Miguel Poveda, the Catalan flamenco vocalist who has earned widespread praise, deliberately paid tribute to the genre’s deep-rooted heritage right from the outset of his career, even though he was still quite young at the time. Born Miguel Ángel Poveda León on February 13, 1973, in Barcelona, he first performed in public in 1988 by singing alongside his sister, the flamenco dancer Sonia Poveda. He cemented his status as an emerging talent in the flamenco world by capturing four awards at the 1993 Festival Nacional del Cante de las Minas in La Unión—among them the top prize, La Lámpara Minera, plus La Cartagenera, La Malagueña, and La Soleá. No performer had matched that achievement since Antonio Fernández Díaz, known as Fosforito, accomplished it in 1956, and Poveda’s success stood out further because, unlike the majority of flamenco artists, he is neither Andalusian nor Gypsy.
Following this breakthrough recognition, he took the lead role in Bigas Luna’s 1994 film La Teta y la Luna, issued his first solo album, Viento del Este, in 1995, and performed at prominent events such as El Festival Flamenco por Tarantos in Madrid, La Bienal de Arte Flamenco in Seville, and La Fiesta de la Música in Paris. His later solo releases include Suena Flamenco (1998), Zaguán (2001), Poemas del Exilio de Rafael Alberti (2004), Desglaç (2005), and Tierra de Calma (2006); the first and last of these received Latin Grammy nominations for Best Flamenco Album in 2000 and 2007, respectively. In 2009 he issued the double album Coplas del Querer, centered on themes of love and featuring his version of Concha Piquer’s “A Ciegas,” which also appeared on the soundtrack of Pedro Almodóvar’s Broken Embraces. With the 2012 release of ArteSano, Poveda returned once more to his core flamenco foundations.
