Mexican shtick in the warm and open air of the most magical of Madrilenan nights.
A kaleidoscope of rumba, pop, bolero, folk, Bossa, jazz…
Aromatic herbs, smoked and living (the concert was played in the botanic gardens) complimented the musical colour.
She came on, did Natalia, all dramatic and lugubrious, in what looked like a black wedding dress. The music matched.
What a voice, extraordinary. And so much passion and feeling. It looked like she was in a trance, disconnected from the audience, absorbed in the story her performance was telling.
Curiously she played her first set, in that huge dress, sat down. Gather round children, like a storyteller she was.
She prefaced a lot of her songs with spoken word and poetry. Captivating, beautiful and enigmatic were her words. Gabriel García Márquezian.
Occasionally winds of passion and drama would rise and blow waves through the sea of people stood in the pit. A couple were moved into a five minutes French kiss.
At the end of the first half Natalia was running frantically from one side of the stage to the other. She collapsed into a puddle of hysteria on the floor. Eventually she emerged with most of her black dress bunched up in her outstretched hands, in the shape of a black heart, with a hole in it.
Off she went, on she came in a more cheerful red dress, more engaged with the crowd, and on her feet.
The party started, a fiesta of so many different musical colours. The favourites at the end. Again she lived every word, every moment of the poetry, the passion. In the pauses, someone in the audience would feel moved to cry out, in words, in tongues or something ineffable. Viva Mejico!’ rippled across the crowd.
Natalia gave everything she had to Madrid, and the hearts of Madrid nearly burst.
Natalie Lafourcade played the University Botanic Gardens, in Madrid, the 9th July 2023.