Joaquín Sabina brings Madison Square Garden to its feet

The Spanish singer Joaquin Sabina managed to bring the spectators of the Madison Square Garden theater in New York to their feet on several occasions, in a concert on Thursday night in which the poor voice of the 74-year-old singer-songwriter was forgiven by an audience that I was exhausted beforehand.

Sabina did not utter a word in English during the two-hour concert, perhaps because she knew what audience she was addressing: an amalgamation of all the Latin communities of New York, who knew all of her songs by heart, even the most recent ones.

And even more so how grateful he was to them that at the same time of his concert, another great like Bob Dylan was singing at the Beacon Theater and those present at the Madison – he joked – would have preferred to see the Spanish singer ahead of the American.

There were many people over forty years of age in the room, and even more those over fifty, who had paid close to $100 to fill the 5,500 seats of the theater and who in some cases came from other cities in the United States.

Although they applauded all of the artist’s songs – twenty in total – it was obvious that the audience had come to listen to Sabina’s mythical songs, and they gave themselves up to the point of delirium when the time came for ‘On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams’ and the The singer remained silent so everyone chanted loudly “… how Chavela cries.”

Measuring your voice and your strength

Sabina knows that she does not have enough strength, and just as she compensates with the microphone for her poor brittle voice – which is felt more in the moments when she speaks and does not sing – she also avoided the slightest physical wear and tear and spent the entire concert sitting on a stool or on a low chair while singing.

There were a couple of occasions when Sabina retired to the dressing room to let other members of the group sing in her place, but the audience did not take it into account: at one point they even chanted her name with “Oé, oé, oé, Hey… Joaquín, Joaquín”.

It was in the second hour of the concert when the singer-songwriter gave the audience what they had come to hear: great hits like ‘Un amor para la Magdalena’, ’19 days and 500 nights’ or ‘Princesa’, which with its rock rhythm put everyone to dance.

A farewell that no one believed lasted just a few minutes and the whole band came out on stage again: Sabina, now with her characteristic black top hat, sang ‘Contigo’ and, as an end to the party, linked – what is already a classic – ‘ Wedding nights’ with ‘And they gave us ten’. The audience, embraced, loudly sang the last song, knowing that it will probably be the last time they will see their idol on a stage in the Big Apple.