Before becoming one of the founders of the iconic group Skatalà in 1985, Josep Manel Pugés—who has died at age 66 as a result of a "serious illness," as announced by the band—played drums and guitar in several pioneering bands of the Barcelona punk scene. Since the late 70s, Pugés was linked to Clinic Humanoyds, Attak, Ruidos Molestos, or Shit S.A.

We were not facing the same The Weeknd that occupied the same Olympic Stadium Lluís Companys 2023. Although the tour and the space were the same, and the musical proposal had only incorporated a recent album —Affrettati domani (2025), which completes the trilogy with which it seemed to want to close an entire era, and even say goodbye to thealter ego of Abel Tesfaye—, it was hard to recognize the man who a few years ago enchanted with such forcefulness.

"Without music, life would be a mistake," the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche proclaimed almost two centuries ago, and politics seems to have taken this maxim as a pattern to follow. Those in the MAGA movement know this, as they dance to the rhythm of "YMCA" by the New York group Village People, imitating the peculiar steps of their great leader, Donald Trump, who once again claimed it last week.

"The best birthday present. The beeeest!!!", spontaneously exclaimed a girl just as she left the Antics Rentadors in Juneda in early July. It came from the heart. She was thrilled! We were too. I suspect all the attendees at the Rentadors Festival felt, more or less, the same; even if it wasn't our birthday. What a gift we had just received!

Dolly Parton, who died this Tuesday at the age of 80 as a result of cancer, has been one of the most important figures in country music for the last five decades in the United States. A genre whose stylistic coordinates she knew how to adapt to her artistic and political concerns, and always from the perspective of women. The singer's relevance and popularity have prompted numerous expressions of condolence on social networks in recent hours, from Mick Jagger to Paul McCartney, Beyoncé, Miley Cyrus, Sabrina Carpenter, and Katy Perry.

If there's one thing we have plenty of in Catalonia, it's rumba legends. Peret, El Pescaílla, Los Amaya, Rumba Tres... the list is extensive and of the highest quality. Time and persistence have proven right those who claim Catalan rumba as our musical and popular genre par excellence. Although today its most classic version may not be experiencing a period of particular momentum, there are a good handful of bands that have modernized it and brought it into their own territory, as is the case with Habla de Mí en Presente or Maruja Limón. It is clear that its footprint in our local iconography not only has a past, but also a present and a future. The singers, the palmeros, Spanish guitars, the fan (the name given to the characteristic guitar technique of rumba), concerts, gypsies, and the revelry: all of this is rumba. But, what about dancing? Well yes, rumba is also danced, and a lot. “You could say it's the most carefree, most festive flamenco style. It's what is danced at major festivals, weddings, and communions,” explains Ariadna Rojano, a professor of this discipline at the Bailongu school, in the Sagrada Família neighborhood of Barcelona.

A new front is opening up for the Catalan education sector. Municipal music schools, with more than 50,000 students throughout Catalonia (15,000 more than 15 years ago) and under the management of city councils (in a system similar to nursery schools), are making yet another cry for help. With a new demand addressed to all parliamentary groups, the Catalan Association of Music Schools (ACEM) is calling on the Generalitat to substantially increase its budgetary allocation "for proper funding".

Summer is the season for concerts and festivals, and your mobile phone has become the tool that accompanies the entire process: before, during, and after each performance. It's not just about taking photos or recording vertical videos for social media of questionable quality. There's an ecosystem of applications specifically designed for music lovers that allow you to prepare for a concert, identify an unknown song, or keep a record of what you've seen and heard. Most are available as web applications and facilitate blocking the tracking codes included in apps for Android and iOS.

A song by Charles Aznavour plays, in a karaoke version, and a dozen passers-by stop at a corner of Gaudí Avenue, in Barcelona, to observe a scene of strange magnetism. Joan Quintanilla, 82 years old, lanky and with a soft voice, performs the song with a perfect balance between emotion and serenity, with measured gestures and reciting each verse in impeccable French and with the classic elegance of singers from other eras. A few steps away, absorbed and with a lost gaze, Conxi Ventura, 75 years old, dances alone to the rhythm of the music. When the song ends – her favorite, she says, from a repertoire she knows by heart – Conxi is the first to applaud. “I am her number one fan,” she proclaims.

The arrival of August is synonymous with major festivals, popular culture, and music throughout Catalonia. From Ascó to Roses, passing through Granollers, Alcarràs, or La Seu d’Urgell, the town councils are rolling out their musical posters these days before events like La Mercè or Santa Tecla will put the finishing touches in September to a summer full of festivals, cycles, and concerts that, in many cases, will extend into the autumn.

