Rozalén sings in Basque with the BOS under the baton of Fernando Velázquez

2023-06-14 14:18:56

“I don’t understand anything, but the hairs are like spikes”, reads one of the comments on the YouTube video of ‘Xalbadorren heriotzean’, which has long exceeded half a million views. Her singer is not Basque, but from Albacete. And she doesn’t speak Basque, despite the fact that this is the fourth time that she has recorded a song in this language, the first time that she has done it alone. Rozalén does not understand music without going back to its roots, and that is why she has included the song by Xabier Lete, the elegy dedicated to the poet from Iparralde Ferdinand Aire Etxart ‘Xalbador’, the shepherd from Urepele, on her fifth studio album, ‘Matriz ‘, a name that comes from joining the words ‘motherland’ and ‘root’.

Rozalen has returned this Wednesday to sing ‘Xalbador heriotzean’ accompanied by the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Fernando Velázquez. The recording on the fifth floor of the Euskalduna Palace is part of the ‘Ura Bere Bidean 2023’ project, in which prominent artists and groups cover popular songs from the 1980s in a symphonic version. The composer from Getxo, winner of a Goya for ‘A monster comes to see me’ and a Grammy for his arrangements of Jorge Drexler’s song ‘El plan maestro’, coordinates this ambitious project of the Fair Saturday Foundation.

The twenty participating artists will meet next October 28 in a concert at the BEC in Barakaldo. In addition to Rozalén, there will be Doctor Deseo (Francis Diez), Parabellum, Delirium Tremens (Andoni Basterretxea), Urtz (Xabi Camarero), Sorotan Bele (Urbil Artola and Gorka Sarriegi), Gozategi (Asier Gozategi and Iñigo Goikoetxea), Mikel Urdangarin, Gatibu (Alex Sardui and Haimar Arejita), Zea Mays (Aiora and Piti), Anne Etchegoyen, Esne Beltza (Xabi Solano), Skakeitan (Peio Armendariz), En Tol Sarmiento (Iñigo Etxezarreta), Kalakan, Olatz Salvador, Bulego (Tom Lizarazu) , Idoia, Neomak and Süne.

‘Xalbadorren heriotzean’ has over half a million views on YouTube.

Two days after her 37th birthday, Rozalén records in Bilbao after presenting Leturalma last week, the modern folk music festival that she has organized since 2016 in her hometown, Letur, in the Sierra del Segura. The artist and Fernando Velázquez have something in common: a Goya, which in the case of Rozalén she obtained for the song ‘Que no, que no’, for ‘La boda de Rosa’, by Icíar Bollaín.