• Raphael. "We were complaining about Donald Trump, and look what we have in Spain"

Not even the pandemic has prevented

Raphae

l from returning for Christmas one more year to the main stage of the Spanish capital, and not with a low profile, but with a sold-out concert

attended by 5,000 people

and first-rate guests, such as

Manuel Carrasco

and

Pablo López

.

Since last March these same stands of the

Wizink Center in Madrid

received 10,000 souls to enjoy

Camela

, no other musical event in Spain had received such a large audience, yes, with all the health measures and precautions activated.

"What a great happiness to have you in front of you. Tonight is very important to me and I know that for many of you too, that this begins to roll," certified the protagonist of the night before a general feeling and a panoramic view of the venue that encouraged the hope to regain the old normality.

The excuse well deserved this coming-out: to

celebrate 60 years in Raphael's career

, an anniversary that just a few weeks ago motivated the release of the album

'Raphael 6.0'

, in which he covers equally mythical foreign songs with duos, such as 'I will resist', 'Our love broke' or the 'I forgot to live' popularized by Julio Iglesias.

He never forgot to live, the incombustible artist born as

Rafael Martos

(Linares, 1943)

specified in a talk with Efe

that what he has done often during his career is to emerge as the 'Ave Fénix' with which he punctually 7:00 p.m. has jumped to the tables, true to its style, in rigorous black but giving space to fantasy with a sequined jacket.

After that atypical song taken from his album of the same name published in 1992, in all probability a bet with double reading at the moment we are going through, the divo has not been slow to make his own another of the jewels of his latest album, 'Vivir asi is dying of love ', by

Camilo Sesto

.

Where the voice no longer reaches the complex breaks and sustains of this type of Herculean songs is supplied by the formidable band that accompanies him on these appointments, a fifteen musicians, including a string quartet and a brass section, all before a triangular canopy and custom lighting to display flashes and underline each passage.

There has been an opportunity to listen to around thirty songs throughout the

two hours and fifteen minutes of

tonight's

concert

, in which their greatest hits have not been lacking, such as the very powerful (and now electronic) 'Say what they say 'and' My big night ', or like' I'm still that one 'and' I was in love ', which have put the crowd on their feet and wanting to release the hours of dancing accumulated in the months of hiatus.

In between, it was the turn of the first visit of the evening, Manuel Carrasco.

"I love him and admire him a lot," he

said of the Huelva bestseller, together with whom for the first time live he has shared that aforementioned 'I forgot to live' that served as the spearhead of '6.0', before addressing already in solitary 'Face to face', original by

Bunbury

, with which he has been able to exploit all his dramatic vein.

While still being Raphael, there have been many other opportunities to see him make pieces from outside his repertoire his own, even from outside this part of the world, such as 'Vida Loca' by

Pancho Céspedes

and, from Argentina, 'Nostalgias' by

Andrés Calamaro

, 'Alfonsina y el mar' by

Mercedes Sosa

and 'La March' by

La Mancha de Rolando

.

In some cases the celebration has been both for the interpretation and for the theme itself, as has happened with the powerful 'We broke our love' which was orphaned without

Rocío Jurado

, after which he has paid tribute with 'Adoro' to

Armando Manzanero

, currently admitted due to covid-19.

Pablo López has not missed the appointment, who made a custom-made song for the last album.

'Truth, on a billboard at Olympia / with thirty, twenty-five or nineteen / waiting in dressing rooms / where it rains', Raphael has recited, to which his' partner' has responded loudly: 'thirty-five / thirty-six / his name on the poster / I dreamed that he wrote / a song, to Raphael ', causing a

sudden climax of applause

.

In this song, the man from Malaga wanted to include as a wink the percussive base of 'The drummer', which has become so common and essential in his Christmas engagements and which of course has not been lacking today either to the joy of those present and as a preview of the great final fireworks.

Concerned to provide a brooch of height, the last section has begun with his colossal 'En carne viva', with that apotheosis ending that has put the public on its feet once again, which has been followed by 'Ámame' and its reinterpretation of 'Resistiré ', subject that for years and years his wife demanded so much that he cover.

Thus, with the fifth gear engaged in the engine and the belt at full revolutions, the essentials have arrived:

'What does anyone know', 'I am that one', 'Scandal' and 'As I love you'

as a great culmination, all hypervitamins with the production that

Lucas Vidal

reimagined just a year ago

.

"What a beautiful night! Thank you very much. And

that next year we will see each other again with everything arranged

, take good care of yourselves!", The artist has asked, that tomorrow he will return to a new and last appointment in this space, because one Christmas without Raphael or music at the Wizink Center it is less Christmas.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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