4. Andorra — ‘Nua’ by Marta Roure
First country of the list that I’ve visited — several times, actually. The tiny principality between Spain and France has a population of around 70000, and it’s famous for its ski resorts and tax-haven status.
As I expected, the volume of music recorded by Andorran artists is fairly limited. My choice is the album ‘Nua’ by Marta Roure, born in the capital city of Andorra la Vella in 1981. I vaguely knew of her as she was selected to represent her country for the Eurovision contest in 2004, and it was the first time they had a song performed in Catalan (my native language).
The song that she sang is ‘Jugarem a estimar-nos’, the final track of the album. Unfortunately, she didn’t make it through the semifinals (in fact, no other Andorran singer ever did). The Eurovision song is by far the best of the album, a typical early 2000s pop-rock song, and it is indeed very catchy. Maybe the fact that I understood the lyrics helped? I don’t know, but I found myself playing the song on repeat for a few days.
The rest of the album is ok, too. I have the feeling the album was quickly assembled to try to cash in on her Eurovision fame. It feels — and this is just my impression — that she may have had very limited artistic control. Even the title — ‘naked’ — feels like a cliche, especially when it doesn’t feel like the listener will learn much about her personality. All the songs have a sort of upbeat tempo — I do like the lack of ballads, to be honest- and have very similar production. The lyrics are quite average too — love stories, one-night stands, regret, jealousy, etc.
Does the album has anything ‘Andorran’ in it? No. Other than being sung in Catalan — the country’s official language — the album does not include, musically, anything that could reflect its country of origin (if there’s such a thing as a style or instrumentation that could be ‘Andorran’)— nor its neighbouring countries.
I wonder if the same songs, with the same production, would have performed quite well in the charts if they had been sung in English by 2000s Avril Lavigne or Kelly Clarkson. I could perfectly imagine some of the songs being worldwide hits — which may not necessarily say much about their quality, or any desire to innovate, but shows some professionalism. Marta Roure and whoever else worked on the album are good musicians, they know what they wanted to do, and they did it. It’s just a shame they didn’t put a bit more of their soul into the final mix.
