Anita Rouge

This explosive singer belongs to one of the latest intakes of the Escola de Blues de Barcelona, where she met the members of her first band, with which they won the 2019 competition of the Societat de Blues de Barcelona. But her connection with the blues is more domestic: her parents passed on to her a love for a timeless genre: “It is that music which never stops pleasing you as time goes by, unlike others that depend more on age and on the fashions of the moment.” She began by imitating her favourite singers, and at the age of twenty-five she set about studying seriously. Her energetic stage presence is based on a rhythm & blues that drinks from the heritage of a wide range of African-American artists, from Big Mama Thornton to Nikki Hill, by way of Little Richard; but which also allows itself to be influenced by musicians as different as Bob Dylan or Dover. Perhaps that is why she is perfectly clear about what attracts her to the blues: “That it is an earthy and authentic music, without posturing. It is rhythm and feeling, the basis of any song.”