Just last week, on July 14th, Alicia Acuña She blew out the candles on her 47th birthday, thanked the congratulations (“I can’t feel more fulfilled and loved,” she said) and proclaimed her desire to go “for 48.” No one could suspect that this singer, in fact very beloved in the circles flamencos Sevillians and especially in their peña of the soul, Lead Feet, would not wake up yesterday, Thursday, July 24, leaving one of the most free, iconoclastic and brave voices on the scene in silence. jondo figure.
Formed in the 80s by the main Sevillian teachers, Andrés Marín Sr. o Manolo Marin a Matilde Coral, Acuña began his career properly when the festivities of Expo 92 were dying down, in the aforementioned Peña Lead Feet, to which she was linked throughout her life. It debuted at the Seville Biennial as part of the series flavor to peñas, and from there he set out to tour stages all over the world, from the Nimes Festival to the Querétaro Festival in Mexico, from Toronto (Canada) to Womex in Copenhagen, the Beijing Opera House and the Cervantes Institute in Tokyo.
Alicia Acuña will be remembered as a great rebel capable of venturing into unknown paths alongside accomplices such as Raúl Cantizano, The Volubles, Israel Galván or Niño de Elche, In whose Anthology of the cante flamenco heterodox intervened, as sure of her flamenco roots as she was daring when it came to challenging limits. But she also enrolled in the troupe of the Chekara Orchestra of Tetouan that covered the cante de Enrique Morente and, of course, he dared to carry out his own projects: thus, in 2014 he released his first experimental work, UP TO jondo, at the Seville Biennial, alongside guitarist Raúl Cantizano and dancer Manuel Cañadas. This was followed, at the next Biennial in 2016, Bata Lane now!, y #NOTIMIBATA at the 2018 Biennial.
She will also be remembered as an irreplaceable part of the company of The Choni, with which since 2007 he would have been reaping success with such celebrated shows as Fabrics in timeGiraldillo Revelation 2008, The glory of my mother, Flamenco treaty, Reunion o Waiting period, where he also wrote the texts.
«Alicia Acuña will be remembered as a great rebel capable of exploring unknown paths alongside accomplices such as Raúl Cantizano, Los Voluble, Israel Galván or Niño de Elche, in whose 'Anthology of cante flamenco "heterodox" intervened, as sure of her deep roots as she was daring when it came to challenging limits.
In 2017 she participated as a guest artist in MA, With the Adva Yermiyahu Company, a show in collaboration with artists from Israel where she was nominated as best performer at the 2018 PAD Awards, premiered in the cycle Get started at the Center for Cultural Initiatives of the University of Seville.
Alicia Acuña will also be remembered for the hilarious saeta she sang from a balcony in the feature film The world is Ours, Alfonso Sanchez y Alberto Lopez, and which became a viral image.
His latest works, Stab it y Stab II, was a project with the producer Emblematika, In collaboration with The Voluble and Raúl Cantizano. In it, experimentation, improvisation, and research combined to create an audiovisual proposal in which a flamenco-based signature dialogued with synthesizers, drum machines, image mixers, and cameras on stage.
The last time we saw her on stage was on June 6th, at the Auditorio de la Merced in Cádiz, closing the cycle Flamenco Spring with his very personal tribute to The Girl with the Combs by Emblemátika itself, coinciding with the Pride Festival in the capital of Cadiz.
Some will remember her like this, displaying her magic on any stage, others for her approachable, endearing and always fun way of being, or in the magnificent photos that her friend took of her. medina job, encapsulating the strength and mystery that were also her own. What no one who crossed her path could do was forget her, because Alicia Acuña left her mark wherever she set foot.
