María Peláe (★★★✩✩): sharp power

A small earthquake shook the Baix Empordà region—one must hasten to say, pleasantly—this Friday night. Responsible for the phenomenon was singer-songwriter and performer María Peláe, who performed at the Porta Ferrada Festival in front of an audience of around 1,200, according to the organizers. The Malaga native performed with a combo consisting of guitar, drums, and keyboard/saxophone, as well as a pair of palm trees/backing vocalists/dancers, who performed brilliantly, by the way (some lovely tap dancing at Yale, even in the opening minutes of the concert).

María Peláe (★★★✩✩)Place and date: Guíxols Arena (St. Feliu de Guíxols) (8/8/2025)

María Peláe presented her latest album, El Evangelio , a beautiful flamenco-based exercise fusing pop, urban touches, and Latin spice, whose content she combined with more historical themes. This is the case, among others, with the unmissable La niña , and Que vengan a por mí , a number especially appropriate in times like these, when reactionaries are gaining ground.

Some have called Peláe the millennial Lola Flores. While these labels are always a bit forced, there's some truth to them. Especially when she raps flamenco-style at a mile a minute (a tremendous start with "La perra de Despeñaperros ," for example). Other leading ladies of the scene, such as María Jiménez and especially Rocío Jurado (to whom she dedicated a medley toward the end of the show), are also inspirations that strike us as we enjoy a performance that, moreover, is characterized by the edge of its lyrics and the equally sharp humor that marked the show. Boldness and connection, power and the airs of bulería, tanguillo, and rumba were part of the evening. Highlights included the contagious and equally vindictive "Santoral ," the Latin tumbaos that adorned the revived "Letra menúa ," and the very "dramatic and lesbian," in the singer's own words, "Me duelen los ojos ." Not forgetting The Key to the Sea , in a more relaxed key, although culminating with an intense dance coda.

The second artist of the night, Antoñito Molina, was more conventional.

More conventional was the second artist of the night, Antoñito Molina, no relation to the voice of Soy minero , and inserted into a mostly pop coordinate with flamenco flashes. A musical discourse of little bite, accessible but in any case effective, that went through songs like Me subo por las paredes , the vitaminized Ya no me muero por nadie or the last Por si mañana , as well as a pass through No estamos locos by Ketama.