Joan Manuel Serrat Totally Explained

Everything about Joan Manuel Serrat totally explained

Joan Manuel Serrat i Teresa (born December 27, 1943 in Barcelona) is a Spanish singer-songwriter.
   Serrat is considered one of the most important figures of modern, popular music, in both, the Spanish and Catalan languages. Catalan singer-songwriter (Catalan father and Aragonese mother) Joan Manuel Serrat became involved with music at the age of 17, when he got his first guitar, to which he dedicates one of his earliest songs, "Una guitarra."
   In the early 60's, the young artist participated in a pop band, playing along with classmates at Barcelona's Agronomy School and performing mainly Beatles songs and Italian 'pop-of-the-era' songs translated to Spanish.
   In 1965, while singing in a radio show called Radioscope, host Salvador Escamilla helped him secure a record deal with local label Edigsa, where he recorded his first LP, as well as joning the band Els Setze Jutges.
   Joan Manuel Serrat's first live stage performance in 1967 at the Palau de la Música Catalana, served to establish him as one of the most important artists inside the 'Nova cançó' movement in Catalonia.
   The following year, Spain entered Serrat in the Eurovision Song Contest 1968 to sing "La, la, la", but he asked to sing it in Catalan, to which the Spanish authorities wouldn't agree. This would be the first time he'd come into conflict with the language politics of Francoist Spain, because of his decision to sing in his native Catalan language, repressed by dictator Francisco Franco. Defiantly, Serrat refused to sing the Spanish-language version, and was hurriedly substituted by Massiel, who went on to win the contest with her Spanish-language interpretation.
   As a result, Serrat's songs were banned and his records burned in the streets. He then traveled to South America and participated in the Rio de Janeiro's World Music Festival, where he took first the place with the song "Penélope."
   In 1969, Serrat released an album containing songs with texts of Antonio Machado, a well known Spanish poet of late 19th-early 20th century. This album brought him immediate fame in all Spain and Latin America though, in spite of this, his decision to sing in Spanish was still criticized in some nationalistic Catalan circles. Regarding this and other times when his choice of language (sometimes Spanish, sometimes Catalan) raised controversy on either side of the political sphere, he once explained: "I sing better in the language they forbid me."
   The release of the Mediterráneo LP in 1971 consolidated the artist reputation worldwide. During that year, Serrat sang a seminal concert at the theater of the University of Puerto Rico in Rio Piedras, which was highly influential on the Puerto Rican music community of the time, and which had repercussions as late as 2006.
   In late 1974, Serrat was exiled in Mexico due to his condemnation of arbitrary executions under Franco's regime. It wasn't until Franco's death November 20, 1975 that Serrat was able to return to his homeland. In 1976, Joan Manuel Serrat was acclaimed for the first time in the U.S.A., while performing in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York.
   In January of 1995, the Spanish government awarded him a medal for his contribution to the Hispanic culture. That same year, a tribute album called Serrat, eres único was made to honor his career, featuring artists such as Diego Torres, Ketama, Rosario Flores, Joaquín Sabina, and Antonio Flores. On November 28, 1998, Serrat performed the Cant del Barça during the FC Barcelona Centenary festival at the Camp Nou.
   In the year 2000, the Spanish Association of Authors and Editors (SGAE) awarded him with one of ten Medals of the Century.
   Serrat revealed in October 2004 that he'd been undergoing treatment for cancer of the Urinary bladder and in November that year he'd to cancel a tour of Latin America and the U.S. in order to undergo surgery in Barcelona, where he still lives. By that time, his signature song "Mediterráneo" was selected as the most important song of the 20th century in Spain.
   His recovery was satisfactory, and in 2005 he went on tour again ("Serrat 100×100") around Spain and Latin America with his lifelong producer and arranger, Ricard Miralles. During that tour Serrat played symphonic versions of his songs with local symphony orchestras.
   A second volume of Serrat, eres único was also released this year, featuring Alejandro Sanz, Estopa, and Pasión Vega. Around the same time, Cuban artists such as Silvio Rodríguez, Pablo Milanés, Chucho Valdez, and Ibrahim Ferrer came together to make another tribute CD, Cuba le canta a Serrat.
   By 2006, the theater of the University of Puerto Rico in Río Piedras where Serrat sang in 1970 had undergone a multi-million dollar renovation, after being closed for ten years. The university planned to reopen the theater with Serrat as its first popular culture act, as to evoke his first presentation there. However, student protests about the university conceding private entities control over some theater administration functions ended up in a physical confrontation between some student leaders and patrons attending the theater's inaugural gala, the day before Serrat's first scheduled performance. As a result, the concerts had to be postponed and changed to another venue. Serrat felt particularly uneasy about the whole situation; when he was pressed to take sides in the controversy he opted to remain neutral about it.
   In 2006 Serrat also released Mô, his first album completely in Catalan in 17 years. The album title refers to the city of Mahón, capital of the Spanish island of Menorca, where he likes to get away from it all during long touring seasons.

'Discography (LPs):

1967 - Ara que tinc vint anys 1968 - Cançons tradicionals 1969 - Com ho fa el vent 1969 - La paloma 1969 - Dedicado a Antonio Machado, poeta 1970 - Serrat IV 1970 - Mi niñez 1971 - Mediterráneo 1972 - Miguel Hernández 1973 - Per al meu amic 1974 - Canción infantil 1975 - ...Para piel de manzana 1977 - Res no és mesquí 1978 - 1978 1980 - Tal com raja 1981 - En tránsito 1983 - Cada loco con su tema 1984 - Fa vint anys que tinc vint anys 1984 - En directo 1985 - El sur también existe 1986 - Sinceramente teu 1987 - Bienaventurados 1989 - Material sensible 1992 - Utopía 1994 - Nadie es perfecto 1996 - Banda sonora d'un temps d'un país 1996 - El gusto es nuestro (live with Ana Belén, Víctor Manuel, and Miguel Ríos) 1998 - Sombras de la China 2000 - Cansiones (Tarrés) 2002 - Versos en la boca 2003 - Serrat Sinfónico 2006 - Mô 2007 - Dos pájaros de un tiro (live with Joaquín Sabina)

Tributes (LPs):

1995 - Serrat... eres Único! 2005 - Cuba le canta a Serrat 2005 - Serrat... eres Único! 2 2006 - Per al meu amic... Serrat
The Spanish actress Penélope Cruz is named after Serrat's song Penélope.

Further Information

Get more info on 'Joan Manuel Serrat'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://joan_manuel_serrat.totallyexplained.com">Joan Manuel Serrat Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.