Cecilia (singer-songwriter)

Evangelina Sobredo Galanes, better known as Cecilia (Madrid, October 11, 1948-Colinas de Trasmonte, August 2, 1976), was a Spanish singer-songwriter. His artistic career was short, but he achieved great popularity with songs like "Un ramito de violetas", "Mi querida España", "Dama, dama" or "Amor de medianoche", which became a hit in Spain in the 1970s. He died in a car accident when he was 27 years old, which is why his name is cited in the so-called "27 Club" of personalities who die at such an age.

Biography

Childhood and youth

She was born in El Pardo on October 11, 1948. As one of the eight children of the Spanish soldier and diplomat José Ramón Sobredo y Rioboo (October 7, 1909 - October 23, 1990) and María Dolores Galanes Saavedra (4 October 1917-February 1, 2013), he had an itinerant childhood (United Kingdom, United States, Portugal, Algeria, Jordan) and a cosmopolitan upbringing: he learned to speak English at the same time as Spanish. For this reason, her first lyrics as a singer-songwriter of hers were in these two languages equally, although she finally leaned towards Spanish.

She was raised by an American nun who encouraged her to play the guitar and sing at prom parties. Back in Spain, she began and abandoned law studies, because she decided to dedicate herself completely to music and to compose her own lyrics with a poetic and literary quality above what was usual at her time.

Her lyrics are linked to existentialism and feminist protest songs. She had a sentimental relationship with fellow musician Luis Gómez-Escolar, with whom she collaborated on some works and whom she planned to marry in the short term.

Death

Monument to the singer in Colinas de Trasmonte.

About 5:40 a.m. on August 2, 1976, Cecilia died in a traffic accident on the N-525 highway in the urban area of Colinas de Trasmonte, near Benavente (Zamora province).

He was returning from a concert held that same night at the Sala Nova Olimpia in Vigo (Pontevedra) when the fatal accident occurred. His car, a Seat 124 LS registration M-2342-AX, crashed into the back of an ox-drawn cart, which was driving without lights, on a stretch of road that ran through urban roads but in which there were no Street lighting. A certain excess of speed was also noted as the cause, since she was scheduled for recordings in Madrid at ten in the morning and they had left Vigo at three in the morning.

At the time of the accident, she was asleep in the car and died instantly. She was accompanied by her band of three musicians, two of whom were saved with various injuries (as was the couple of farmers who were driving the car), but drummer Carlos de la Iglesia & # 34; Cegasa & # 34; he also died on the spot. At that time, Cecilia was in the most glorious moment of her musical career and her death shocked the country. She was buried in the La Almudena cemetery (grave 7N-Block 63-Letter E-Body 4), her parents also rest next to her.

Musical career

1960s

As Evangelina herself explains in the notes of her first LP, her love of music developed from a very early age in her family and school environment. Upon her arrival in Madrid and beginning her studies in the capital, she began to play and sing songs in English in different residence halls. At that time, she met Julio Seijas and Joaquín Díaz, who would be decisive in the beginning of her professional career. He began composing his own songs at 14, and at 16 he won an important national singer-songwriter contest that served him shortly after to record his first single with Nacho Sáez de Tejada (Nuestro Pequeño Mundo) and Julio Seijas, Eva Sobredo. under the name Expression which included the songs “Try catch the sun” and “Have you ever had a blue day?”, sung in English with a bluessy-folk air and, although Evangelina and Julio Seijas continued to collaborate, the group dissolved, despite its incipient success.

1970s

In 1971 he signed a contract with the multinational CBS, then newly established in Spain. She adopted the stage name of Cecilia because she "Eva"; was already registered and the song "Cecilia" by Simon and Garfunkel, whom she admired, was being released by her record company. She recorded her first solo single of hers with the songs "Tomorrow" and "Get Together" - the latter was a plea for the then recently dissolved Beatles to return. Although it was not a great success, the album represented a novelty in a scene dominated by French-influenced singer-songwriters such as Mari Trini, Joan Manuel Serrat and Luis Eduardo Aute.

Her first album, Cecilia (1972), included songs in Spanish and English. A social song on this album, "Dama, Dama" (a criticism of false puritanism), was a success, as were the existential ones "Nada de nada", "Mi gata Luna", "I was" or "Señor y dueño" (which according to his own words, was his favorite song). The cover is due to the photographer Paco Ontañón who portrayed Cecilia with a boxing glove on her right hand, alluding to the compromising lyrics contained in the album. It is also a clear reference to the song "The boxer" by Paul Simon. José María Íñigo, in an interview he conducted with her, stated that with this album it was a promise that had come true and stressed that although she did not have a great voice, she stood out for her feeling.

