Bely Basarte: "Nostalgia is the fortune of having had a happy and beautiful past"

For Bely Basarte, summer nights are one of the greatest wonders of being alive. “Summer nights are my favorite time of year since I was little. The smell of a summer night drives me crazy, it gives me incredible zest for life,” assures the singer from Madrid. When she thinks of summer, a multitude of memories come to mind: family trips in a camper van, Madrid squares at dawn, festivals, concerts, and long conversations with friends as the sun rises.

As a child, summers were synonymous with the road and camping with her parents and siblings. They took long trips through Europe, to Paris or the Loire castles, and in the evening they celebrated what at home they called “las veladas”. “After dinner, my father would prepare some cheese, we would light candles, and review the photos we had taken during the day,” she recalls. 

Later came the nights of adolescence in Tres Cantos, walking home after a party or discovering Madrid at night in the Plaza del Dos de Mayo. “I fell in love with my city on those summer nights,” she assures, a fascination that years later would take on great prominence in her musical career. “Every two or three songs I talk about Madrid,” she admits.

One of the most special summer nights she remembers, however, was in Amsterdam, her other favorite city in the world. She had been there many times alone because it is a place that inspires her greatly, and a few years ago she returned with someone she was just “falling in love with”. “We spent the whole day cycling, the weather was very good, and in the evening we got some fries and sat by a canal with our feet hanging down,” she recalls.

That night there was almost no light on the street, the only lights were those of the surrounding houses. She remembers the canal water moving as they talked and the feeling that everything was easy. From that experience, one of her best-known songs was born, "Amsterdam". “I remember that night as very pink, very floral. In the song I say that tulips rain down on us”. 

Bely Basarte defines herself as a nostalgic person. “I always look back, I am very much in love with what has happened,” she says. Her mother often repeats a phrase to her that she has integrated: “Nostalgia is the fortune of having had a happy and beautiful past”.

For the singer, the ingredients for a good summer night are simple: people, music, food, and the feeling that there's nothing to do the next day. She also declares herself an unconditional fan of nights "for sleeping in light pajamas with the window open, and that smell of freshly cut grass so perfect".