It was January 2020 when Sabina took the bowler hat out for a walk for the last time in Barcelona. It was with Serrat without imagining what was to come to him in particular and to the world in general, a spectacular fall and a pandemic that turned everything upside down. Recovered from the setback, averting the curse of WiZink with a double concert where he almost lost his mind, Sabina went on stage at the Sant Jordi last night for the first of the two concerts that will reunite him with his Barcelona audience as part of the Against All Odds tour. .
“Bona nit a tothom,” Sabina greeted to recite some welcome verses in which she defined the city as “homeland of the heart of the fugitive, which celebrates the miracle of being alive.” She appeared, with the match won before playing, before a crowd happy just to see him in an evening dedicated to remembering the past with a handful of the songs that have made the poet's broken voice legendary. And I also remember the luck that accompanies him to continue standing after years of living without thinking about what will happen the next day.
The one from Úbeda arrived aware that if he wants to say “no goodbyes, guys”, he has to replace the tequila with water, sing more sitting down than standing up and let himself be carried away by the shiny band that accompanies him and supports him where it is needed. , with the elegant voice of Mara Barros and the company of two veterans such as Jaime Asúa and Antonio García de Diego. None of this mattered as soon as Sabina appeared and started singing When I was younger, dressed in a white bowler hat, dark striped jacket, guitar in hand and a crook's smile, sitting on a bar stool, where so many songs were born.
After the 1985 song, Sindolo mucho was played, published 37 years later, with heartfelt applause when mentioning Joan Manuel Serrat. Both songs were the temporal limits between which a night passed where each song raised aromas of a memory, a chorus or an emotion, whether it was 19 days and 500 nights, City fish, And yet or When the cold presses, dedicated between others to Manel Fuentes and the Estopa.
Sabina's faded but still whole voice passed over the songs like nicotine smoke through the throat, hoarse at first, softer by force of habit and desire, of which Sant Jordi had more than enough. Sometimes on the stool, sometimes sitting at a table, he rarely stood up, one of them to retire to rest mid-concert, letting his band take the lead with I want to be an Almodóvar girl, and The most beautiful song in the world. world. He returned minutes later with new clothes, a red polka dot shirt, to continue with So Young and So Old, after which he received a resounding ovation with Sant Jordi fully standing in a Sabine evening where he did not forget to remember Chavela For the boulevard of broken dreams, dedicated to his deceased musician friends “and to my cousin Serrat, who retired, no one knows why.” He also played A song for Magdalena, “the most whore of all ladies”, as it would be impossible to say now, or a lively version of Princess, which closed the concert with the audience on its feet before the encores. A journey through 40 years of history of the musician and his fans, who closed Sabina's return to Barcelona singing in chorus And they gave us ten, full stop to the coven that summoned the singer once again, yes, against all odds .
