19th Córdoba Flamenco Contest Winner’s Gala. Cante Award Winner: Antonio Mejías (with Francisco Pinto on guitar). Guitar Award Winner: Antonio Rey (with Antonio Zúñiga and Mara Rey on cante, and El Polito on dance). Gran Teatro. Córdoba (Spain), November 27th, 2010. 9.00 pm

There are no longer partial awards in Córdoba, but rather a single one for the artists who the jury considers the best in each category. With this approach, the contest’s nineteenth edition has ended up with one prize not being awarded, that of baile, and two winners: guitarist Antonio Rey and cantaor Antonio Mejías. Both of them went to collect and justify their respective awards at the final gala which was held at the Gran Teatro, after the presenter recalled the list of illustrious prizewinners, the magic moments occurring since 1956 and the importance of the contest to which flamenco “in part” owes being Heritage of Humanity today.

Antonio Rey. Córdoba Flamenco Contest Winner’s Gala (Photo Daniel Muñoz)

Antonio Mejías. Córdoba Flamenco Contest Winner’s Gala (Photo Daniel Muñoz)

Antonio Rey did so as the professional he is. In fact, the songs he presented in competition are part of his disc ‘A través de ti’ (2007): the taranta ‘Recuerdos’ and the rondeña ‘Al tío Pepe Habichuela’. The Madrilenian guitarist, a musician of companies such as Farruquito’s and that of ‘Flamenco Hoy de Carlos Saura’, also had to demonstrate his worth in accompaniment, for which he relied on cantaor Antonio Zúñiga and bailaor El Polito. In his case, this award doesn’t reveal anything new to us, not just because of what he had already established on his album, but also due to what he does on the professional circuit, forever attentive to that so current toque of his which combines spectacular technique with flamenco feeling in rhythmics, performance and expression.

Perhaps for the name of Antonio Mejías, who has focused his career on the circuit of peñas and local festivals, the prize has more of an effect. But in few cases (the most obvious one, that of Miguel Poveda at La Unión), regardless of the prizewinner’s merit, do the contests serve as a real launch pad in view of the audience and market. The cantaor from Montilla endorsed his award with a selection of cantes in which he included the soleá, malagueñas and seguiriyas announced, adding tanguillos and bulerías.

Given the absence of baile on the winners’ list, Javier Latorre and Marcos Flores, the top two prizewinners in the history of the contest, were courteous enough to put the icing on the cake of the gala with a couple of solos and an encounter. The veteran dancer recovered his solemn ‘Réquiem por Antonio’, while the young bailaor performed cabales as if they were alegrías. And between pieces, they met por martinetes. The dialogue was prolonged to the end por bulerías, a generational exchange with the quality-personality binomial as the common denominator.

Javier Latorre and Marcos Flores. Córdoba Flamenco Contest Winner’s Gala (Photo Daniel Muñoz)

Javier Latorre. Córdoba Flamenco Contest Winner’s Gala (Photo Daniel Muñoz)

But the good aftertaste left by the final double performance didn’t manage to clear up the doubts arising from attending a contest like this one as a listener. The first question is what are the awards given to? Revelation? Career? Regulation? And the second one, what are the awards given for? Money? Popularity? Prestige? Which are joined by more specific questions like how it is possible for the baile award not to be given with all the young talent that is seen on stages; why a flamenco contest doesn’t draw young people to the audience; or why so many previous prizewinners never took the step from the award to the profession. Perhaps a following reconsideration might oblige one to synchronize the fact with its time and orient the reward towards the productive (an album, a tour, a show…) and even towards new technologies; but always when the candidates’ profile is that of young talents with potential. Only then would it be obligatory for the media, public, critics and profession to be attentive to what happens here.