Since the Ash Wednesday The penitential period of Lent burst into our lives, flamenco generalist has been giving up its space to cante The quintessential seasonal song, the saeta, a sonic score of the Catholic liturgy with which our singers prepare us for the Resurrection.
We are faced with a treasure that constitutes, at least for Andalusia, an invaluable treasure, as it forms a necessary and integral part of the Lenten acts and of course of the procession of our Brotherhoods during Holy Week, hence we emphasize its relevance for the function it performs as sacred music in divine service.
El cante The saeta is not in itself a liturgical action, since we cannot place it in the context of the Eucharist or other sacraments, but it is in the promotion of sacred rites, in ceremonies that have a deep spiritual meaning and that, therefore, are fundamental to the practice of faith.
With that prayerful delicacy, the Andalusian saeta singers do it, both in the competitions organized by the Penitential Brotherhoods and the PeñaFlamenco, preferably, as in the exaltations, of which I highlight the already famous circuit of the Provincial Council of Seville and the route that is set annually by the Town Councils of Mairena del Alcor, Écija, Utrera and the Malaga territory, which is determined by the Provincial Council and which this year corresponds to the town of Campillos.
These acts, flamencoThey are both religious and foster unity, enrich the solemnity of sacred rites, and fulfill the mission of every Christian: to evangelize the attendees through words and music.
Furthermore, not all formats adhere to the same codes. The Seville Provincial Council, for example, incorporates the celebration of the saeta into the so-called Lenten Concerts, which for the 2026 edition extends the saeteril genre to the month of March, and specifically, to the towns of Tocina-Los Rosales (day 13), The Roda of Andalusia (day 15), Morón de la Frontera (day 19), Umbrella (day 19) and, respectively, Herrera (day 28), which will host the closing ceremony coinciding with Passion Saturday.
Those responsible for bringing sounds to the score of such a profound prayer are coordinated by Pedro Chicharro Rodriguez, technical director of the Provincial Council of Seville, and are Antonio Ortega Jr., from Mairena del Alcor, blessed land that still boasts an unparalleled squad of saeta singers flamencos without artifice; Consolation Garcia, which integrates and contributes different nuances from timeless Utrera, and Manuel Gómez Torres, a flamenco singer of flamenco descent who, as his artistic nickname El Ecijano indicates, was born in the city that doesn't even ask for patience to make you fall in love with it.
"In the midst of Lent, the saeta arrives to stay. Andalusia revisits its deepest feelings with no other pretext than finding in the saeta singer's poetic voice the poignant description of the saeta. It takes root in our towns and villages and, with no other destination than the listener's heart, will ensure that the tears flow at least until Holy Saturday, the day on which the body of Jesus Christ remains in the tomb after his Passion and Death."
The three singers mentioned condense in their recordings the pulse of the sonic spirit of the Sevillian people, who understand that the saeta is a prayer that, when it becomes a confession shouted, spreads among the crowd making it vibrate with emotion, raising its tragic and heartbreaking flight until it slowly pierces, like a sententious dart, the chest of those who solicitously come to the passage of Our Father Jesus of Nazareth or of Mary Most Holy.
But the saeta is adorned with the most diverse qualities in Andalusia, as in the second cycle mentioned, which has already reached the XIII Exaltation of the Saeta and which began on March 1st in Écija with the exaltation of Rafael Benjumea Gómez-Duarte and the premiere of the processional march Our Lady of Mercy, by the composer Primitive José Buendía Picón, leaving the singing section at the mercy of Sofia Fernandez (Utrera), Manuel Gómez Torres (Écija), Soledad Madrid (Mairena del Alcor) and Bonela Jr. (Málaga), four voices that carefully preserve the active participation that corresponds to them.
This circuit, which is firmly established in popular opinion, continued its journey through Utrera, with the exaltation of Manuel Durán and the illustration of Bruma String Quartetthe arrow remained under the responsibility of Isabel guerrero (Malaga), José María Medina Sandoval (Utrera), Jose de la Mena (Mairena del Alcor) and Manuel Gómez Torres (Écija), thus persisting in diverse voices capable of provoking arousal in those present.
Mairena del Alcor, also anointed by great art and the land that cradled the first Favorite Son of Andalusia, Antonio Mairena, or his brother Manuel, the king of the saeta, in addition to having the native Mairena saeta, also called Saeta de Marín, and the Saeta Revoleá, has benefited from the language of this splendid lesson of faith, in the Hermitage of San Sebastián, with the presentation of Soledad Martínez and the musical accompaniment of violin, clarinet and piano.
The arrow for the capital of Los Alcores had María Antúnez Martínez as an exalter, who found such singing emissaries that Manuel Castulo (Mairena del Alcor), Manuel Gómez Torres (Écija), Enrique Yerpes (Utrera) and Celia lopez (Malaga), in whose throats resound the devotion of the faithful.
And on Friday, March 20th, the cycle will culminate in glory in Campillos, a town in Malaga very receptive to the saeta, and a performance that the Provincial Council has commissioned Pepelu Ramos, in an event that will feature the Vera-Cruz de Campillos Musical Group, and four saeta singers touched by the imagined diversity to mark distance between them, such as Pepe from CampillosManuel Gómez Torres, Consolación García from Utrera, and Antonio Ortega Hijo, from Mairena del Alcor.
Centered on the heart of Lent, the saeta arrives, therefore, to stay. Our autonomous community, with its aforementioned specificities, revisits its deepest feelings, its only pretext being the saeta singer's poetic voice, which perfectly captures the essence of the saeta. It takes root in our towns and villages, its sole purpose being to touch the listener's heart, ensuring that the tears flow at least until Holy Saturday, the day the body of Jesus Christ remains in the tomb after his Passion and Death.
