Monique Makon

This magnificent singer, belonging to the latest batch of female voices on Barcelona’s African-American music scene, drank in this style from childhood, listening at home to B.B. King, Etta James or Billie Holiday. She began performing at seventeen, when she joined the Cabal Musical, a social project of the Taller de Músics, and in 2016 she put together her first band. Her passion for black music in general, and for soul and funk in particular, has led her to take part in homages and tributes to James Brown, Otis Redding or Amy Winehouse. In the blues she is drawn to its essence: “The lyrics, laden with emotion, speak of human experience with raw sincerity, embracing themes such as love, loss, joy, pain or hope. There is nothing better than connecting with that and conveying it to the audience when you are singing or playing”. With a promising future ahead of her, she acknowledges an initial debt to the blues: “It has given me the opportunity to experience music not only as a career, but as a continuous adventure of personal and artistic growth”.