He did not want tears, that "this is a party!".

And Joan Manuel Serrat appeared wearing a jacket with roses, opening his arms to the 15,100 people who filled the Palau Sant Jordi for the third night.

But this, yes, was the last.

"My feelings are, what do you want me to tell you, somewhat contradictory, on this night in which I solemnly proclaim my farewell of my own free will."

He paused and with that mischievous smile of his, he also proclaimed: "It will be the last concert but I want to have a fucking time".

Serrat had been saying goodbye to the stage for eight months with 'El vicio de cantar', a long tour of 74 concerts throughout America and practically the entire Spanish geography with 74 concerts.

But he left Barcelona for last, to close the cycle in the same place where it began, back in 1965: almost like a Christmas Eve gift to the city from him and for him, before blowing out the candles for his 79th birthday next Tuesday.

"It really seemed so far away to this day, when in April I started this show," he confessed.

"But as Tarradellas said, 'ja sóc here'", with all the symbolic charge that the phrase has in Catalonia.

Of course, President Pedro Sánchez was not so well received when he appeared in the box with Miquel Iceta: whistles and boos for politicians, as happened to Pere Aragonès the night before.

He tore between black and white photographs of his childhood with 'Temps era temps', with those distant memories of a time of black market and trams, of that "orphan country" in that "One, Great and Free", by Mrs. Francis , Quintero and Kubala... Those same times in which a twenty-something Joan Manuel stole (or rescued) a red velvet stool from Bocaccio in the wee hours of the morning, the haunt of Barcelona's Gauche Divine.

He had it there next to him like an anchor-talisman, the one that always accompanies him on his tours.

Ai, Serrat's stool..., which he had restored at the end of each tour and of which he gave a copy to Joaquín Sabina.

What will become of Bocaccio's red stool now...?

"Ladies and gentlemen, put aside any temptation of nostalgia or melancholy that may threaten you",

asked the public.

Difficult when one has put the soundtrack to an entire country and several generations: each verse of ''I don't do anything else but think about you', 'Today could be a great day' or 'Paraules d'amor' is pure homesickness.

The Minister of Culture and Sports, Miquel Iceta, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, accompanied by his wife Begoña and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares.Alejandro GarciaEFE

At home, Serrat drew especially from his songs in Catalan ('Cançó de bressol', 'Pare', 'La Tieta...) but he maintained a balance with the songs in Spanish, which is normal in Barcelona, ​​the mixture of languages and customs;

normal in Serrat, although that balance has generated more than one controversy.

He went through almost twenty albums, reciting the words of Miguel Hernández ('Nanas de la cebolla', 'Para la libertad') and the 'Cantares' by Antonio Machado.

And he made a long statement on climate change, he called for "awareness", to "change the model of society if we do not want to leave a planet that is not getting sicker every day".

'Mediterranean' was made to wait.

And the public went crazy, with a whole Sant Jordi standing (most of the public born in the 50s and 60s).

And he chained it as a diptych with the Catalan 'Plany al mar'.

Serrat left the festival for last: his 'Fiesta'.

No one wanted the night to end, to go behind the velvet curtain.

What's after "It's over / The sun tells us the end has come"?

"I will play and compose at home, it is possible that I will record an album. But I will not return to the stage. You have to do it at some point," he warned at the beginning of the tour.

So did his beloved Chavela Vargas, with whom he shared so many stages and so many nights on tour in Spain.

She was also retired for 15 years.

But she couldn't help but come back.

At the age of 93, Chavela gave her last concert in Madrid.

So maybe, a maybe of consolation or false hope, Serrat can't help but do it again... Like Chavela.

Because the vice of singing has no cure.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • Joan Manuel Serrat

  • Barcelona

  • Joaquin Sabina

  • Pere Aragones

  • America