The Nagüeles amphitheatre was jam packed to welcome Joaquín Sabina’s first concert in Marbella since he started touring more than 30 years ago. The Starlite Festival was the setting chosen by the singer from Jaén to delight his fans with several new tracks and timeless classics from his prolific musical career.
Once again, Starlite Marbella, a well-established festival in the Costa del Sol tourism capital events calendar was spruced up to welcome one of the true legends of Spanish music. The singer, songwriter and poet born in Úbeda concert was sold out one day beforehand, and then last night at about 10:30pm the auditorium started to pulsate to the sound of Flaco’s broken voice.
Accompanied by a fantastic band with its roots deeply entrenched in rock, Sabina started off with “Lo niego todo”, a song that lends its name to his latest release that Leiva also collaborated on. It was a strong start with a true rock spirit, where Sabina confessed his plans for the rest of the concert: “a bit of torture with the new songs for later… and then we’ll see”, leaving the thousands of fans who had come expecting him to play an evening of his classics green with envy.
After playing a few more songs from his latest album, Sabina, who always loves to converse with the audience, admitted that one of his dreams as a child was to be as good a guitar player as Jaime Asúa, who accompanied Sabina on stage and is an ex-member of the legendary group Alarm. “Noches de domingo” was the last track from his most recent work he performed before the vocalist from his band, Mara Barros from Huelva sang an emotional song drawing inspiration from Gabriel García Márquez.
It all kicked off after this short “break” at Starlite Marbella with “La del pirata cojo” sung by his inseparable companion Pancho Varona, “La Magdalena”, and “Por el bulevar de los sueños rotos”, one of his biggest hits. After a bit of classic folk, “Ruido” got the crowd up on its feet and Sabina continued with “Peces de ciudad” and then an incredible rendition of “19 días y 500 noches”.
The Úbeda troubadour who’s also a big bullfighting fan stepped in for the kill with “Noches de boda” and then went straight into one of his greatest hits “Y nos dieron las 10”. After a more than memorable “Princesa”, and a few encores caused by the crowd screaming and clapping for more. Sabina closed his first night of August in Starlite Marbella in fine style.