Her second LP, Cecilia 2 (1973), again showed a photo of Paco Ontañón on the cover, slightly simulating a pregnancy. The songs on this album deal with varied topics, but always very personal. Some talk about memories, such as "When I was little", environmentalism, "My city", others about vital approaches "I will stay single", whose theme was controversial for the time due to its feminist approach. "If it weren't because..." he reflected on suicide while "A million dreams" made reference to the Spanish Civil War. Other songs speak of an existential, elegiac and sad love that is very characteristic of Cecilia ("Canción de amor", "Me iré de aquí"). Only "Andar", the album's opening theme, escapes from that sadness and appears full of desire to live. It failed to emulate the sales success of the previous LP although it was critically acclaimed.

Her third album, A bouquet of violets (1975), was the biggest success of her short and explosive career. The song that gives the album its name was the most successful on the LP and for which Cecilia is often remembered, perhaps unfairly, since many of her other hits are also notable. According to her sister Teresa de ella, before being a song it was a story. Along with this piece, songs such as "My dear Spain", "Say goodbye" or "Sevilla" stand out. It is noteworthy that the cover and inner sleeve were the work of Cecilia herself. The cover was a painting by the author, as well as each song, which received an illustration from her paintings, in a naive style. Televisión Española decided that she would represent Spain at the OTI Festival in 1975, to which the artist reluctantly accepted, since she did not like festivals. The selected song was "La llamada", composed by Juan Carlos Calderón. Cecilia tried by all means to sing lyrics more in line with her personal style; for this she finally replaced the entire text and the theme was renamed "Midnight Love", which got second place. She later recorded a compilation LP titled after that song, which was her last full-length work.

However, he still released two singles in 1976, «Tú y yo»/«Una guerra», in which this second theme was an allusion to the Civil War that already appears in other of his lyrics. This single has yet to be reissued on the countless subsequent compilations. The other single released that year is "A million reasons"/"Come the wind", which was released in the United States. She was considering the possibility of launching Cecilia's career in North America following the example of Julio Iglesias, with whom she shared a management agency. At the time of her death, he was working on a project on texts by Ramón María del Valle-Inclán.

Posthumous Cecilia

1970s

In the weeks following his death, Cecilia managed to be number 1 on the hit list of Los 40 Principales, specifically from August 14 to 27. The artist had never achieved a number 1 in this radio formula in her life. In September 1976, a month after her death, a posthumous single was released that had the title on the A side "El viaje" and on the B side, "Rain".

1980s

In 1983, CBS decided to publish some songs that Cecilia had recorded, both in the studio and in demos, but which were not fully produced. Juan Carlos Calderón, her former producer and arranger, was in charge of producing and arranging it, with the collaboration of Julio Seijas. The album whose title is Canciones inéditas achieved some notoriety but did not have sales and diffusion as wide as the previous works.

1990s

In 1991 the advent of digital sound made it possible to remaster and remix a compilation, 20 Great Songs, which was published on double LP, CD (audio CD) and cassette.

Coinciding with the 20th anniversary of her death, CBS/Sony published a double CD in 1996, Since you have gone away, which included posthumous duets by Cecilia with singers like Merche Corisco, Miguel Bosé, Ana Belén, Manolo Tena, Julio Iglesias and Soledad Jiménez. In addition, it was possible to recover "Since you have gone" in the voice of Cecilia herself. This song was first written for Julio Iglesias and later recorded by Mocedades as well. He gave this collection of duets its title, and it was reconstructed and digitized from a demo that Cecilia recorded as a test with only her voice and guitar. The reconstruction was carried out by the musician Juan Carlos Calderón.

TVE also broadcast the documentary 20 years without Cecilia, the most serious approach to her figure made to date.

In this decade his original albums in CD format came to light in economical series.

2000s

In 2006 A million dreams was published, a double CD + DVD that includes a wide sample of Evangelina's work. Songs such as "Lluvia" or "El viaje" are published for the first time on CD and the unpublished version in English of "A million dreams", "A million reasons", is included. The DVD includes two TVE programs, & # 34; Cecilia a la aire de ella & # 34; from 1973 and "Cecilia at the OTI" from 1975.

Decade 2023

In September 2011, a new posthumous work was published, Cecilia unpublished in concert. It is a set of shots taken from Cecilia's appearances in radio studios. In addition to her own songs, some songs by other performers sung by Cecilia are included, such as "We shall overcome" (Pete Seeger), "Bridge over troubled water" and "The boxer" (Simon & Garfunkel) and "Blowin' in the wind" (Bob Dylan). Also featured is "Daddy don't put out the light", the first song composed by Evangelina. Several of the songs differ substantially from the CBS discography versions. Eva's voice can also be heard explaining the songs to the public present in the radio studios where it was recorded. This album was also published on vinyl and was produced by the Ramalama record company.

