La Voz de Galicia – November 23, 2025 →
It’s curious, because since I retired from performing, I haven’t been able to enjoy music in the same way I used to. I suppose that one day my passion for a language that shaped who I am will return, but for now, listening to it or performing it remains something complex for me. And it’s hard to understand, because I still get moved by certain songs, especially those that carry a memory beyond the composition itself. The memory of the moment when I first heard it, the memory of the places where it accompanied me… Music doesn’t only carry the memory of those who compose or perform it, but also the memory of those who listen, who, whether they realize it or not, end up turning that piece, that song, into the soundtrack of a part of their life…
I was thinking about this when Xan played Construção while taking a shower this morning. This masterpiece by the Brazilian Chico Buarque de Hollanda, pure poetry both verbally and sonically, has been part of my life since adolescence, and at every stage represented something different: my relationship with Xan, my passion for Brazilian culture, my social awakening, the power of words… I was thinking about how all those references remain there, contained in a song, connected to that other version of me who listened to it back then.
Yes, music has an infinite power to connect us to our deepest emotions; a powerful ambiguity that makes us feel someone else’s emotion as our own. It has the superpower of taking us to a parallel world that only we know because it exists only in our minds… Every song, every piece, can represent as many universes as there are human beings in the world. Yes, it is universal.
