EDITION!

People of
Barcelona
Dani Lança
Singer-songwriter,
38 years old
BCN:
TOP SECRET
made you stay here?
I liked the fact that there was a lot of
street art – that got me hooked. I
had lived for a year in Berlin, and
another year in Mozambique. I think
that [my home country of] Portugal
was too small for me.
Your musical roots are in Jamaica
and Africa.
My parents had lived in Africa, and
at home we listened to people like
Bonga and Cesária Évora. Later it
was Bob Marley and Peter Tosh. My
musical language has developed
through them and Fela Kuti, Nina
Simone and Manu Chao.
Did you come to Barcelona
because of Manu?
No, I hadn’t even heard of Mano
Negra!
But recently you’ve worked a lot
with him.
Since 2013. Last year I went on tour
around France and Spain with
Manu, as a special guest, singing
two of my songs at each show. Last
month I performed with him at the
party of L’Humanité in Paris, in front
of several thousand people.
Does Lisbon have an advantage
over Barcelona in terms of
multiculturalism?
Yes, Portugal is half Arab and half
gypsy, and there’s a huge African
inuence. As a child, in a class of
30 students, 12 were African. But in
Barcelona I was surprised by the
number of artists that there were,
and how easy it was to play and not
just survive but live all right. For the
past few years, this has got more
difcult. Let’s hope that the new
mayor improves things.
Why is street music important?
Because it touches people in a way
an onstage concert can’t. The
passer-by is going about their
routine, an artist comes along and
AN OBJECT – A GUITAR
He associates the instrument with
spontaneous performances in
Plaça George Orwell.
PLACE OF ORIGIN –
CASCAIS (PORTUGAL)
The city is close to Lisbon. When
he was six, he moved farther
north, to Aveiro.
takes the routine apart, carrying the
listener to another place. That
doesn’t happen in a concert venue,
where you’ve paid for a ticket and
gone with certain expectations.
You’re still alternating between
concerts of all types.
And I’ll keep doing that. A few days
ago I played at a festival in
Lithuania, and I also play on the
street. I want to maintain human
contact. To make Radio Bemba [a
Manu Chao live album] work, you
can’t stay at home waiting for things
to happen. Street performing is
better – you see people’s faces.
Your new album is called Cidade
loca. Is Barcelona the ‘crazy city’?
It’s the cities of the world in general.
The cities that manipulate time to
make us work. Everything’s focused
on that, on work and money. What
does it meant to do well? Making
lots of money? Becoming famous?
Music has to be a living thing, not a
product. This record is about that.
–Jordi Bianciotto
MARIA DIAS
By Begoña García
_The Mercat del
Ninot (Market of
the ‘Figure’) takes
its name from a
that once adorned
a nearby bar.
_On the north
corner of Av. de la
Catedral and Via
Laietana, there
used to be a Hell
Street. Under the
ground there is a
metro station that’s
never been used.
_Plaça Gal·la
Placídia is named
after a Roman
emperor’s daughter
century visigoth
king Ataülf – the
couple brought
their court to BCN.
_During the time
of the Spanish
Inquisition, pyres
were built in Plaça
del Rei for burning
false converts,
Jews, witches and
blasphemers.
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