drag artist Alberto Alonso Blanco, known as Rambal, murdered in 1976. For Cuevas, Rambal is one of those who risked everything, even their own lives, for the advancement of collective rights. Now, we must be aware that these are the foundations of our rights, and honor them. "Making a fool of oneself is a responsibility," said Cuevas, because parties are also political.

The third part began with La playa, a critique of the clichés about the benefits of the north. It also featured Veleno, the collaboration with the Galician musician Baiuca, also known for his fusion of electronic and traditional music. And in the final stretch, before the explosion of La fiesta, two songs were played, with a mournful tone, because Cuevas does not turn his back on death: El día que nací yo, the version of the song by Imperio Argentina, and Una muerte ideal, a tribute to idols, among whom are Rocío Jurado, Lina Morgan, Concha Velasco, Juan Gabriel and Nino Bravo.