Freedom - María's songs project for Kickstarter
Granada is a city of art. Many great artists live here. However, many of them need a good platform and opportunities to spread and promote their work, especially now with the Covid-19 pandemic.
María is one of them. She is an international artist; she has more than 30 years of experience in the dance and singing scene. However, because of the pandemic, she had to cancel almost all her shows abroad and she had to return to her hometown, Granada. This year is also her 50th birthday, but for her, now, everything has to start again. This is why we are presenting you with our new project on the theme of freedom, about María's songs. These are songs mixed with life and the sense of a woman artist. They talk about traditional flamenco, but also about the love of life in different times. Through her songs, you can enjoy and get to know more about Granada, Andalusia and the artistic spirit of a great people.
María is one of them. She is an international artist; she has more than 30 years of experience in the dance and singing scene. However, because of the pandemic, she had to cancel almost all her shows abroad and she had to return to her hometown, Granada. This year is also her 50th birthday, but for her, now, everything has to start again. This is why we are presenting you with our new project on the theme of freedom, about María's songs. These are songs mixed with life and the sense of a woman artist. They talk about traditional flamenco, but also about the love of life in different times. Through her songs, you can enjoy and get to know more about Granada, Andalusia and the artistic spirit of a great people.
The origin of María Cortés, "La Granaína".
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In honour of the women in my family from whom I inherited the roma blood and my connection to the FLAMENCO ART, and in honour of the city where I was born, grew up and started my professional career; my artistic name is María Cortés, "La Granaína".
Cortés is the first surname of my paternal great-grandmother, a woman from whom I have inherited the firm features of my physical appearance and also the genuine and powerful character that is reflected in my Art: in my dancing, in my singing and in my compositions. This woman was an anonymous heroine who died very young, being a mother of 5 children and after receiving a lot of physical abuse from her husband. That is why I decided to honour her memory by taking her surname in my artistic name and dedicating to her my possibility as a free and independent woman to express my soul and my truth through dance, flamenco singing and the creation of my own songs. |
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Background
I also suffered terrible injustices and mistreatment as a child, and later as a young woman, but I responded by choosing my freedom and art as a tool to get out of those terrible situations of mistreatment, first by my father and then by the father of my daughters. I left my country with my two daughters and in Holland began a fruitful professional career dedicated to FLAMENCO DANCE. Maria's international experiences I have danced on the best stages in the world, choreographed, directed, produced and danced my own traditional flamenco shows and taught at the higher schools of dance and theatre in the Dutch cities of Arnhem, Utrecht and Amsterdam. As a flamenco dancer, I was part of the international percussion group “Drums United”, based in Holland, for 7 years. I have taught and performed in more than 20 different countries during my career. After 26 years away from my hometown Granada, and in this difficult time of a world pandemic, I have started to sing and compose my own songs that talk about my land and flamenco, about my experience as a mother of my two daughters, Violeta and Lucía, and about the desire for an accomplice love that always seems unreachable...among other topics. |
The aim of his songs and art
It is a need to express myself through words and the narration of my own personal story told in songs and using my own melodies. What kind of songs are they? My songs are, musically speaking, a fusion of different styles and influences, but with clear and marked flamenco roots. What do you want to create through Kickstarter? My wish is to record these songs in a professional studio and to be able to share them with as many people around the world as possible. The current situation It is a very difficult time for any profession, and even more for ARTISTS. Therefore, I think that this platform can be of great help to realize this project to record my songs in digital quality before entering the world of commercial music, record companies, or independent producers who do not easily support a mature woman in her new project as a songwriter, after a whole career dedicated to dance. |
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Freedom
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Collaboration with international artists and JG Production
I am lucky to have a team of young people (musicians, recording technicians, photographers, designers, productors...) who believe in me enormously and who have pushed me to present myself on this platform, in search of the support of followers. In Granada, there are many young international musicians and we are going to collaborate with them. These are the talented musicians with whom we have prepared and arranged the songs and who are part of the project: Antonio Ortiz on piano, Sergio Fernández on percussion, Idan Balas on flamenco guitar, Mauro Perego da Silva on winds and Lalo Cordón on electric bass. In addition, to carry out the technical part of the project I count on the team of JG Production, Jianxiong Liu and Giada Mancini, two young talents in their respective areas who believe in my talent and the power of transmission of my songs and want to help me to make this dream come true in this new stage of my career. My songs excite and please the audience enormously when we play live and the objective of this project is to be able to record them in good digital quality in the studio and reach a wider audience is. |
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