The Spanish guitarist and singer Christina Rosenvinge will be performing on 12th April at the 23rd Barcelona Guitar Festival. The concert will be an anthology of Christina’s songs and an interesting journey at the same time that will take us from the past till the present day.
Christina Rosenvinge Hepworth is the daughter of Danish parents and was born in Madrid in 1964. As a teenager, while still at school, she became interested in music and formed her first band. It is at this time when she was introduced to the Madrid scene or “la movida madrileña”, which emerged after the end of Franco’s dictatorship that had kept Spain in the moral dark ages for 40 years. These were years in which Spain’s young people sought out their place in society and thus turned toward the cultural scene to try and put an end to the double standards that the political transition had inherited from its dark past.
Christina started out as singer in the band ella y los neumáticos. Her taste for poetry and musical composition caught her attention so much that she started writing songs. A new project came along and led her to the band magia blanca (white magic) with the instrumentalist Alex Nuñez. In 1988 they both appeared at the OTI Festival representing Spain as the duo Alex and Cristina, which after turned into Alex & Christina.They managed to record two albums before splitting up.
The experiences of working together were very instrumental in her solo career. In 1991, after gaining more experience, she formed a partnership with a band and became known as Christina y los Subterráneos. Her songs during this period were about the conflicts experienced by the Spanish youth. They were experiencing the effects of a suppressed memory – a product of the political agreements of the Moncloa, which were trying desperately to heal the wounds of the Franco dictatorship in order to enter the European Union as a developed country. The band’s first album is emblematic of that period, Que me parta un rayo and the ballad Mil pedazos which have become spanish pop classics in their own right and are still listened to today.
The 90′s proved to be a very prolific time for Christina Rosenvinge. In that period she began to develop a more personal style, similar to the Latin Rock that was so popular in countries such as Uruguay, Argentina, Mexico and Colombia. Because of this change in musical direction her songs were being played in Latin America and was invited to attend the International Festival of Viña del Mar, where she was presented with the highest award – La Gaviota de Plata. In 1994 she turned her attention to film and starred in Todo es mentira with Spanish Oscar winner Penélope Cruz, and later on in the movie La Pistola de mi hermano.
At the turn of the century she found herself in New York City. Today, Christina Rosenvinge is no longer looking out for success, but in a quest to make quality music and devote it to her loyal fans who have followed her style and music for the past 25 years.