In 2005, four friends who shared an apartment in Barcelona decided to found an association named Freedonia to promote activities related to theater, music, art, and culture in general. Some time later, in 2009, they opened their own venue on Lleialtat street in El Raval, very close to the editorial office of l’ARA, which has become one of the music venues underground more active and resistant in the city, along with others such as the Meteoro hall, Diobar, or Heliogàbal in Gràcia. One of the founders was Coque Sánchez: “At that time, some venues we liked had to close and we wanted to create a space to share culture beyond the commercial logic of bars or nightclubs”. Currently, Coque manages this non-profit entity “with almost 10,000 active members” that schedules live music every weekend with a capacity for a hundred people. An increasingly exceptional project in the city, as obtaining a live music license is quite complicated: “Venues are closing and new ones are not opening. 30 years ago, there were about 400 live music licenses in the metropolitan area, and now we have 160. Barcelona wants to boast of being a culturally active city, but with the conveniences of a dormitory city; we must mediate to defend the rest of the neighbors, but also to promote nightlife culture, which is also a service to citizens and serves, among other things, to prevent young people from all ending up with depression”.

Saturday evening. The tenth anniversary of Mobofest is drawing to a close. Around 11:30 p.m., practically everyone was heading towards the main stage to accompany "the band of our lives," they said, the band "that changed everything for music in Mallorca and in Catalan," it was commented. Yesterday, more than ever, the audience couldn't miss it.

Years ago, Rubén Blades warned that the day would come when he would hang up his microphone and leave international stages. He had repeated it in interviews and concerts, without it altering his display of salsa mastery in the slightest. Until this Thursday, the promise became a reality. The Panamanian singer-songwriter offered his last dance before the Catalan public at Barcelona's Poble Espanyol, on a stage he knows well and from which he bid farewell forever. He does so at 78 years old, after more than half a century of career, with a surprisingly intact voice and a final demonstration of musical vigor at the Barts festival.

First days of school and a long weekend in sight. That is why we have prepared a good collection of activities for the coming days, such as attending FiraTàrrega, where you will be able to see 57 shows by local and international companies; enjoying La Terrasseta in Tarragona, an independent festival with musical and contemporary circus proposals; listening to and reading stories at the 16th edition of the Medinyà Story Fair, and delving into Gaudí's imagination by visiting La Pedrera - Casa Milà, among others.

The Dansàneu reaches its 35th edition, reaffirming itself as much more than a performing arts festival. From July 24 to August 2, the Valls d’Àneu will once again become a stage where music, dance, theater, literature, and thought dialogue with the monumental and natural heritage of the Pyrenees. True to over three decades of history, the festival champions a culture rooted in the territory but fully contemporary, capable of reinterpreting tradition and turning it into a driving force for creation, reflection, and cohesion.

This chronicler always hated that Sabina song that pretended to be based on real events, Pacto entre caballeros, in which the singer explained in the first person that one night some very young thugs robbed him. “Subvenciónanos un pico”, they told him, so they were heroin addicts, and they stole –it was still counted in pesetas, the year the song premiered– “diez quinientas” and “a fancy Omega watch”. It was a "good" brand, but I don't know what Shakira would think of it. The fact is that the guys recognized him: “You look like that Sabina guy who sings”. Then, they took him to a brothel for a party, got high with him, and returned his belongings at the end of the night.

The powerful voice of Bonnie Tyler, who poured her heart out in Total eclipse of the heart, and the cracked voice that surrendered to heartbreak in It's a heartache, has finally fallen silent. As confirmed by the BBC, the Welsh singer has died at the age of 75 in Portugal, in Faro, where she had settled to live during the seasons she was not performing. Her discography leaves behind a handful of immortal hits, a vocal surgery, an unexpected revival, and a steadfast dedication that has kept her on stage for practically half a century uninterrupted. "I'm never going to retire. What do you want me to do? Stop and die? I love performing too much," she stated in a television interview in the summer of 2024. Tyler continued to tour, filling halls mainly in Germany, France, and Central European countries, much more so than in her native United Kingdom.

Manuel Arjona, one of the four founders of the dance, glam and electronic pop music groupLocomía, has died suddenly in Viladecans, the city where he had lived for a long time, at the age of 58. "Today Manuel's light has risen to heaven, but his memory lives on with us," assured Luis Font, a group mate, on Instagram, along with Xavier Font – his brother – and Gard Passchier.

Her real name is Eva Espejo Fajardo (Lleida, 1988), but she is building a brand with her artistic ingenuity. She calls herself Hippiiaa, a symbiosis of the hippie universe with the use of artificial intelligence (AI) for her cultural dissemination goals on social networks (she has nearly 50,000 followers on Instagram and 30,000 more on TikTok). But, she also makes herself known as La Catalana Indígena, because she also wants to assert herself as a defender of two heritages, that of Catalan and that of nature simultaneously. An amalgamation of proposals that betray her multifaceted character.

The (Z)ona Ponts festival consolidates this summer its commitment to turning Ponts' heritage into a vibrant cultural stage with a second edition that, until September 4th, offers five music and performing arts proposals in emblematic spaces of the municipality. After the good reception of the first edition, launched following the millennium of Sant Pere, the festival reaffirms a small-format model that seeks to create artistic experiences linked to each place.