Joan Manuel Serrat returned to the stage this Wednesday. On this occasion, it was for the tribute given to him at Paral·lel 62 in Barcelona by Jofre Bardagí, son of his close friend Josep Maria Bardagí. The excuse was the launch of Jofre Bardagí interpreta Serrat (U98 Music, 2025) at the Guitar Bcn festival, a project in which the musician pays tribute to both Serrat and his father. At the presentation of the first volume of the album, Serrat left his presence in the air: “Do I have a gig? Maybe Barça plays that day,” a doubt finally cleared up.
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The 82-year-old singer-songwriter appeared towards the end of the recital to accompany Bardagí on Una mujer desnuda y en lo oscuro, a track on which he also collaborates on the album alongside a guitar recovered from Josep Maria Bardagí. “If I had known it was so moving, maybe I wouldn’t have come,” he joked. Around ten at night and after an hour and a half of music, Serrat returned to the stage and, before starting to sing, dedicated “a special memory” to Tania Doris, the vedette of Paral·lel who passed away this Wednesday. An emotional Jofre Bardagí led into this musical version of Mario Benedetti’s poem, to which Serrat gradually joined, having said goodbye to the stage in 2022.
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To close the first contact with the live album, the performer chose to play with his electrified version of Fa 20 anys que tinc 20 anys and, after receiving a warm ovation from the 650 attendees at the Paral·lel venue, gifted some beautiful Paraules d’amor dressed with violin, piano, and a final cameo, unexpectedly expected, by Joan Manuel Serrat. Jofre’s father is a man beloved by both, who accompanied the singer-songwriter on stage throughout the 70s and early 80s and who was always by his side as a friend, a bond that led the son to rework 20 songs by the musician, just as his father did in 1998.
“I retired from the stage, not from singing, being alive and participating in things,” said the boy from Poble Sec at the time after giving a solidarity concert alongside Estopa for those affected by the DANA in Valencia in 2024. This week, the Spanish Music Academy has awarded Joan Manuel Serrat the first honorary prize, an award created to recognize the fundamental figures of the country’s musical creation, according to a statement from the institution. The veteran Catalan composer already received the Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts in 2024.
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