Copla (music)

The copla or copla andaluza ("Andalusian copla") is a form of Spanish popular song, deriving from the poetic form of the same name. Although the genre has a long heritage, it flourished in the 1940s, and is epitomized by songwriters Antonio Quintero, Rafael de León and Manuel Quiroga.[1] It is also associated with the Catalonian folk-dance, the sardana.

One of the first singers of coplas was Raquel Meller. Initially she sang cuplé, which later evolved in Andalusian and Spanish song into the copla as it is known today. Other well-known singers of coplas are Imperio Argentina, Manolo Corrales, Estrellita Castro, Concha Piquer, Miguel de Molina, Lola Flores, Marifé de Triana, Juanita Reina, Manolo Escobar, Juanito Valderrama, Sara Montiel and Antonio Molina.[2]

Particularly of note is es: Carlos Cano, who was a key figure in reviving the popularity of the copla in the later 20th century. More recent singers of coplas include Rocío Jurado, Bambino, María Jiménez, Isabel Pantoja, Martirio, and es:Miguel Poveda and, even more recently, Pasión Vega, Clara Montes, Pastora Soler, Aurora Guirado, Diana Navarro, Concha Buika, La Shica and Montse Delgado. Some of these artists, particularly Pasión Vega (born 1976) and Diana Navarro (born 1978), have bent and stretched the genre in directions that have come to be known as Nueva Copla ("New Copla").

See also

References

  1. ↑ Directory of World Cinema: Spain – Page 282 Lorenzo J. Torres Hortelano – 2011 "It is known popularly as a musical genre, with the same name, mostly in Andalusia, so 'Andalusian copla' is a type of light music that flourished in Spain since the 1940s, with songs of human passions, often of a narrative type — classic stories ..."
  2. ↑ Tatjana Pavlović Despotic Bodies and Transgressive Bodies: Spanish Culture from ... – Page 66 2003 "The copla was used as a weapon of Francoist ideology in the promotion of "true Spanishness," but the genre also lends itself to subversive ... Berlanga captures this ambiguity of the copla in order to fully explore its ranges and possibilities."