The singer Maria Jaume (Lloret de Vistalegre, 1999) is one of the emerging voices in Catalan music, with a proposal that combines joy and rootedness: songs that draw from popular culture without losing sight of social concerns or giving up the freshness of pop. In her latest album, Sant Domingo forever, released in February, she pays a joyful and honest tribute to her town's main festival.Sant Domingo Forever is an album animated for such internationally turbulent months…
— It's a bit the idea of the album: a bit of a parenthesis within all the chaos.
What does the main festival represent to you?
— For me, it's a bit like this: being able to stop, being able to be with my people, being able to reconnect... It has that thing about when you live abroad and you reconnect with your people, with your friends, and you try to escape the daily chaos, from all the dramas that happen in the world. In that week in August, you only think about the party, about having a good time and about this collective joy of being with your loved ones and letting the party take precedence over everything else.
Do you see it as a very different experience from when you go out in Barcelona?
— It's completely different. It's true that in Barcelona you can also find your own environments and your surroundings, have a safer network, but it's always more hostile. It depends on how you look at it, but, in general, a city is more hostile than a town. To go out partying, you always have to keep looking: now they close a bar, now they open another, now you don't like this atmosphere and you change... In a town it's always the same, but you always know what you're going to find.
The labyrinthine Barcelona…
— Yes, yes. The major festivals, for me, are a place of security, of network, where you all know each other and you can always feel welcome, in any way.
It is also an album about nostalgia, about return.
— And about living it from afar. In this [major festival] week not everything is a party. There are also moments when you think about your childhood, about moments from the past that will not return, about the fact that things can no longer be exactly as they were before, about the people you have lost... At festivals there is always also this touch of nostalgia. And also the question: how long will this last?
Do you identify with the idea of being part of a nostalgic generation?
— Yes, it's true that we're returning to the nineties, to the 2000s, like our comfort zone. I think the world is also returning a lot to these things now: both fashion, and all the aesthetics of the 2000s, which have returned a great deal. Nostalgia is part of our DNA in general; all generations look back a bit at their time, and it could be that they do so in a slightly more dangerous way. We, I think, do it to remember good times, family times and childhood.
What does he/she like to drink for the main festival?
— Everything that is sold [laughs]. It depends on each moment.
Let's go in order.
— We start with vermouth; for lunch you have wine; and then in the afternoon it gets wrapped up with stronger things.
For example?
— It's typical a digestive gin and tonic, right? [laughs]
And typical drink of the town?
— In Mallorca, many sweet herbs are indeed drunk, but many of them I do not like.
It seems like a sin, that you don't like them?
— There are people on my team, that it's true that when you say it they look at you a bit badly. You can't have everything.
We cannot fight all battles. Do you like any particular wine?
— At parties I usually drink a more basic wine. But outside of these environments, I like to be able to savor wines in a different way. Above all, I like them with body. With a little oak [he emphasizes the word and laughs]. I'm bragging, but it's totally true. I really like it a lot, but technically I don't know much about it.
And do you prefer to choose them or have them done for you?
— I quite like choosing them. When I'm at a dinner party, in a group, they usually hand me the wine list. I don't know much about it, but I do have certain guidelines. Especially because I ask the sommelier a lot. All the things I like a little bit, I let myself be advised and they are usually right.
What are the guidelines?
— Basic brands, Ribera del Duero type, which I know I will almost always like; garnachas and things like that...
Is it a family custom?
— It's something a bit familiar. In my family, there has always been quite a bit of drinking. My mother, for example, likes it a lot and you notice, and they explain to you, and “if you like this taste, you have to look at these things…”.
Any recommendations for Mallorca?
— There is a wine I quite like, called Ànima Negra. It has body, it cannot be drunk without accompanying food.
It has a curious label. Do you usually notice it?
— I really like it. Sometimes it's linked to what you like and sometimes it isn't. But a good label or a good design always enters through the eyes first, like with food.
And how about the records. Are you from the record cover when you were little?
— Me with my mother.
He participated in the Terri Festival in 2024. What is the meaning of these initiatives that combine music and gastronomy, for you?
— In the end, they are things that can be very related, because, deep down, you don't stop creating art. I really enjoy eating and I think there's a brutal creative part to it, like when you make music. It's normal for there to be festivals that bring together all these aspects and, for me, it's interesting to be able to go to concerts that are more related to wines. Being able to bring disciplines together.
There are some very nice verses in the song Super mala pinta, which talks about the ash falling into the wine bottle. The idea that a wine can be an ashtray...
— This image is like the most realistic of being hungover, of being already in the early hours of the morning and the bottles already being empty, but you're still there. A bottle always gives rise to conversation.
Any anecdote you particularly remember related to wine?
— I have the memory of the first time I tasted it. I was quite young – I don't know how old I was – but it's the typical thing my mother said: “Dip your snout in.” When I took a little sip, I loved it. And my whole family was amazed. “But how is it possible that she liked wine the first time?” And I wanted more! I was already showing promise.
So he didn't make the typical face of horror from the first tastings?
— No, no, no. I think they got scared because I liked it so much.