Joan Manuel Serrat says goodbye to the south faithful to the slogan that accompanied him for a lifetime: defend joy

Joan Manuel Serrat announces his retirement with a musical tour 1:34

(CNN Spanish) --

"We are going to say goodbye as we live, with joy," Joan Manuel Serrat proposed when he took the stage in Montevideo for the last time.

And he did it: for more than two hours, he made the thousands of devotees who came to pay homage to him at the Centennial Stadium laugh again and again.

But not even the loudest laughter could drive away the happy melancholy of a goodbye after more than 50 years together.

"I am happy to have been able to enjoy a full life thanks to this job of singing, this vice of singing," said the Catalan singer-songwriter at the beginning of the show, alluding to the name of his last tour, "El vicio de cantar (1965- 2002)", which has him touring America from north to south since April and which will end in December in his native land.

In Uruguay, in addition to the concert, the "Mediterranean" singer had a full agenda that included a meeting with former President José Mujica, a ceremony in which the University of the Republic awarded him the title of Honoris Causa and recognition by the Mario Benedetti Foundation —in charge of promoting the story of the writer whom Serrat loved so much and whose poems he put his music and voice in "The South also exists" (1985)—, which gave him an award for his fight for human rights .

• "There is a time for everything": Serrat leaves the stage with a farewell tour that will bring him to the United States and Latin America

Serrat wanted "nostalgia not to prey on anyone", but that was impossible.

Because immediately after saying it, he sang "Mi niñez", from the 1970 album of the same name, one of the artist's most moving

, in which he recounts his childhood in Barcelona's Poble-sec.

The family was a great protagonist of the show at the same time joyful and melancholic from the Catalan, who sang to his mother, father and grandfather, and through them to many mothers, fathers and grandparents present among the 15,000 people who said goodbye in Montevideo.

But Serrat lived up to his word with strong doses of humor from which not even the British royal family was spared, although the main object of his jokes was the passing of time.

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Serrat said goodbye to Montevideo in an emotional concert in which he toured the greatest hits of his career.

(Credit: Angela Reyes)

The secrets of "The Carousel of Furo"

Serrat took advantage of the last concert on Uruguayan land to unveil the stories behind some of his greatest hits, such as "El Carrusel del Furo" (from the album "Para piel de manzana", from 1975).

"Furo" was the nickname of his grandfather, he said, a common nickname in the towns of Aragon that accompanied him throughout his life and was transmitted from generation to generation.

After this explanation, which he did with a photo of his grandfather in a beret in the background, he continued: "My grandfather never existed because his baptismal certificate, his marriage license were all lost in the fire of 1931 when the church in his town burned down. And there is no death certificate either. The Francoists who shot him threw his body down a ravine and we never recovered it. But we continue looking for him."

And the stadium, which listened to it in the midst of deathly silence, erupted in applause.

The allusions to Francoism did not end there.

Serrat —with his voice surprisingly intact for his 78 years and after more than half a century in the profession— selected for the repertoire "Nanas de la cebolla", one of Miguel Hernández's poems that he set to music in his 1972 tribute album to the author , and told the story of this composition that the poet wrote to his wife from prison after the birth of their son.

The singer-songwriter did not skimp on hits during the more than two hours of recital, also interpreting many of the public's favorites such as "Penelope", "Today can be a great day", "Cantares" —setting to music one of the most famous poems of Antonio Machado— "I don't do anything else but think of you" and, very much in keeping with the setting that received him, some of Benedetti's poems to which he put his music and his voice.

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A packed stadium accompanied the Catalan in some of the songs such as "Cantares".

(Credit: Angela Reyes)

An allegation against the powerful of always

In the album "Per al meu amic", from 1973, Serrat asks his father in his song "Pare" to tell him "what have they done to the river that no longer sings" and "what have they done to the forest that no longer There are trees".

The singer-songwriter performed this song in Catalan at his farewell concert, and accompanied it with a long speech on climate change and the degradation of nature, with a special allusion to the Amazon.

"We have only just begun to become aware of the need we have to change our habits and the model of society if we do not want our children and grandchildren to inherit a planet that is getting sicker every day, and we know that this is serious, and we know that it is It is urgent to make decisions and tough decisions, but those who could speed up the process and reverse the situation, those who should speed up this process (...) are busy with other issues, they are busy making money, trading, and they don't seem to be in a hurry" , he said, to once again receive a wave of applause from those present who were listening to a painfully topical song in the middle of a mass silence.

The University of the Republic of Uruguay distinguished Serrat with the title of "Honoris causa" during his farewell tour.

(Credit: Municipality of Montevideo)

"Continue until each and every one of the cases is clarified": Serrat's message about the disappeared

The foundation that cares for and promotes the legacy of Benedetti (1920-2009) presented Serrat with an award the day before the concert in recognition of the fight for human rights and solidarity.

"It's a reason for life," said the singer upon receiving the award.

"I assure you that I do not get up in the morning looking for solidarity and human rights to defend, but life is there ahead. And fighting for human rights, after all, is nothing more than fighting for oneself. It is a attitude, in the best sense of the word, selfish, but that's the way it is. And solidarity is something without which this life would have much less meaning”.

The singer-songwriter made a call to fight for justice and freedom that must be won "every day" and warned: "if we don't fight for it and if we don't maintain an attitude of defense, they will take it away little by little. History has been that clear with all of us."

Serrat shared this prize with the Munduruku tribe in the north of the Brazilian Amazon, which, in the words of the foundation, is fighting against invasions by loggers who decimate their trees and gold-diggers who contaminate the water with mercury.

The composer also received a handkerchief and a T-shirt from the Association of Relatives of the Disappeared Detainees, an organization that fights to find missing persons during the country's last military dictatorship (1973-1985).

Serrat recalled the number of years that struggles have been made to find the whereabouts of the victims without having reached a successful conclusion.

"Well, we will have to continue. There is no other option. We must continue with the hope that our mothers gave us, with the hope that our grandmothers gave us, with the hope and spirit that you have shown all this time. Those of us who come behind have to continue until each and every one of the cases is cleared up. It may really sound like a fantasy, but it also sounded like it when the first one was found," he said, in one of the most moving moments of the recognition that took place just days after the death of Hebe de Bonafini on the other side of the pond.

One day after the award, in the last minutes of his show, Serrat said goodbye to the public for good, honoring the call of his Uruguayan friend, to defend joy like a trench, and with a song whose title sums up what he himself wanted for his last concert: "Fiesta".

Joan Manuel Serrat