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"This is my neighborhood, this is my homeland. And childhoods in the barrios leave you scarred forever. Because even though I've been away from Aluche for 11 years now, I come back every week to see my family," is the first thing Marwan Abu-Tahoun Recio, better known by his stage name, Marwán, explains to us. We met the 44-year-old singer-songwriter from Madrid in Calle de Illescas del Aluche in the 80s, 90s and the first decade of the new millennium. "I lived in this building from the time I was born until I was five years old. In this other one, where my mother is still there, from the age of five to 28, and then, a little further back, in the same urbanization, I shared a house with my brother until I was 33, at which time I went to the center of Madrid," he recalls in the first sketches of this trip with GRAN MADRID to his origins.

Marwán, in the Aluche Park, where he gave the main concert of last year's festivities.

Born to a Palestinian father and a Spanish mother, Marwán has just released an album that commemorates his 20-year career, 'Canciones para una urgencia', and in which he has re-recorded his best songs, sharing them with stellar duets with artists such as Jorge Drexler, Rozalén, Mikel Izal, Coti, Pedro Guerra and Nach, among others. We took the opportunity to ask him about a career that began in these same streets, in the parks, in the bars of the area, when he was beginning to train as a person and as an artist. Their pride in the neighbourhood is validated by their concert last year at the Aluche festivities, the most crowded of that edition. "There were like 30 or 40,000 people. And so, he goes through the memory of his childhood with dozens of memories. Like when in 1989, three days before his tenth birthday, a helicopter crashed into the courtyard shared by his school, La Latina, and what would later become his high school, Blas de Otero. There were fuselage debris all over the neighborhood. It was something mythical for all of us."

Marwan, greeting a friend in front of the school where he was a teacher for five years. Javier Barbancho

In his house he has always lived the mixture of cultures. His mother is from Soria. His father, Salman, lived as a Palestinian refugee from birth until he was 16.He then came to Spain at the age of 18 to study. He started teaching Arabic to him and his brother Samir, but they didn't get to learn it. "We are neither Muslims nor Christians. The truth is that we don't have religion," he reflects. And although Marwan had a life of Spanish customs since he was a child, he is very aware of the struggle for freedom and the sufferings of the Palestinian people, says who organized a concert last May with UNRWA, the UN agency for aid to Palestinian refugees, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Nakba (exodus of '48). and where Ismael Serrano and Pedro Guerra participated. Marwán, honorary ambassador to Spain of this United Nations agency, assures that "Israelis also have the right to have a homeland in which to live in peace. But let that not be denied to the Palestinians. That's what absolute infamy is. These days, Marwan contemplates with sadness and unease the war that is claiming hundreds of lives in Gaza. "Also with anger, because the international community is allowing a massacre in prime time. And those of us who are descendants of Palestinians, we have been seeing this for 75 years," he says.

The singer-songwriter poses in front of the soccer field where he played as a striker as a child. Javier Barbancho

Returning to the places of his childhood, we stop at the Aluche Park, a symbol of the neighbourhood where different generations of young people have shared unforgettable moments and celebrated community festivals. Marwán points us to the auditorium, where he gave that concert last year. He recently returned to the same stage at a conference organised by Casa Árabe.

"It used to be a kind of yellow shell, and everyone called it 'The Shell'. She was famous everywhere. In addition to my concerts, I was lucky enough to open for Kiko Veneno here 15 years ago."

Marwán remembers what life was like in Aluche in the 80s and 90s. "It was full of young families. We experienced those childhoods without internet, without screens... We were from the street, with friends, doing your pranks, sports... It was the time of the first graffiti and we were fascinated by it. We were approaching Campamento, which was an area of great graffiti artists, like the mythical Muelle, who lived very close to here. It was also the time of the arrival of hip hop. "Two albums came out, 'Rap'in Madrid' and 'Madrid, Hip Hop', which included a group from the neighborhood called QSC. It was also in that park that he had his first kiss.

FIRST CHORDS

It was at that time that he also started in the world of music. His friend Ivan buys a guitar and together they start playing songs by groups like the Beatles or Metallica. "We came here with the guitar. My parents were going to give me a mountain bike, which was what was fashionable, and since I already had my brother's I decided to buy a guitar myself. I was 15 years old."

