LUZ CASAL

LUZ CASAL Concert
Herod Atticus Odeon
Thursday 11 September 2014
at: 21.00

The greek public – lovers and admirers of the great Spanish singer LUZ CASAL – will have the unique opportunity to enjoy her and her band in concerts around Greece this September. In particular on the 8/9 in Patras at the Ancient Roman Odeon, on the 9/9 in Thessaloniki at the Concert Hall and on the 11/9 in Athens at the Herod Atticus Odeon.

She has been called "Muse of Almodovar", "Diva of Iberic peninsula", "the most prestigious Spanish singer", "one of the best voices of our era", while her discography is consisted of 24 albums with millions of sales. Her last double album was recorded this year is called "Alma" (Soul).

Luz Casal is unique, her voice is very sensitive and passionate and apart from her legendary hits "Piensa en mi" and "Un ano de amor" travels the audiences through nice music paths into real treasurous world of nostalgic melodies, boleros, tangos, flamenco.

She has been honoured with big and famous prizes and awards not only in her own country but internationally as well, while her concerts around the world and in Greece are always sold-out.

HEROD ATTICUS ODEON
Thursday 11 September 2014
at: 21.00

TICKET PRICES
LOWER TIER
VIP Zone: 70 €
A Zone: 58 €
B Zone: 45 €
C Zone: 35 €

UPPER TIER
General admission: 23 €
Reduced price: 15 € (Students – Unemployed – People with Movement Difficulties)

* Reduced price tickets are of a limited number

TICKETS
TICKET SERVICES
- Box office: 39 Panepistimiou Str
- Call center: (+30) 210 7234567
- Online: www.ticketservices.gr

Luz Casal

Her first eponymous album supported by rock-laden sounds was released back in 1982. Some of the highlights of the album include Ciudad Sin Ley (Lawless Town) and No Aguanto Más (I Can't Take It Anymore), featuring sounds unprecedented within the Spanish music scene. A love song, Eres Tú (It's You), set apart bearing promise of a versatility which years later would consolidate with the release of her second album, Los Ojos Del Gato (The Cat's Eyes). Songs like Detrás De Tu Mirada (Behind Your Eyes) and Tengo Bastante (I Have Enough) soon got many to start wondering about that woman who had managed to conquer a marked individuality within a musical style (rock) that was only reluctantly accepting women, and especially female solo singers. Luz displayed her nature avoiding drama and growing in the face of adversity, challenges and prejudice. She had already two albums as a singer and songwriter under her belt as well as having performed at one of the most celebrated tours in Spain; El Rock De Una Noche De Verano (The Rock of a Summer Night) sharing the stage with such popular Spanish rock acts as Miguel Ríos and Leño.

1985 saw the release of Luz III, collaborating with, among others, Antonio Vega, John Parsons, Santiago Auserón and Carmen Santonja. Songs like Rufino and Hechizado (Bewitched) gained popular success, which would build on with her next album Quiéreme Aunque Te Duela (Love Me Even If It Hurts), released in 1987. The album, featuring tracks like A Cada Paso (At Every Step) and Un Día Marrón (A Brown Day), closed a chapter in the career of Luz, who would go on to change record label and stop collaborating with Carlos Narea, who had been the producer of her first four albums.

In 1989, and under the master baton of Paco Trinidad, the album Luz V, featuring tracks like Loca (Crazy), Te Dejé Marchar (I Let You Go), and No Me Importa Nada (I Don't Care at All), was released with such a great impact that no one would question that Luz was the quintessential Spanish female solo singer. She was then ready to dare and accept a proposal from Pedro Almodóvar, who asked her to sing two tracks for his forthcoming film, Tacones Lejanos (High Heels): a bolero by Agustín Lara, Piensa En Mí (Think Of Me), and a cover version of a song by Mina, Un Año De Amor (A Year Of Love). Both songs meant a turning point in Luz's career. She was also building on success in France, adding to the acclaim she was enjoying in Latin America proved in festivals like the one organized by Amnesty International in Chile in 1991. That same year she released A Contraluz (Against The Light), a definitive record proof of her rock essence containing, as well as the tracks featured in Tacones Lejanos (High Heels), momentous songs like Es Por Ti (It's For You), Un Pedazo De Cielo (A Piece Of Heaven), Tal Para Cual (Two Of A Kind) and Es Mejor Que Te Vayas (You Better Go). Luz internalized success and combined her musical ambition with the need to escape media showcase.

The seventh album took four years in the making and came to fruition in 1995 with the title Como La Flor Prometida (Like A Promised Flower). A beautiful song, Entre Mis Recuerdos (Among My Memories), served as a comfort and tribute after her father's death while advancing a new success backed up by tracks like Lo Eres Todo (You're Everything), Besaré El Suelo (I'll Kiss The Floor), Vengo Del Norte (I Come From The North), and Plantado En Mi Cabeza (Planted In My Brain). A compilation album that went on to reach multi-platinum sales served to relieve the anticipation caused by the five-year hiatus away from the spotlight that Luz took before putting out her next album, Un Mar De Confianza (A Sea Of Trust), which landed in 2000 within a confused music industry that had changed substantially since her last release. Mi Confianza (My Trust) was the letter of introduction to a album that saw a more calm and deep Luz, full of nuances. Critics and public alike applauded the song and acclaimed with enthusiasm the rest of the album. Her success in France was affirmed with a sold-out show at the iconic Olympia theatre in Paris, which stage has seen the likes of Édith Piaf and The Rolling Stones.

