“With my scars from fighting a lot, here I am, with all the excitement and desire to sing with you,” began an emotional Amaia Montero in her live return with the band she left almost 20 years ago. La Oreja de Van Gogh sounded again on Saturday night with the vocalist with whom they started their successful journey and achieved some of the biggest hits of early 21st-century Spanish pop. More than 15,000 people supported two hours of concert in Bizkaia with many of the classic songs that marked a stage of Spanish pop-rock at the beginning of the century.
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None of the great anthems from La Oreja de Van Gogh’s repertoire were missing: Rosas, La playa, Muñeca de trapo or 20 de enero, the song chosen to open a concert that turned the first minutes of the Bizkaia Arena into an emotional extension of Donostia. The recital far exceeded twenty songs, most from Amaia’s time leading the band. Even so, the group also reserved space for others previously performed by Leire Martínez, such as El último vals, Tan guapa or La niña que llora en tus fiestas. Their new song Todos estamos bailando la misma canción also had its place.
“El Ultimo Vals” sung by Amaia Montero sounds on La Oreja De Van Gogh’s new tour. Opinions? pic.twitter.com/HxqS16ALzo
— Basthian Américo (@basthian_castro) May 9, 2026
“This is a real comeback,” continued the singer in one of the most applauded interventions of the night. “There were moments when I thought I would never step on a stage again. I was completely lost, unrecognizable. I went through a real hell and that’s not just a figure of speech,” added Amaia, 47, before an audience that responded with applause and cheers. “There were too many dark days when I thought everything was over, life, music,” she concluded.
Song after song, her fans’ expectations were met in a concert that ended minutes before midnight. They were already high before it started, especially among the Guipuzcoan audience. Maitane Vierbucher admitted that nostalgia had gotten to her: “I listened to the first two albums a lot, then I drifted away and now it’s like going back to when I was 20.” She says the band has brought her “great memories of parties or summer.” A feeling shared by Elena Agirrezabal, 26, who listened to their albums “as a kid” and was accompanied by her group of friends.
Ibon Delgado had to catch a plane from Manchester to get to the Bizkaia Arena. “It’s the band I grew up with and I had to support them. My first concert was with them and it’s the band I grew up with,” he explained. For Ainhoa Zulueta, Araitz Peña, and Irati Amezaga, aged 29, 30, and 33, this concert was a reunion, even though they didn’t know each other when their CDs played on car trips during vacations. “We connected in the first song both with Amaia and among ourselves, even though we didn’t know each other when we were in school. It’s a collective memory,” they summarized after the concert.
Amaia’s long-awaited return comes almost two decades after the vocalist left the band in 2007, after 11 years leading the group and four studio albums released. The statements from both parties at the time described the decision as “difficult” after a “fascinating” stage, attributed the breakup to a “set of circumstances,” and denied any personal problems between the lead vocalist and the other members, especially with guitarist Pablo Benegas.
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Goikoetxea’s debut
Precisely Benegas is the one who has not gone on, nor will go on, stage during this tour. The musician already explained to EL PAÍS that he was not leaving the band, although he would not participate “in this stage.” The move, announced last October, was unexpected due to Benegas’s creative weight within the Donostiarra band’s repertoire, of which he is one of the main composers.
His chords were played last night by Imanol Goikoetxea, one of the additions for this series of concerts. Born in Urdiain (Navarra, 650 inhabitants), Goikoetxea is an “old acquaintance” within the music industry with a “very solid” resume, despite always maintaining a low profile, as the band itself defines him. His career is closely linked both to the Basque scene and to Spanish and Latin American pop.
Throughout his career, he has been part of emblematic groups such as Gozategi and collaborated with artists and bands like Zetak, Hesian, Seiren, or Onintze. One of his longest stages has been linked to Álex Ubago. For 15 years he has been the trusted guitarist of the Donostiarra singer, accompanying him on some of his most relevant tours in Spain and Latin America.
The night’s opening was by Veintiuno, a Toledo-based band regular in pop-rock venues and festival circuits. Their energy and repertoire served to activate a venue that was already lively long before the main concert began. That same role will fall to other bands and guest artists like Merino, Supercremalleras, or Maren, all additions intended to “offer added value with emerging talent,” according to the band.
A tour through other cities
What was experienced tonight at the Bilbao Exhibition Centre (also known as the Bizkaia Arena) is just the beginning of the Tantas cosas que contar tour, a title shared with one of the songs included in La Oreja de Van Gogh’s second album (El viaje de Copperpot, 2000). Its lyrics invite to “look back now” and, precisely, that is what this symbolic tour marked by nostalgia seeks. The group offers an emotional journey through three decades of songs that have accompanied several generations and are part of the collective memory. It also serves as a great reunion with their audience in the same year the band turns thirty.
After starting in Barakaldo, the tour — involving nearly 80 professionals and mobilizing seven trailer trucks — will continue over the coming months through different Spanish cities, such as San Sebastián, Albacete, Murcia, Seville, Pamplona, Gijón, Valencia, or A Coruña, with several dates in large venues like Madrid’s Movistar Arena or Barcelona’s Palau Sant Jordi. For those who did not get tickets this weekend in Bizkaia, the caravan will return to the same stage on December 5.
