Serrat turns 80: 18 unknown curiosities about the most Argentine Catalan

Singer-songwriter, composer, writer, poet, singer and guitarist, Joan Manuel Serrat It is all this and much more. This Wednesday, December 27, he turns 80 and Its validity is increasing more and more.

Serrat is a fundamental figure of Spanish and Latin American culture, because His influence goes far beyond the limits of his beloved Catalonia.since the last years of the 60s, when he began to tour the world and in every country he left an indelible trail of songs, charisma and affection.

Over the course of his career he earned numerous doctorates. honor cause for his contribution to Spanish music and literature, as well as the Latin Grammy for Person of the Year in 2014.

just a year ago he finally said goodbye to the stagewith a last show at the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona, ​​a stone’s throw from the street where he was born and where his father gave him his first guitar.

The tour he entitled “The vice of singing 1965-2022” began in New York eight months ago and crossed Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Colombia, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Ecuador, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Uruguay, first it ends in Barcelona, ​​​​on the shores of the Mediterranean, with its people.

Serrat, who in all these years has learned to feel at home everywhere, with this concert was able to savor the pleasure of being a prophet in his land.

On a date like your birthday, it’s best to listen to your songs again. And since a lot is known about him, there are also a series of them facts and curiosities that not everyone knows:

Which album has sold the least?

In April 2006, Serrat was launched Mo, interpreted only in Catalan. Although he debuted at number 1 in sales in Spain, in the long run it proved to be the least successful of his career, probably due to the language limitation.

Did you have any other profession?

Serrat obtained the Higher Baccalaureate for Labor, specializing in “Industrial Mining”, graduating in the milling turner category. He then studied as an industrial expert and in 1965 he graduated in agronomic field as an agricultural expert. At that point he was already playing the guitar as an amateur.

Do you envy other people’s songs?

In a note that appeared in Clarín in 2019, Serrat confessed to envying Joaquín Sabina’s songs: “I am extremely envious of many of his songs. I would have liked to have had the talent to write them.”

You have brothers?

Joan Manuel is the second child in the family, after his brother Carlos.

How many times has he been married?

Candela Tiffón is the only wife Serrat has had. They married in 1979.

They had two daughters: María Serrat Tiffón and Candela, 35 years old. Queco was born in 1969, the result of the artist’s relationship with the model Mercedes Doménec.

How many childrens do you have?

He has three children: Manuel, Candela and María. Manuel is better known as “Queco”; He is the oldest and dedicates himself to audiovisual production. His daughter Luna is an influencer.

Candela is an actress and has worked in television series and plays. She married the actor Daniel Muriel and they have a daughter, Mérida.

María studied Pharmacy and Journalism, worked as a sports journalist and in 2011 met Australian coach Stuart Smith, who she married six years later and had two sons, Oliver and Nicholas, and they now live in Australia.

Has any hidden love story come to light?

He has always been very discreet about his romantic conquests, but has been linked to Mónica Randall, Marisol, “Pepa” Flores, Susan Holmquist and Charo Vega (granddaughter of Pastora Imperio and daughter of the bullfighter Gitanillo de Triana).

When was the first time you sang in Argentina?

He came for the first time in 1969, when he was 25 years old. You have had television appearances in high-profile programs: such as Kindness Saturdays AND The circular Saturdays of Mancera.

He also made numerous forays into the interior of the country and enjoyed great success in massive carnival shows.

And the last one?

Tuesday 29 November was his last performance in Argentina, in the closed stadium of the Movistar Arena, in front of 15 thousand people.

Was it banned in Argentina?

The Argentine military dictatorship banned the songs of Joan Manuel Serrat and other artists from 1976 to 1983. It did so through the Federal Radio Broadcasting Committee (Comfer), dependent on the Argentine Presidency.

What tangos did you sing?

His father really liked tango and Joan Manuel Serrat sang several of it throughout his career, especially during his visits to Argentina.

For example South in the legendary tanguería Caño 14 with Aníbal Troilo, In Buenos Aires on the TV show Circular Saturdaysthe classic Exchange during the 1983 tour (it was captured on his album Live), The last little organ on the CD Songs, Suburban melody live at the Teatro Albéniz in Madrid with the Osvaldo Pugliese Orchestra, e Manifest a cappella in Troesma program.

Also in the program Dear Cabaret from TVE he did it Malena, Margot, Taconeando and None.

Why did you have to exile yourself from Spain?

In 1975, Serrat’s statements in Mexico, where he condemned the Franco regime and its repressive measures, led him to remain in this country for a year, due to a search and arrest warrant issued against him. Furthermore, their works were censored.

Tranquility came to his life with democratic Spain, where he returned to the public scene.

What was your biggest public fight?

Spanish musician Bertín Osborne said that at the age of 18 he “got into a fist fight” with Serrat. The reason: a girl. The fight happened in a nightclub when he went with a girl who passed in front of Serrat’s table, and who offered to sit with him. She told Osborn, who responded by hitting her.

Years later he approached Serrat and apologized: “I told him: ‘Joan Manuel, sorry, I was a crazy animal, now I’m a normal boy, I would never have done something like that in my life.’ “Not only do I respect him a lot, but I’m also a fan of him.”

When did you go on tour with Sabina?

In 2007 he made his first tour with Joaquín Sabina entitled “Two birds with one stone”, which took them to 30 Spanish cities and 20 American cities. It started in Zaragoza on June 29, 2007 and ended on December 18 in Buenos Aires, after 71 concerts.

From the concerts held in Madrid, a live album and a DVD with other material were recorded, which was released in December 2007, as a souvenir of the tour.

In 2012 they repeated the formula with the “Two Birds Counterattack” tour.

His only nickname is “Nano”?

As a child at home he was always called “Juanito” and friends on the street nicknamed him “El Cani”, while in his mother’s town (Viana, where he spent the summers) they knew him as “El Tordo”, for his love of olives.

Many times he was called “El noi del Poble-sec” (“the boy from Pueblo Seco”, his home neighborhood).

His “discoverer”, radio host Salvador Escamilla, was the one who began calling him Nano, which in Catalan means “boy”, and this nickname became especially popular in Latin America.

Which poets have influenced your work?

Mario Benedetti, Antonio Machado, Miguel Hernández, Rafael Alberti, Federico García Lorca, Pablo Neruda, Joan Salvat-Papasseit and León Felipe.

In 2002 he released the album Pour into mouthin which, in addition to his songs, after four years, he gave voice with his music to the poets Tito Muñoz, Eduardo Galeano and Luis García Montero.

Where did you compose “Mediterráneo”?

In May 1971, a young and already famous Joan Manuel Serrat locked himself in an apartment on the Costa Brava (more precisely in Calella de Palafrugell) to write and compose much of Mediterranean.

The song belongs to this album Those little thingswhich contains one of his most personal and evocative lyrics.

Have you had any serious illnesses?

Already in 2004 there were rumors that he was suffering from some illness. However, when asked by the press, Serrat, with great humor, underlined: “If the doctor asks me to give up wine, I will change doctor”. And the fact is that he was already undergoing, in silence, a course of chemotherapy, to try to reduce bladder cancer. In 2005, news of the disease became public.