Judging by more than 30 years that we celebrate Saint April 20, likewise, it would even have to be marked in red on the calendar. This date is forever linked to Celtic Courts. And its importance is such that more than three decades later, at the mere mention of “April 20, 1990”, one automatically obtains “Hi dish! How’s it going?”. We remember the enormous reach of the anthem par excellence of the Pucelano group since its release at the end of 1991.
“Flag of Vital Moments”
April 20, 1990 fell on a Friday. That night, Jesús Cifuentes was on the ground, melancholyHe kept remembering and remembering. He missed his family: he had left his environment of Valladolid for the first time and he missed it. He took a pen and paper and started to write. Even in his wildest dreams, he wouldn’t have imagined the repercussion of what he captured that night: “I never thought that putting a date on a song would have such a wide travel. For many people, this theme has become a flag of vital moments. The people who looked at themselves in that song like in a mirror, or who had a special event that day,” Cifu said in The Herald.
To the words that Jesús Hernández Cifuentes wrote in epistolary form, Nacho Martín was in charge of setting it to music. April 20 was part of Celtas Cortos’ third album, Tell me a story (1991).
Nº1 in LOS40: “The best letter of introduction in this country”
The first joy that 20 de Abril brought to the Valladolid group was its arrival at number 1 of LOS 40 Principales on April 18, 1992. According to what Jesús Cifuentes told Cadena SER, reaching the top spot of LOS40: “It was certainly a letter of introduction, the best that can exist in this country, to make known one of the outlets of your creativity”.
Expo 92 Concert Tuning
Celtas Cortos will reinvent April 20 as the air of the concerts of the Universal Exhibition of Seville, organized by Cadena 40. Precisely on April 20, 1992, the first of 50 performances took place at Plaza Sony. In the new version of the theme, Cifu sang:
“On April 20, 1992, something was brewing, Los 40 Principales, with concerts at the Expo. If you are looking for magic on the radio, check out what we have to offer, you will have live music and wind in your whole body. You will remember this year as a great event, you can live on the radio with a ton of concerts. Tune in to Los 40 en la Expo, their main live concerts“.
Over 500,000 copies and massive gigs
The cover of Tell Me A Story, the album that included ’20 de abril’. / Official cover.
April 20 is considered an anthem, the quintessential song of Celtas Cortos and a soundtrack for several generations. This song alone would already justify the enormous success of the album Cuéntame un cuento, which sold more than 500,000 copies.
20 de Abril propelled Celtas Cortos to the top of all charts and gave them great popularity. In 1992, his tour exceeded 200 concerts throughout Spain. Some of them were massive, like those proposed at the Expo in Seville, those of Las Ventas in front of more than 25,000 people, or that of the Fiestas de la Merçè in Barcelona in front of more than 60,000 people.
La Cabaña del Turmo: immortalized and rehabilitated
On April 20 immortalized the Cabaña del Turmo, in the Estós Valley, in Benasque (Huesa Pyrenees). Many people come to the historic Shepherd’s Refuge for the song of Celtas Cortos. The composition of the Cifu promoted a campaign of ‘crowdfunding’ for its rehabilitation, since it was in very bad condition, and it was a complete success.
What happened to the girl?: “Rampando by his privileges is”
The anonymous recipient of Cifu’s letter has also become famous. The sender had to repeatedly deny the existence of the letter. Although there is a real base, it was never placed in a sealed envelope. But is there the popular “chata-how are you”? It seems so. In an interview with Gemma Nierga when she presented Hoy por Hoy on Cadena SER, she raised this issue with the two members of Celtas Cortos who were in the studio, Goyo Yeves and Jesús Cifuentes. “What happened to the April 20 girl?” : “I have no idea, I didn’t even know her, so she’ll find out here (it’s a made-up story, isn’t it Cifu?). add a few drops of fantasy. So, because over there, camping near his fueros is “.
an unanswered letter
April 20 is the most famous letter in Spanish pop. A letter without response, even if some media have invented it. In Cadena SER, Isaías Lafuente asked Jesús Cifuentes: didn’t it occur to you to write the response letter? : “Bah, uff, I couldn’t tell you the truth (no?, well, well). That too came out spontaneously one day. I studied social work and I had just left a few oppositions and my first destination was a town of Ávila called El Tremblo. And there I was working at the Institute, in the middle of the year 90 when Celtas Cortos already had a huge noise, it had just taken off, but very strong “. Come on, there’s no intention… yet.
With Social Security, Amaral, Rozalén, Fito Cabrales, Mikel Izal
During the mega-concert ‘Los Nº 1 de 40 en Concierto’, Seguridad Social joined Celtas Cortos on stage and sang 20 de Abril. It was June 17, 2006 at the Vicente Calderón stadium in Madrid. In the ‘7º de Caballería’ program Amaral accompanied Pucelano’s band performing a version of the song. Eva Amaral said “we have very good memories of the whole band and ’20 de abril’ is a great song. I remember, in my teens, singing ‘April 20’ in a bar with my friends shouting ‘pelao'”.
The short Celts snatched the April 20 In 2017, the tour of his live album In Crescendo (2016) with which he commemorates his three decades in music. That night the band performed at Joy Eslava in Madrid and when the time came to sing 20 de Abril, Rozalén took to the stage. Cifu introduced the singer like this, “María is going to throw us a cape to get us to the Turmo hut tonight.”
In 2019, Celtas Cortos recorded a version of the song with Fito Cabrales and Mikel Izal (with a video at the Cabaña del Turmo included) which appeared on the album I only remember the good, nothing bad, the album with which the group celebrated its 30th anniversary in music.
April 20th Street
The importance of the 20 de Abril was such that the Municipal Group of the United Left of the Valladolid City Council presented a proposal that the name of the street “José Antonio Primo de Rivera” be renamed “20 de Abril”. Hundreds of residents of Valladolid came to sign the petition, but in the end it did not prosper and the street is now called “Los Molinos”.
Saint April 20: “Let’s all row in the same direction”
Being a memorable date for Celtas Cortos, they commemorate their anniversaries. April 20, 2015 was very popular, coinciding with the 25th anniversary of ‘April 20, 1990’, a nostalgic wave occurred in Spain, both on social networks and in the media, evoking the theme. There were even parodies of the song’s lyrics and possible answers to the letter. That day, social media awoke, turning Celtas Cortos and #20deabril into a trending topic on Twitter across Spain.
On April 20, 2020, the 30th anniversary of the date at the top of Jesús Cifuentes’ letter, we lived on high alert due to the COVID-19 health crisis. Celtas Cortos commemorated the day in solidarity. He recorded a new version of his classic in collaboration with multiple artists and friends (Amaral, Rozalén, Mikel Izal or Tarque) and the money raised went to Médecins Sans Frontières. Cifu told Carles Francino on Cadena SER: “Today is April 20, mad here, right? for everything that happens with the music video, which I think is very beautiful because we have managed to bring together a lot of artists, not only artists, those who have seen the video, it is also dedicated to all professional sectors that are there on the front line. People are coming out of a bunch of hospitals across the state, local police, ranchers, supermarkets, in short, a whole array of people rowing in the same direction.“.