The poet, with his former football coach. Javier Barbancho

At first I only played other people's songs. The first singer-songwriters arrived, such as Silvio or Serrat, and when I was 18 Ismael Serrano, Jorge Drexler, Pedro Guerra or Tontxu, and that's when I started composing, under the influence of these artists who were absolute references for me. Generationally, Ismael and I are only five years apart, and the lyrics of Aute, Sabina, Serrat, Pablo Milanés, which I loved, felt in a way a little more distant. Meeting Ismael Serrano made me lose my mind because of the author's song and I started composing." Marwán says that at that moment he found himself and that style of music took him away. "It wasn't a choice of I want to be a singer-songwriter, I want to do concerts, I want to have a recording career. I just found what I wanted to be and I set out to do it," he says emphatically.

"I'm no longer a typical singer-songwriter who is alone with his guitar, in my concerts there is a brutal energy," he says. And a brutal accident he suffered in New York in March 2022 has been the latest trigger for this change. He went there on vacation with his father and to give a concert at the Instituto Cervantes, which by the way was full. After the recital, he was run over by a bicycle. His arm was broken in six places, and he has not been able to fully stretch it since. "It left me pretty battered for a year, in a lot of pain and with an incredibly tough rehabilitation. I've lost a lot of mobility, although luckily it's still a functional arm. I can play, but this also made me drop the guitar at gigs. I had it in mind for a long time, because I realized that I'm a showman and that without it I could move better on stage. Many artists use it as a shield, but I have felt liberated and from a misfortune has come a positive thing," he says. Their tour, by the way, kicked off this Friday in Murcia and will tour Spain and then jump to Latin America in April.

Marwán in the neighborhood of Aluche, where his parents still live. Javier Barbancho

Marwan wants to highlight one aspect of the New York accident. "I was in the hospital for four to five hours and it cost me $12,000. Luckily they were paid for by the insurance, as I was fine when it came to getting one. What I mean by this is that when they try to dismantle public health in Spain we don't realize what a miracle we have, because if they start charging we go bankrupt," he adds.

After leaving Aluche, Marwán visits the place where he has been composing and rehearsing for a couple of years, a space decorated in a vintage and industrial way that he calls 'The Multiverse'. "It's the place where I enter another dimension." There he explains that his new work includes, in addition to an album, a book in which the secrets surrounding the songs are told. One of them, perhaps the best he has composed, is the one he performs with Jorge Drexler, 'Puede ser que la conoces', and which is precisely about Madrid. "It's based on a text by my brother Samir, who is a brutal writer. We were writing in the Diario de Almería and one of their columns drove me crazy. It seemed that he was talking about a woman and in the end it was revealed that he was referring to Madrid. Without my brother's lyrics, which are brilliant, that song wouldn't have come about, because I've taken a lot of ideas as they were, like that sometimes I need to be unfaithful to him, go away for a few days, give myself some time off, but when I'm with others something starts to burn, and in a short time I'm back in his arms."

Castizo Questionnaire

1. Your favorite spot. The Temple of Debod. Without a doubt, it is one of my favorite places. I like a lot of them: the Retiro Park, the West Park, getting lost in the Madrid of the Austrias, going to La Latina to have a little pot, the restaurants, the bookstores... From the department stores, where you only find good things by accumulation, to the small bookstores like Rafael Alberti, which is in Argüelles and is a bit like my home because I have lived next door. I really like Madrid.

2. A meal. The cocido madrileño, of course.

3. A Sunday plan. See the family. I like Sundays when I can see my niece, my brother, be with my partner.... I've always associated Sundays with meeting my father and brother to watch football, or going to the Renoir cinemas, which are close to my home [he lives in Argüelles].

4. A night plan. Meeting my singer-songwriter friends at Café Libertad 8. That's where we started dreaming.

5. A souvenir of Madrid. I have very nice memories, like those of my big concerts. From my first concert at Libertad 8 to my concert at the Wizink, and everything in between. And also very sad memories. One of the ones I have is when Tierno Galván died. I was very young, and I remember being with my father at the funeral and seeing Madrid absolutely packed. I was very impressed. Another thing I remember from Madrid is the demonstration the day after 11M. That incredible manifestation we did, and the sadness of those days. I can't forget it.

6. A character from the city. I have a very long poem about Madrid in my latest book, 'A Woman in the Throat' (Planeta), and in it I talk about many characters in the city, but if I had to choose one for how he has defined it or for how he has told it, for how he has immersed us in its somewhat dark nights, it is Sabina, that has defined that slum Madrid and many other Madriles, because this city has many faces and he has defined them like no one else. For me, Serrat is the great chronicler of the day and Sabina is the great chronicler of the night.