TIJUANA.- "A lament as a prelude to the dead hours", sang Concha Buika in Spanish to the audience that filled the concert hall at the Cultural Center of Tijuana on Saturday night, accompanied by Paco and Popo on flamenco guitars, and Ramon Porriña on the Cajon (a box-like percussian instrument) in a concert that kicked off the 32nd anniversary celebration of the institution commonly known as CECUT.

"Tú volverás" a song composed by María Concepción Balboa Buika and Francisco Javier Lopez Limón was played, talking about the love of the singer-songwriter for her father, which moved the audience who shouted out the song request as soon as the artist got on stage. Her dead father and the love that turns into abandon was expressed in the song, with a unique and expressive voice as a vehicle for a song that seemed as though it was recently penned and dedicated just for her.

Her voice covered so many ranges, and was smooth but also ranged to heart-felled screams along with the sound of drums of a land she had never visited, but of which she is from: filled with happiness, festivities, and limitless desire.

"It was in this country that I discovered the meaning of the word 'resistance' and it was taught to me by my mother" she said referring to Chavela Vargas, "it is one of my favorite words and an instinct that guides me and feeds me more than food itself", she said before launching into the closing number with Jose Alfredo.

The rhythm of the Cajon started up again for a song that Jimenez reinvented, called Las Ciudades, and received great applause from the audience. A woman in the audience yelled out "we needed more time" to which Buika responded "we will also need more time, my love; we could always have loved more" and he started singing "It became easy to erase from my mind, that woman who I loved so much."

The original song could be identified in the interpretation by Buika, but was completely transformed by the flamenco style that seduced the audience, who thought they were hearing the song for the first time. Just like the tango "Amor de Mis Amores" by Angel Cabral, recorded by European and American artist, or the rhythm of cumbia that she reconstructed as her own.

She kept singing, "Que no somos Iguales" fused with "No habra nadie en el mundo", "Miénteme bien", "La nave del olvido", and "Mi niña Lola" a song that Buika sung along with "Las Simples Cosas" to finish off the night. It was their first, but certainly not their last, visit to Tijuana.

Editorial@sandiegored.com