C. Tangana Pushes The Boundaries Of The Modern Football Anthem – And The Matriarchy Is The Star Player
With cunning genius, Spanish singer, rapper and songwriter weaves culture, words and symbols of Galician tradition into a slick contemporary urban anthem released to celebrate FC Celta de Vigo’s centennial.
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It was only two years ago that C. Tangana, real name Antón Álvarez, proudly called himself El Madrileño – the title of his sophomore album that infused traditional flamenco vocal with urban beat, seasoned with dashes of South American folk, salsa and bachata. It scooped up four Latin Grammys, spawned the world’s most watched NPR Tiny Desk session, and was certified platinum in Álvarez’s Spain homeland.
Now he’s back – but his focus is aligned to a Spanish city distinct to his previous capital city demonym: Vigo, in Spain’s northwest Galicia region – with the song ‘Oliveira Dos Cien Años’; Galician for One Hundred Year Olive Tree. The track celebrates FC Celta de Vigo’s centennial, a football team loved by Álvarez’s Galician father, who raised him with a lifelong passion for the club.
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The project started when Tangana jokingly tweeted to a local radio station that was scouting for musicians to pen a song to mark FC Celta de Vigo’s centennial, which will be celebrated this August. The club took his suggestion seriously. The result is a revelation of what a football anthem can be: at once spirited, traditional and intrinsically connected to a sense of place and community, but also modern, polished with modern sleekness.
Tangana describes his approach as vanguard, traditional but not conservative, contemporary and yet folkloric. The song is defined by a regional 6/8 rhythm drummed in a distinctively Galician style: on cajas de pimientón – tinned spice boxes – and stones clanked against garden spades. Tangana says these instruments, fashioned from domestic items, is something inherent to Galicia – a matriarchal culture whose folk music is inherently feminine. “Women who work, maintain the family, who sing loudly, who use percussion,” he explains. “It has a particular force that I’ve never heard anywhere else in the world.”
The lyrics are Galician; loyally pledging allegiance: “Sempre hei de estar aquí, Sempre Celta!” – I’ll always be here / Always Celta!”
He describes Celta as a team that “suffers”; ranking 13th in the 2022-23 La Liga, far from touching the top yet safe from regulation. Despite being an underdog team, the anthem has managed to win fans from supporters across La Liga – YouTube comments have hailed it as a “work of art”; even from Deportivo La Coruña supporters, Celta’s regional rivals.
“The song is not just about being an FC Celta fan, or being from Vigo, or Galician, but communicating the feeling of belonging, which is human and romantic,” says Tangana. “It’s an emotion that everyone in the world feels, and all the people who like football feel it. So they feel represented.”
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Tangana’s efforts to embody community is executed daringly: he doesn’t sing – favouring the chorus of football fans, local bands and choirs to his own voice. He freely admits his vocals aren’t his strongest ability – in El Madrileño track ‘El Veneno’, he addresses those who critique his softly-spoken style: ‘’¿cuál e’ la maña?’ Sin cantar ni afinar Pa’ que me escuche to’a España” – “How do you do it? Without singing or playing anything in tune, to be listened to in all of Spain?”
“I’m not a great [vocal] interpreter, but I do think I am a great creator. This is an opportunity to show I can create, compose, produce, and have ideas, but use other interpreters who are better fitted to the song,” he says, explaining the force of allowing Vigo’s community to take ownership of the song. “My own vision is to do things with impact and artistic resonance; belonging to the people, transcending borders and being part of popular culture. That’s my obsession.”
Despite its firm appeal as a song of the people, C. Tangana also cherishes the value it holds for his own identity.
“It’s been my most personal project yet. It’s a love letter to my family.”
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Words: Charis McGowan
