Your parents played them in the car, you’ve sung along to them at street festivals, parties, karaoke nights, or maybe even at concerts, and one of their greatest merits has been to serve as a bridge between generations. The popular songbook of our language is full of examples of compositions that have become more than just the sum of music and lyrics, and they are now featured in the free exhibition The Best Lyrics in Spanish.
The exhibition, which can be visited at the Instituto Cervantes (Calle de Alcalá, 49) and features collaboration from Apple Music, brings together the original manuscripts of some of the most important songs in recent popular music, written by Spanish songwriters from the 20th and 21st centuries.
This new approach allows visitors to discover the inner workings of the creation of songs that have become true anthems of our music and also places—in keeping with the institution hosting it—special emphasis on the text: the doubts, the cross-outs, the changes in titles or words… What could have been but ultimately wasn’t, and what they ended up becoming.
“It’s ‘something you don’t usually see when you listen to, sing, and make the words of songs your own,’” reflects Luis García Montero, director of the Instituto Cervantes. “We sense the word being tested, the phrase being corrected, and the timely strike-through of the one who hesitates, because before becoming shared music, a shared song was writing.”
Which songs and which bands have been included?
The selection of manuscripts in the exhibition includes songs written by artists such as José Luis Perales, Miguel Ríos, Rosana, Manolo García, Luz Casal, Manuel Alejandro, La Oreja de Van Gogh, Christina Rosenvinge, Amaral, Estopa, and Vetusta Morla.
Thus, you can find beloved songs such as “El universo sobre mí” by Amaral and discover details such as the fact that, alongside the lyrics written in pen, there is a drawing of a cake with a lit candle or a deserted island accompanying the words “to live in freedom.”
Also included in this unique collection are “Pesadilla familiar” ( Estopa), “Puñalada trapera” (Vetusta Morla), “Y cómo es él” (José Luis Perales), and “Se nos rompió el amor,” written by Manuel Alejandro and Ana Magdalena but popularized by Rocío Jurado in 1985.
Some of the songs on display, by the way, are by artists who deposited them in the Instituto Cervantes’ Caja de las Letras, such as Charly García; Miguel Ríos, Les Luthiers, Joaquín Sabina, andMaría Elena Walsh.
Opening hours for the exhibition of Spanish songs
The exhibition is open from April 23 to June 21 during the following hours:
- Tuesday through Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
- Sundays and holidays from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
- Closed on Mondays.