On October 17, 2011, in the presentation of Cecilia inédita en concierto, the publication of her first biography was announced. It is due to the journalist José Madrid, who at the time of publication had 28 years old and not even born when Cecilia died. The biography, entitled Equilibrista, la vida de Cecilia was finally published on December 12 of that year, with great success among her followers and among specialized critics, who valued the rich documentation as well as the inclusion of the artist's personal correspondence and the testimonials of her friends, family and colleagues.

In 2012, again with the Ramalama record company, new unpublished material by Cecilia was released in an album, of which the song "Mi muñeca", which had been recorded in 1976 and was recovered, is a simple one. and arranged in 2012. The album recovers four never-published songs in Cecilia's own version: "Día tras día", "Where will they go to stop?", " Cyclops" and "My doll", in addition to 9 songs belonging to the official discography, but in a demo version, with differences in the lyrics due to censorship and the demands of the CBS record company in the 70s.

Again in 2013, the Ramalama record company publishes more of Cecilia's unpublished material on a CD entitled "Diálogos" which compiles 15 unfinished demos and songs, several of them from the frustrated work around the figure of Valle-Inclán.

In a television program in which Cecilia is paid tribute on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of her death, the journalist and friend of Cecilia José Ramón Pardo announces the next edition of an eight-CD box set that would contain all the production that appeared to date, both on CBS and on Ramalama, expanded with new unpublished, it was published in 2016: Todo Cecilia 40 Anivesario (1948-1976).

Style and influences

Cecilia knew how to combine the British and North American music that she had listened to in her youth and while she lived in the United Kingdom and the United States with Spanish music and literature, all with an absolutely personal and unique stamp. In her work there are references to styles as varied as blues, rock, pop, bossa nova, traditional Spanish music and cabaret songs. Among the Anglo-Saxon artists that she admired are The Beatles, Paul Simon, Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. She was also a voracious reader of classical Spanish literature, as her sister Teresa de ella has assured in the TVE documentary 20 years without Cecilia . She sang indistinctly in English and Spanish, sometimes using a fragile or girlish voice and other times a firm and untamed voice.

Censorship

Like many other artists, Cecilia had some problems with the censorship that existed in Spain during the dictatorship of General Franco. Some lyrics had to be modified, certain songs were discarded from the albums and some of their covers were replaced. The song "Lady, Lady" it was softened in the verses that say "Punctual compliance with the third commandment, some slip in the sixth" to leave the end of the verse like this: "... some unconnected slip& #3. 4;. The theme "My dear Spain" it had to be modified, and the references to the Two Spains (This Spain is alive, this Spain is dead, this Spain is white, this Spain is black) were eliminated. However, the text was published without censorship in the LP folder. In some of her live performances, Cecilia interpreted the original texts.

Among the songs discarded for publication is the song "Soldadito de plomo", a criticism of the army, it never saw the light of day while Cecilia was alive.

The most problematic album was Cecilia 2. Her title was going to be "I will stay single" and a photograph by Pablo Pérez-Mínguez would illustrate the cover, with a Cecilia showing her pregnancy.The record company scrapped the idea, changing the title to the album and using a more discreet photograph of Ontañón. The theme "A million dreams" Evangelina supposed to go through the court. Its original title was "A million dead" in reference to the homonymous novel by José María Gironella. Her allusion to the Spanish Civil War was direct. Cecilia stated that it was about a topic about the 6-Day War, which she experienced in person, and the topic was not modified except in the title, although it received the qualification "non-radiable"; from the censors and was left out of radio stations for a while.

Sepultura de la cantautora Cecilia en el Cementerio de La Almudena de Madrid

Legacy

Cecilia wrote songs for artists such as Julio Iglesias, Massiel, Mocedades and Rocío Jurado. After his untimely death, several artists paid tribute to him, such as Luis Gómez-Escolar, his sentimental partner, María Ostiz, Miguel Bosé, Juan Erasmo Mochi, Betty Missiego, Vicente de Castro "Parrita", Silvia Tortosa, Elsa Baeza, Ana María Drack, Paloma San Basilio and Alfonso Pahino.

