Joan Manuel Serrat

Joan Manuel Serrat
Joan Manuel Serrat
Background information
Birth name	Joan Manuel Serrat i Teresa
Born	(1943-12-27) 27 December 1943 (age 73)
Origin	Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
Genres	Nueva canción, pop, rock
Occupation(s)	Musician, singer-songwriter, recording artist, performer
Instruments	Voice Guitar
Years active	1965–present
Labels	Serdisco Sony BMG Zafiro
Associated acts	Joaquín Sabina
Website	www.jmserrat.com

Joan Manuel Serrat i Teresa (Catalan pronunciation: [ʒuˈam mənuˈɛɫ səˈrat]) (born 27 December 1943) is a Spanish musician, singer-songwriter, recording artist, and performer. He is considered one of the most important figures of modern, popular music in both the Spanish and Catalan languages.

Serrat's lyrical style has been influenced by other poets such as Mario Benedetti, Antonio Machado, Miguel Hernández, Rafael Alberti, Federico García Lorca, Pablo Neruda, and León Felipe. He has also recorded songs by Violeta Parra and Víctor Jara. Serrat was one of the pioneers of what is known in Catalan as "Nova Cançó". Joan Manuel Serrat is also known by the names "El noi del Poble-sec" and "El Nano".

Joan Manuel Serrat i Teresa was born 27 December 1943 in the Poble-sec neighbourhood of Barcelona, to members of a working family. His father, Josep Serrat, was a Spanish anarchist affiliated with the CNT and his mother, Ángeles Teresa, the woman of the home was from Belchite, Zaragoza. His childhood and environment in his neighbourhood greatly impacted him, as a great number of his songs described Catalonia after the Spanish Civil War (examples are "La Carmeta", "La tieta" y "El drapaire" as stereotypical characters from his neighbourhood).

Serrat became involved with music at the age of 17 when he obtained his first guitar to which he dedicated one of his earliest songs, "Una guitarra". In the early 1960s, the young artist participated in a pop band, playing along with classmates at Barcelona's Agronomy School and performing mainly Beatles songs and Italian 'pop-of-the-era' songs translated to Spanish. In 1965, while singing in a radio show called Radioscope, host Salvador Escamilla helped him secure a record deal with local label Edigsa, from there joining the group Els Setze Jutges which defended the Catalan language during the Franco dictatorship. In that same year, he recorded his first EP Una guitarra with the songs Una guitarra, Ella em deixa, La mort de l'avi and El mocador. In 1966 appeared his second EP Ara que tinc vint anys with the songs Ara que tinc vint anys, Quan arriba el fred, El drapaire and Sota un cirerer florit. In 1967 his first LP was released Ara que tinc vint anys which included some songs from previous EP recordings, as well as Balada per a un trobador, Els vells amants and Els titelles. Joan Manuel Serrat's first live stage performance in 1967 at the Palau de la Música Catalana, served to establish him as one of the most important artists inside the Nova cançó movement in Catalonia.