"This Oques Grasses thing is an animalada"

BarcelonaThe milestone is unprecedented: no Catalan artist or group has performed four concerts at the Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium in the same week. In fact, only the British band Coldplay has achieved this, on May 24, 25, 27, and 28, 2023. Surely exceeding the most optimistic expectations, in November 2025 Oques Grasses sold out all tickets forthe four performances they will give at the stadium on October 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th. The fact that these are the group's last concerts before calling it a day contributed to it, but, in any case, it is quite a milestone. "It is wonderful news, which reflects a growth in the audience for music in Catalan, which is above all due to the talent of the artists and the professionalization of a sector capable of supporting this talent," explains Jordi Herreruela, director of the Cruïlla Festival. Precisely at the 2024 Cruïlla, Oques Grasses received headliner treatment and closed the main stage on Saturday night. It was in the early stages of the presentation tour of Fruit of delirium (Halley Records, 2024), the latest in the Osona group's discography.

"Oques Grasses are breaking glass ceilings, just like Mago Pop does", points out Joan Dausà, one of the Catalan musicians who, like Oques Grasses in 2023, has filled the Palau Sant Jordi singing in Catalan. Encouraged by the success, Dausà took on the challenge of doing the same in Madrid, at the Palacio de Vistalegre, and he succeeded. However, filling four Olympic stadiums is playing in another league. "It's crazy!", exclaims Dausà, who celebrates that the group led by Josep Montero has made "the self-esteem of music in Catalan grow" and has made "many companies and promoters believe that there is a lot of room for growth here".

Santi Balmes, who these weeks is culminating more than two decades of history with the band Love of Lesbian, is very happy about the milestone of the Osona natives, "especially for the hope they give to bands and soloists who are starting out". "Making music in Catalan often has a challenging aspect, and it is complicated to make a living from it", admits Balmes, who has spent most of his career in Spanish and is now preparing a personal project in Catalan. "That things like these four concerts happen makes many able to dream. Although, ironically, these things always happen when you haven't set them as a challenge, but rather they happen as a consequence of a journey", adds the singer of Love of Lesbian.

"It has always been necessary for someone to open a previously closed door so that many others dare to travel a path, and Oques Grasses have opened a door that is very hard to open", says Jordi Herreruela.

The merit lies in the songs

Just five months ago, Quimi Portet played two days at the same Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium that Oques Grasses will fill. It was in the emotional comeback concerts of El Último de la Fila, each with 55,000 people aligned with the power of a repertoire featuring songs like Querida Milagros, Insurrección, Aviones plateados, No me acostumbro, Llanto de pasión... "Oques Grasses have connected with the audience in a spectacular way. And I believe that this is the merit of the songs, of the material they produce –asserts Quimi Portet–. Obviously, a factor of sympathy towards the image they project as a band or the magnetism of the frontman can influence it, but, I insist, in my opinion it is the songs that make a group fill these stadiums".

In the case of Oques Grasses, their songs have traversed various stylistic coordinates. In their first album, Un dia no sé com (2012), the song with the most accumulated plays on Spotify (more than 5 million) is Cul, which walks over a Jamaican rhythm and already shows the singular vocal timbre of Josep Montero, a singer who knew how to read the melodic power of Txarango. In Coet, one of the most successful tracks of the second album, Digueu-n'hi com vulguis (2014), the winds were still blowing with Jamaican airs, but in the sax and the rhythm David Bowie resonated, and one of the group's most peculiar attributes appeared: the ability to turn all the stanzas into choruses, which facilitates the connection with the listener. The third album, You poni (2016), is the album of Cara de cul: 9 million plays. The title hides a love song as inflamed as the epic ballads of Coldplay, but with all sorts of details that demonstrate the desire to stir up influences.

The stylistic mix exploded on the fourth album, Fans del sol (2019), the album with In the night (28 million streams). Oques Grasses' definitive breakthrough arrived with dub, disco, calypso, reggaeton, Cuban son, funk basslines treated in the style of Daft Punk, touches of Bruno Mars (and therefore, Michael Jackson), and melodic novelties that broke the inertia of the mestizo scene. Under the impact of C Tangana's reclamation of popular music and maintaining the early influence of Dusminguet, A tope amb la vida (2021) arrived, a step up in scale. Proving Quimi Portet right, Oques Grasses' popularity soared with two distinct songs. Elefants (29 million streams), funk basslines mutating towards the territory of Coldplay and Mumford & Sons; and La gent que estimo (49 million streams), choruses of love, longing, and uncertainty wrapped in synthetic and real strings, vocoders, choirs... "We experimented a lot with the atmospheres, taking advantage of the fact that it is a quiet song. We had a great time and I think it's a path we will continue to explore because we are getting older and chilled music suits us well, too," Montero said a few years ago regarding La gent que estimo.

