Barcelona

A rumba for the closing ceremony

At the closing ceremony of the 1992 Olympic Games, Peret sang “Gitana hechicera”. He shared the programme with other performers of Catalan rumba, including Los Amaya and Los Manolos. The song addressed Barcelona and reached an audience far beyond the city.

Peret was born in Mataró, not Barcelona. His music, however, belonged to a tradition that developed among Catalan Roma communities and became closely associated with the capital. Together with Gato Pérez and others, he appears in an account of the city that begins well before the Olympic ceremony.

A city in a rumba

Among the musicians who helped bring Catalan rumba to a mass audience were Peret, El Pescaílla and Los Amaya. Barcelona’s cultural education material also credits Gato Pérez with taking the style in new directions. Born in Argentina, Pérez entered Barcelona’s music scene in the 1970s and encountered rumba through the Roma community in Gràcia.

In 1978, Pérez released “La rumba de Barcelona” on Carabruta. The verses move through Barcelona’s neighbourhoods; the Catalan refrain sends its rumba travelling around the world.

Peret’s “Gitana hechicera” came from another chapter in the singer’s life. RTVE describes it as a reworking of a religious song, “Cristo tiene poder”. For the Olympic closing ceremony, Barcelona became the subject of the refrain.

Another song for 1992

The Games also became associated with “Barcelona”, the 1987 duet by Freddie Mercury and Barcelona-born soprano Montserrat Caballé. The pair appeared together at the La Nit festival in Barcelona in 1988.

Mercury died in 1991. He and Caballé did not sing together at the 1992 Olympic ceremony. The recording nevertheless became one of the most widely recognised songs connected to the Games.

Serrat’s Barcelona

Joan Manuel Serrat grew up in Barcelona’s Poble-sec neighbourhood. His “Barcelona i jo”, released in 1989, addresses the city in Catalan. A Serrat exhibition describes it as an expression of his connection to Barcelona; the song presents that relationship with affection and ambivalence.

Serrat’s Poble-sec is also home to Sala Apolo. The venue’s history goes back to an amusement park; today its rooms host concerts and club nights.

Flamenco, a collective and clubs

In the late 1990s, Ojos de Brujo developed in the heart of Barcelona. The collective brought flamenco into contact with hip-hop and other sounds and built its own record label and management agency. Its members’ work came from a different moment in the city’s music from the rumberos of the 1950s and 1960s.

Other rooms shaped the city’s nightlife. Razzmatazz, in Poblenou, combines concerts and club nights across five spaces. On Plaça Reial, Sidecar became associated with rock and alternative music. The original chapter closed in 2024; after a period under the name Sauvage, the Sidecar name returned in 2026.

For a final listen, return to Gato Pérez’s rumba: its 1978 release takes the story back from the Olympic stadium to a song named for Barcelona itself.