In 2002 she released Con Otra Mirada (With a Different Look in The Eyes), the album spawned three singles: Ni Tú Ni Yo (Neither You Nor I), Dame Un Beso (Give Me A Kiss) and A Veces Un Cielo (Sometimes It's Like Heaven). Luz focused in consolidating her international career, expanding beyond the French borders to countries like Greece and Belgium. Released in 2004, Sencilla Alegría (Simple Joy) is her tenth studio album. The song Un Nuevo Día Brillará (A New Day Will Shine) added a new success to the career of Luz, achieving remarkable writing skills, as evidenced by Mi Memoria Es Agua (My Memory is Water) and Para Un Cínico (For A Cynic). She continued her fruitful relationship with the cinema and, upon winning together with poet/singer-songwriter Pablo Guerrero the Goya Prize for Best Song for the track they had co-written for the movie El Bosque Animado (The Enchanted Forest), acclaimed Spanish film director Alejandro Amenábar included her version of Negra Sombra (Black Shadow), the beautiful poem by Rosalía de Castro, in the soundtrack of the Oscar awarded movie Mar Adentro (The Sea Inside).

When in 2007 a breast cancer cut short her tour Sencilla Alegría (Simple Joy), impelled by the strength that characterizes her, Luz combined medical treatment with the preparation of a new album. She started writing songs and working with musicians and with producer and old friend, Paco Trinidad. Only nine months later she re-emerged with Vida Tóxica (Toxic Life), a complex and poetic album spawning a first single which was quite a statement of intent and the best answer to the questioning about her health and state of mind after the disease, Sé Feliz (Be Happy), where in in the first verses of the song Luz sings the lines:

"Si la soledad te enferma el alma, si el invierno llega a tu ventana, no te abandones a la calma con la herida abierta;
mejor olvidas y comienzas una vida nueva."
(“If solitude makes your soul sick, if winter comes to your window,
don't give yourself over to quietness open-wounded;
you better leave it behind and start a new life.”)

Determined to go to the very heart of everything she does, Luz's musical attitude has always distinguished for a constant search, an undefined and maybe perpetual search that has taken her to venture in a variety of projects as broad as her performing skills. Thus, and paying off a debt of nearly twenty years after the recording of Piensa En Mí (Think Of Me), in 2009 Luz released La Pasión (Passion), a heartfelt tribute to Spanish American music, revisiting twelve traditional songs that she sings from the heart and respect, not aiming to updating but recreating the atmosphere they were originally conceived in. Produced by Renaud Letang, the album featured top-notch studio musicians such as Alex Acuña and Luis Conte, who have worked with Ella Fitzgerald, Paul McCartney and Ray Charles among others. The roster of deluxe contributors that Luz surrounded herself with continues with renowned arranger Eumir Deodato and celebrated fashion photographer Jean-Baptiste Mondino, author of the album art cover.

In 2011, and after getting over a new scourge of cancer, Luz embarked on an international tour that took her to stages across half the world, from Peking to Montreal. A year later she got going an idea that she had long being chewing over: to put up a musical festival in Boimorto, the little village where she was born. The Festival de la Luz (Luz's Festival or Festival of the Light), as it was called, celebrated this year its second edition and is a benefit/fund-raising event where all box office takings went directly to the Spanish Association Against Cancer (2012) and the Food Bank (2013).

Recent years have brought a dizzy succession of honours. The Spanish Rolling Stone Award for a life dedicated to rock, the Honorific Latin Grammy, and the Medal of Arts and Letters in France complete now with Spain's National Current Music Award. In its ruling, the jury pointed out «With her warmth and a voice that stays in the memory she has covered a fruitful path that has succeeded to get to different audiences and generations».

After six years with no new material, Luz is back in 2013 with a double album. This new work, entitled Almas Gemelas (Soul Mates) in Spain and Alma (Soul) for the international market, sees a protein-infused and tentacular Luz, capable of adopting new and intimate sounds without setting aside the essence of rock. The album is available in two editions; one featuring ten songs in Spanish, and the second one adding seven tracks sang in French, Portuguese and Italian for the international release, living up to her global success. Recorded at the iconic EastWest studios in Los Angeles, this new release includes a Vangelis original composition and revisits songs written by the likes of Luigi Tenco, Benjamin Biolay, and Antonio Carlos Jobim.

Whether in Spanish or other languages, supported by poetic metaphors or urban current lyrics, Luz presents a bouquet of raw, beautiful, and ever prejudice-free songs. Her voice swings from the cadence of bossa to the electricity of rock and roll, gets close to ranchera and squeezes like no other the dramatic abilities of ballads. Luz proves again that her stage presence and her master performance skills, from the heights of one of the most solid careers in the European music scene, do not leave room for pigeonholing as all her faces are rooted in the same trunk. Like Soul Mates (Almas Gemelas).

Luz - Discography