La gent que estimo is a cousin of Sort de tu (34 million streams), one of the highlights of Fruit del deliri (2024): a ballad splashed with synthetic touches, even in Montero's voice, and a special sensitivity for unfolding the lyrics "Make me touch the sun / until I burn / Make me believe in everything / I'm lucky to have you". They say every generation has its Boig per tu, and the one for the people who will fill the Olympic Stadium will surely be Sort de tu, a song that is on the same album as the melodic hip-hop of Com està el pati, the epic ballad with Julieta Com el dia i la nit, the reggaeton Gossejar with Al·lèrgiques al Pol·len... If it weren't for Montero's voice, it would be hard to believe that the Oques Grasses of Fruit del deliri was the same group that twelve years earlier had released Un dia no sé com. And in this aesthetic transition, instead of losing followers, they have multiplied them.

Are the songs enough?

"Unfortunately, even though the songs are the backbone, it's not enough in certain spaces," says Santi Balmes, who a week ago performed in front of thousands of people at Bogatell beach in Barcelona. "The most difficult thing is that everyone feels included in your proposal, both the one in the first row and the one in the last tier. And for the people, a concert must mean something more than a simple pyrotechnic show. In my ideal world, there must be the songs and a narrative, not just a couple of hits, a giant screen and dancing holograms," adds Balmes. "There is a type of popular music where there is a lot of choreography, many effects and few musicians on stage, and it also connects with many people –says Quimi Portet–. But in this sector of more artisanal popular music where we are making rock and Oques Grasses are doing their own style, what connects the most are the songs," insists Portet.

For Joan Dausà, songs should also be enough, because "it is the thread that connects you with the people who follow you," but "as a spectator" he asks for "something more." "First, I ask to have the feeling that it is important to the artist that I have gone as part of the audience. Therefore, there is no need to set off big fireworks, but there must be a shared enthusiasm," says Dausà, a musician who is characterized by being very attentive to the audience during concerts.

"To perform in a place like the Olympic Stadium, first of all you have to believe it. You have to reflect on the following: people had many possible plans for the night and they chose you. You have to believe in it, it's a matter of survival," suggests Santi Balmes. "You need to have attitude, energy, enthusiasm and experience. Experience not so that the concert is more successful or not, but to have the capacity to enjoy it. That is the key to such a concert. It would be sad to perform a concert at the Olympic Stadium and not enjoy it and say: 'Oh, I felt like something was left undone' –explains Dausà–. It happened to me a little bit at the Palau Sant Jordi, which was the first big concert we did. And suddenly it's like it technically overcomes you or you have to be aware of many things and you don't end up enjoying it. At Vistalegre, on the other hand, I was able to enjoy it a lot. It is key to have the capacity to be able to enjoy it.

"A concert in a stadium requires good songs and the ability to convey a message that generates emotions and empathy among a majority audience –states Jordi Herreruela, quite accustomed to seeing massive concerts at Cruïlla–. Oques Grasses is a group full of talent, diverse and plural, and their way of doing things allows their music to reach so many people. It is also not possible to do it without charisma, personality and singularity, and here Josep Montero's personality has a lot to do with it, but also that Oques Grasses is not comparable to any other artist: it is clearly unique and reflects its own identity, which at the same time reflects the Catalan identity". For Herreruela, "when you expose yourself to big stages, you need a great international artist production, so that the show you offer is comparable to the concerts that can usually be enjoyed on these stages". "And Oques Grasses has been offering concerts with a very ambitious live production", concludes the director of Cruïlla.

Managing space in a stadium

Songs, charisma, and a production that is up to the task are fundamental to pulling off a macro-concert. But there are also more prosaic issues that have a lot to say about it. "The problem is one of magnitude, especially technical," says Quimi Portet. "Compared to a concert in smaller spaces, what changes a lot are the speakers, the amplification, the lighting... Regarding the pure craft of being a musician, it is very similar to a medium-sized or even small concert: you are with your musicians and you play material that is rehearsed. It is true that for the frontman, in our case Manolo [García], the act of connecting directly with so many people requires a much more exaggerated dynamic. But it is not as, as, as spectacular as people think –admits Portet–. What happens is that the audience becomes something much more abstract than in a medium or small venue. It is very difficult to grasp the smiles or the authentic feelings of the people".

For Santi Balmes, the magnitude of a large festival or a stadium sometimes entails an uncomfortable nuisance. "Personally, what makes communication with the audience extremely difficult for me are the areas set aside for guests, who may be fans or be there just for the sake of appearances. When you see that the actual front rows are 20 meters from the stage, the singing doesn't arrive with the same intensity," he laments. The sheer magnitude of the stage also has an impact, which often creates more distance between the musicians. "Well, the distance between the musicians can always be shortened or we can encourage everyone to move more in order to fill those gaps. Using a football simile, everyone occupies their place: I often joke and say that the guitarists are the wingers, the bassist and the keyboardist are midfielders, the drummer is the goalkeeper, and the singer is the center forward. All playing for the good of the team," explains Balmes. At the Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium, the team will be provided by Oques Grasses for four nights in October.