Amaral (music group)

Amaral
Amaral and Aguirre performing in Barcelona (2008)
Background information
Origin	Zaragoza, Spain
Genres	Pop rock, folk rock,rock, Spanish rock
Years active	1992-present
Labels	EMI International, Virgin Records, Capitol, Gatorama, Antártida
Website	www.amaral.es
Members	Eva Amaral Juan Aguirre

Amaral is a music group from Zaragoza, Spain that has sold more than four million albums worldwide. The band consists of Eva Amaral (vocalist) and Juan Aguirre (guitarist), who write their songs together. Eva Amaral started out as a drummer in another group until she set out with Aguirre to perform her own material in 1997. They then moved to Madrid and signed a major deal with EMI. Amaral's musical style is often called pop rock, but it is often fused with Latin beats, folk rock,synthesizers, complex poetic lyrics and in particular, traditional Spanish folk music. Their distinctive style was described by Juan as folk, "and the person who has heard a lot of folk and traditional music will listen and understand, but I think our attitude to life is rather that of a rock group."

Juan Aguirre was born in San Sebastián (also known as Donostia) in the Guipúzcoa province of Spain. He spent his childhood in the town of Gros () and currently resides in Zaragoza, while Eva originates from Zaragoza. The inspirations for their songs include cinema, friends and literature. Amaral have won numerous awards including the MTV Europe Music Award for their 2002 album Estrella de mar which was nominated for 5 other categories, and are one of the best-selling Spanish groups of all time. As of 2011, it has released six studio albums, one (double) live album and two live DVDs. According to Eva they are "a libertarian group that doesn’t think of music as a conquest or a competition... We chose music as a way to break a lifestyle that we didn’t like and a society that we don’t understand."