“I made El Madrileño thinking it would be a hit with the critics, but not so much with the fans,” C. Tangana told Clash Magazine one year ago, on the eve of releasing his third album. 'El Madrileño' was a marked change for the Spanish rapper, who evolved his gritty trap into a genre-busting, operatic sound marked by classical Spanish and Latin American influences. His emotive lyrics take listeners to the bitter depths of love and deceit using the dramatic flair of the album’s core sound, flamenco, without betraying his cool command of contemporary urban.
If there’s one thing that C. Tangana, known as Pucho to his fans and friends, got wrong last year, it was about the album’s reception. Scooping up three Latin Grammys, it was a hit with critics, but it was even more so a hit with the fans: it was Spain’s most sold album of 2021 and smashed streaming charts in Latin America. As COVID-19 restrictions finally lift, Pucho’s been able to take the album on tour with his Sin Cantar Ni Afinar show, magnificently managing to translate El Madrileño’s theatricality onto the stage.
Looking at the set alone, you know he’s doing a different type of show. The stage is expansive, but he’s grouped all his musicians around a small table in the centre under a spotlight, crowded together, shoulder-to-shoulder, with instruments wedged in between them. It’s an evolution of his viral Tiny Desk home performance—the most-streamed concert of the series in 2021, where he’s recreating a night in Madrid. Here, the music flows with the booze and everyone is merrily drowning their sorrows through song.
It’s a beautiful display of musical kinship; his band are given much-deserved protagonism – they clap to emphasize each other’s contributions, enthusiastically slap tables, take shots of tequila, and have an incredible time while doing so. Their energy extends to the audience; we’re part of an intimate night with our musician friends, and the thousands of people around us are somehow made invisible.
Pucho is a masterful conductor between all of this – it’s not all a sit-down affair. He stands on the table to frenzy the crowd for his charged single 'Demasiado Mujeres', and takes centre stage for his pre-El Madrileño trap bangers 'Llorando en la Limo', proving he can pull off a party, too.
The tour is victoriously sweeping through Spain and South America, where enraptured audiences are singing along word-for-word, each taking their seat at his table. It’s coming to London in September, so anglophones have a few months to brush up on their Spanish and join in. Failing that, we can always do the handclaps.
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Catch C. Tangana at London venue O2 Shepherds Bush Empire on September 3rd.
Words: Charis McGowan
Photo Credit: Gary Go, Agencia Collage
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