C Tangana: A Search for Heaven From Spain to Latin America

Beyond Marketing, C Tangana has Conquered Latin America With his “Sin cantar ni afinar” Tour, why is it?.

"Before I die, I want heaven," says Antón Álvarez in the song with which he achieved commercial popularity: a collaboration with Rosalía that put him on the radar of many, especially in Latin America, who until that day had only heard him by the way. In “Antes de morirme”, C Tangana writes a kind of pact with himself in his lyrics. Saying it that way may sound a bit bombastic, but he is an artist who wants to take on the world, and it seems that he is succeeding.

Antón Álvarez Alfaro, which is his name as a common citizen; C Tangana for music and as the majority of the public knows it; El Crema, like at the beginning of his rap career; or Pucho, a remoquete that comes from the affection of his family inherited from what they called his grandfather and father; and El Madrileño, for his city of origin and which gives his latest album its title. No matter which of these names they call him, they all project a part of whom this artist is. He is all of these at once, and he himself is each one. He is a philosopher from the Complutense University of Madrid, and it seems that he poured into his letters the reflective thought cultivated in the academy, although, as he himself says in an interview for Filo News, he does not intend to do anything elaborate, elitist, or too pretentious.

C Tangana: The Madrid Idol

He belongs to the millennial generation, born in 1990 in Madrid, a lover of Paolo Sorrentino's films, as he tells the composer Rigoberta Bandini in his RigoTalks interview podcast. He is also a lover of the fusion of sounds, from the "beat" of hip hop with the rap of his beginnings in the group Agorazein, to the flamenco of "Me maten" sung with Antonio Carmona, going through hybridization and explorations in which the Cuban and urban sounds seduce him. After a couple of exercises in rap and as a soloist, with self-published works, he reconfigured himself on the Spanish and world music scene with "Ídolo", in 2017, and the current album that has him on tour, "El Madrileño".

Believing their own dreams and having something great to show is one of the characteristics that an artist must have to put their stamp and be authentic, says Pucho in a conversation with Julio Leiva in the Caja Negra space for Filo News. Now he seems to be in one of his best moments, in an interview for Vogue he defines himself as an esthete who is very aware of fashion, so much so that he even ventured into the medium with his own brand inspired by the world of filmmaker Wes Anderson, in which he collaborates with Aléx Turrión.

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From Madrid to Latin America

He has collaborated with Naty Peluso, Andrés Calamaro, Jorge Drexler, the Brazilian guitarist Toquinho and José Feliciano, all from this side of the Atlantic. It is part of that harmony that connects him with this side of the world, as if he were seeking to build cultural bridges beyond business in the industry, but without denying that he is a singer who seeks to live off his talent. In that broad framework that is Latin America, Argentina occupies a special shelf in his heart: "For me it is important to play in Argentina, it sounds a bit selfish, but the truth is that it means something within my career, and also for the people who he follows me. I look forward to it with great enthusiasm", he said in statements to Billboard Argentina.

Perhaps it is that affection for the roots in his own Spain, scrutinizing the forms of connection between the now with the urban sounds and the tradition of folklore from flamenco, that show of love for his own perhaps helps to feel pride for what is here to those who listen. This tour has taken him through Mexico, on various dates in November, in which he performed in Monterrey on the 10th, in Guadalajara on the 12th and in Mexico City on the 15th, to then be in Bogotá on the 19th, in Buenos Aires on 22 and close on 29 in Santiago de Chile. The clapping to follow flamenco, the waggling of bachata and the choruses of his songs are a hallmark of his concerts and a way in which the public shouts their love for the man from Madrid, who without these people for what the hell does he want to play.