The singer Núria Feliu has died this Friday at the age of 80, according to the family. She was born on September 21, 1941 in the Sants neighborhood of Barcelona, she began performing in public in 1965 and has starred in one of the longest careers in Catalan music.
Feliu has been one of the most popular Catalan singers in recent decades, an endearing figure even for those who are not exactly music lovers, thanks to the frequent presence of this proud daughter of Sants in civic events and audiovisual media.
Musically, he took his first steps in a context dominated by Nova Cançó, although differentiating himself from the universe of songwriters and opening paths for music sung in Catalan, from his first jazz albums to later adventures in the world of great soundtracks. , cuplé, boleros, musicals and, a few years later, even country.
Traditional song, poetry and sardana are also part of the career of this performer committed to the country and its culture, both on stage and off.
She studied music from a very young age, and in her early youth she spent time with the Donald Duc ensemble, performing among other stages at the Radio Miramar Radiofestival in 1960. She also tried the honeys of theater in companies such as the Teatre Experimental Català. In 1964, Antoni Ros-Marbà suggested that she audition for the Edigsa record company after hearing her sing a song in Arnold Wesker's Les Arrels.
The good results of the score led her to record her first album the following year, an EP with four songs led by Anirem tots cap al cel, a splendid piece signed by Josep Maria Andreu and Lleó Borrell. Shortly after, he came into contact with jazz pianist Tete Montoliu, with whom he recorded an LP with Erich Peter (double bass), Billie Brooks (drums) and Booker Ervin (sax), which included an adaptation of the Misty standard. (Tot is gray) Destined to make a fortune.
At that time (we are talking about 1966) he performed in the Sert room of the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York with Montoliu. His interactions in the world of jazz also include a celebrated LP with organist Lou Bennett the same year, among other recordings. He also ventures into soundtracks for the first time in Cançons de pel·lícules, Catalan poetry with Núria Feliu sings Salvador Espriu, and covers Charles Trenet in Què n'ha quédat del nostre amor?, in two EPs with four songs that appeared on the sixties
With the change of the decade he leaves El couplet a Barcelona, an album where he recovers wonders like El vestir d’en Pasqual or La Marieta de l’ull viu, a songbook that he presents in El Molino del Paral·lel. A tribute to the French vedette Mistinguett, and her pas por famados musicales of the moment in Núria de nit, precede, among other records, her boleros Núria Feliu and Los Guacamayos, with Catalan versions of gems of the genre such as Nosotros (Escolta'm ), Lo dudo (Don't say it) or Cuando vuelva a tu lado (When you see me again).
Among the rest of the productions of the 1970s - the period in which he participated in the founding of the Musicians' Union of Catalonia -, Cançons d'Apel·les Mestres and algo después Viure a Barcelona stand out, with songs dedicated to the Catalan capital with text by Guillem d'Efak and music by Antoni Parera Fons, including the lucky Look how it goes, look how it comes.
In 1985, Núria Feliu received the Creu de Sant Jordi and published the album Més que mai together with the tenor Josep Carreras. After his passage through Italian music in 1989 via Amb cor i aníma, he will celebrate twenty-five years of career with a double album presented at the Palau de la Música Catalana, with one side recorded together with a big band, another with the collaboration of Tete Montoliu , a third devoted to boleros alongside Los Guacamayos, and a fourth in which adaptations such as Sting's theme Sister moon parade.
His recording activity decreases notably from this point on, although volumes such as Us ho devia in 1994 should be noted -a compendium of sardanas and sardanoves sung together with Santi Arisa
