What am I doing here, travel diary: day 15: Ciro y Los Persas and a beautiful silver recital with an unedited prayer break

We have come to see/cover/tell about a World Cup. This is obviously a particular tournament, with four games a day spread over a radius of approximately 60 kilometres. However, matters of fate and a strategy that went badly and that is not worth counting -because failures are countless- unfortunately, there were no games this Sunday. But there was a recital. And this in the pharaonic amphitheater of Katara our music resounded. Yes, in front of the approximately five thousand people – mostly Argentines – who filled those white marble stands, Ciro and the Persians put on an unforgettable show.

It was two hours of the best repertoire of the former leader of Los Piojos, who also had the pleasure of singing a couple of songs here in the Middle East with his thirteen-year-old son Alejandro, who has already dabbled in trap. Among the spectators were some ’86 champions, who are on a sort of ultra-deserved graduation trip to Qatar. All the prizes went to Negro Enrique, the genius who gave Maradona the pass for the goal of the century against the Englishman, who broke the world record for selfies in an outdoor recital.

And speaking of Guinness moments, there was a singular situation: the concert was interrupted for about 15 or 20 minutes because silence had to be observed in order to respect one of the five calls to prayer of the day.

Ciro, who will sing again this Tuesday at the FIFA Fan Fest, explained the situation and the people obediently agreed to his request. Grateful, he returned with all his drum kits to the stage, also of imposing white marble, and displayed all his frontman skills so that people would leave with their ears filled with his music.

There were eleven songs, including Verano del 92, So solo, Héroes and Marado, until prayer time, and eleven other songs, including encores. The recital concluded with the Astros and the crowd literally blew up the Katara amphitheater.

It seems incredible that in a small place like Doha, which has an area of ​​132 square kilometers – the city of Buenos Aires has 203 – there are so many places to discover. We had passed by there the other day, but we hadn’t noticed the existence of that magnificent scene in which Andrés Ciro Martínez interrupted it.

Obviously there was a football atmosphere because next to the battery was a life-size picture of Maradona, model 1986. Because both the singer and his son wore the national team shirt: the father with the 27 and the little boy with Messi’s 10. And because before each silence, except in the moment of prayer, the songs on the pitch made us feel strong, all with our minds and hearts focused on Poland, the other litmus test that arrives at La Scaloneta.