Despite not being able to place any of her songs at number 1 on the sales charts or on formula radio like Los 40 Principales, the good reception and popularity of Cecilia's songs is unquestionable. Proof of this is that Cecilia has been covered and claimed by a long list of artists from all over the world. As an example we can cite Fangoria, Manzanita, Rocío Dúrcal, David Broza, Natalia Oreiro, Soledad Jiménez, El Canto del Loco, Amaral, Mi Banda El Mexicano or Zalo Reyes. Numerous personal and artistic objects are also conserved, among which are instruments, costumes from her performances and several of her paintings, such as those that illustrate the album A bouquet of violets . Several of these objects were exhibited at the Inés Barrenechea Art Gallery in Madrid in 2011.

In 2017, the Madrid City Council dedicated a commemorative plaque to him at his home at Avenida de Valladolid, 61.

Discography

Albums

Studio albums:

• Cecilia (1972)
• Cecilia 2 (1973)
• A bunch of violets (1975)

Compilation albums:

• Midnight love (1975)

Compilation albums after his death:

• Unpublished songs (1983)
• 20 Great songs (1990)
• Cecilia: Unpublished in concert (2011)
• My Doll (2012)

Compilation CDs after his death

• 20 Great songs (1990)
• Since you've gone (1996)
• A million dreams (2006)
• Esencial Cecilia (2012)
• Dialogues (2013)
• All of Cecilia. (2016). All the songs he published in life – about fifty- and those that have been completed later, in addition to some unfinished models.

Simple

Cecilia has released a total of thirteen singles, one EP and one CD-single. Ten of them were published in her lifetime; the last 3, the EP and the single CD, are posthumous. Of the songs they contain, 6 were number 1 in Spain^{[citation required]} (marked with an asterisk):

• 1971: Tomorrow / Meet
• 1972: I was. / Lady, lady♪
• 1972: Nothing at all.* My cat moon
• 1973: Come on.* I'll stay single.
• 1973: Song of love / A million dreams
• 1974: A bunch of violets* / The first communion
• 1975: My dear Spain* This Earth
• 1975: Midnight love* / Say goodbye
• 1976: A million reasons / Come the wind (Only edited in the United States)
• 1976: You and me / A war
• 1977: The Trip / Rain
• 1983: Doña Estefaldina / Nana of the prisoner
• 1983: The Game of Life / Lady in the limousine
• 1990: Nothing / Lady, lady / My dear Spain / A bunch of violets (EP)
• 1996: Since you've gone (Sencillo en CD)

Performances on television, radio, clips and documentaries

Cecilia was an artist with media coverage. Her work received media attention.

• 1972 "Nothing" Apparition in the Program Lights at night TVE.
• 1972 Clip for the No-Do Music program with the song "Nothing at all". Surrounded by the Palacio de la Granja and the Palacio de Aranjuez and directed by Raúl de la Peña.
• 7-1-1973 performance on TVE's "Tarde for All" program.
• 2-9-1973 performance on TVE's "Festival" program.
• 28-10-1973 performance on TVE's "Tarde for All".
• 18-10.1973 performance on TVE's "Festival" program.
• 25-04-1974 "Cecilia a su aire" broadcast on TVE of the concert offered in Barcelona, by Luis María Güell. Published by Sony/BMG together with the compilation album A million dreams.
• 3-12-1974 performance in the TVE program "3 Program 3" in which it was played for the first time on television "Un ramito de violetas"
• 8-12-1974 performance in the program "The Great Music" of the SER Chain presented by Pepe Domingo Castaño.
• 25-1-1975 Performance in TVE's "Ladies and Lords" program.
• 7-2-1975 interview and performance in the "Today 14-15" TVE program presented by José María Íñigo.
• 18-4-1975 "Musical de Mallorca 75" live performance with orchestra broadcast by TVE.
• 2-9-1975 Performance in the program "Voces a 45" presented by Pepe Domingo Castaño.
• 9-11-1975 "Cecilia en Festival OTI 1975" directed by Enrique Martí Maqueda, is a promotional program of TVE for which clips of the themes "Love of midnight", "Andar" in the Madrid amusement park, "A branch of violets" and "My dear Spain" in the Retiro Park, "My city" circulating in the streets of Madrid, "Damaral Museum Published by Sony/BMG together with the compilation album A million dreams.
• 4-2-1976 performance at TVE's "Time of..."
• 28-7-1976 His last interview, conducted by Juan Vives.
• 18-1-1997 "20 years without Cecilia", a TVE documentary that makes a tour of his career, with testimonies of his collaborators such as Julio Seijas, Manuel Díaz-Pallarés, Alberto Echevarría, Paco Ontañón or Julio Iglesias.
• 1-11-1997 "Mitomania" by TVE, presented by Guillermo Summers and Susana Hernández, dedicates the program to Cecilia, along with those also disappeared Nino Bravo and Antonio Flores.