Joan Manuel Serrat Spanish Singer From Barcelona

Joan Manuel Serrat is a Spanish singer, songwriter and musician from Barcelona, born on 27 December 1943. He records in both Catalan and Spanish and was a leading name in the Catalan movement known as Nova Cançó. His albums, drawn largely from poetry and the life of working-class Barcelona, have been released across Spain and Latin America since the mid-1960s.

Early life

Serrat was born in the Poble-sec district of Barcelona into a working family. His father, Josep, was a Catalan anarchist linked to the CNT, and his mother, Ángeles Teresa, was a housewife from Belchite in Aragon. Neighbourhood figures from his childhood, among them the characters of "La tieta" and "El drapaire", later appeared in his songs about Catalonia after the Spanish Civil War.

He received his first guitar at seventeen and wrote an early song for it, "Una guitarra". In the early 1960s he played in a pop band with classmates at Barcelona's Agronomy School, mostly covering Beatles material and Italian pop translated into Spanish.

Career

In 1965, after appearing on the radio programme Radioscope, he signed with the Catalan label Edigsa and joined Els Setze Jutges, a group of singers who promoted the Catalan language during the Franco period. His first EP, Una guitarra, came out that year, followed in 1966 by Ara que tinc vint anys. His first LP, also called Ara que tinc vint anys, appeared in 1967, and his first live performance at the Palau de la Música Catalana the same year established him in the Nova Cançó movement.

In 1968 Spanish state television chose him for the Eurovision Song Contest with "La, la, la", but he insisted on singing it in Catalan and the broadcaster refused, so he was replaced by Massiel. In 1969 he released an album built on texts by the poet Antonio Machado, which brought him recognition across Spain and Latin America, although his decision to sing in Spanish drew criticism in some Catalan circles. In 1970 he won the song festival in Rio de Janeiro with "Penélope". His 1971 album Mediterráneo extended his reputation worldwide, and in 1974 he went into exile in Mexico after speaking against capital punishment. He returned to Spain after the end of the dictatorship in 1975, and in 1976 he performed in the United States, in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York.

His discography runs through dozens of albums. Among the later ones are El sur también existe (1985), Utopía (1992), Nadie es perfecto (1994), Banda sonora d'un temps, d'un país (1996), Sombras de la China (1998), Versos en la boca (2002), Serrat sinfónico (2003), Mô (2006), Hijo de la luz y de la sombra (2010), La orquesta del Titanic (2012) and El símbolo y el cuate (2014). Mô was his first album fully in Catalan in seventeen years. In 2005 he toured Spain and Latin America with his producer and arranger Ricard Miralles, performing symphonic versions of his songs. In 2017 and 2018 he toured under the title Mediterráneo da Capo. On screen he appears in the film La ciutat cremada (1976) and in the documentary Aute Retrato (2019).

Recognition

Serrat has received 26 listed honours. In 2007 "Mediterráneo" entered the Latin Grammy Hall of Fame, and the same year he was made a Knight of the Legion of Honour. In 2014 the Latin Recording Academy named him its Person of the Year. Other awards include the Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts (1994), the Barcelona Medal of Honor (2006), the Premio Nacional de las Músicas Actuales (2009), the Grand Cross of the Civil Order of Alfonso X the Wise (2021), the Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts (2024) and the Gold Medal of the Generalitat of Catalonia (2025). Several universities have granted him honorary doctorates, among them Complutense University of Madrid, Pompeu Fabra University, the University of Lleida, the National University of Rosario and the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

Public roles

Serrat has served as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.

Personal life

He is the father of Candela Serrat.