She hasn't had it easy, but she has always faced everything with what is, possibly, the most radiant smile in the Barcelona music scene. "Music is always there, and it has helped me since I was little to cope with situations that my family and I have had to deal with as best we could, always with love first and foremost."
Singer Lidia Sobrino sips a San Francisco at the bar and doesn't hide her pride in a family where music was always present along with that great unshakeable affection. "Thanks to my parents, I am who I am. They have transmitted to me, without them knowing it, very deep values such as respect, tolerance, kindness… among many others." Her expression clouds as she remembers her father, whom she recently lost: "I will be eternally grateful for many things that he doesn't even imagine he gave me, I miss him. He fought for many years against schizophrenia that prevented him from being free, but his nobility, his courage, and all his love have filled me as a daughter."
Involved in musical projects since she was 15, with Ascetics "I discovered my passion for harmonies and doowop." A love that is reflected in her current journey, The Sparkles, a vocal band that evokes the sound of girl groups from the late 50s and was born in 2009 by the grace of Eddie Peregrín, "I still remember how happy I was when he called me and invited me to be part of the group. I didn't think twice and I will always be grateful to him."
The Sparkles have gone through many stages "all of them very special", after the break motivated by the pandemic, now they return to the fray with strength with performances in venues like Jamboree or the recent visit to the Doowop Fever festival. "We are very eager to enjoy this return and also to be able to show our latest work that came out in 2018, Songs the girls taught us (published by the Barcelona collector Enrique Escartín), a CD dedicated to all those women who have left us a great musical legacy."
All this coincides with a very special moment in life: Lidia Sobrino's motherhood. "It's only been a few years since I became a mother and, although I believe that not because you are a woman you have to be a mother, I feel very fortunate to be able to grow alongside my son. For me it has been a great gift and it has changed the way I see life... Even if it sounds like a cliché!". She smiles with her particular mix of shyness, extroversion and daring that, she confesses, "becomes comical at many moments in my life."
Life scale in Amsterdam
There was a moment in Lidia's life, while studying musical education, when she felt the need to oxygenate herself and decided to go to Amsterdam. "With a one-way ticket and money to support myself for a month or two at most, I began a great adventure into the unknown. It was only a year and a half, but it was a crucial moment for me. On that trip, in addition to meeting great people with whom I still have contact today, I found myself. I discovered my inner strength and that I could make my own way and decide where I wanted to go." With that momentum, she finished her studies.
But then came the time to apply for an Erasmus scholarship in the Netherlands to do an internship. "The first time they denied it to me because my grades were not something to brag about. As a child I couldn't study musical language for economic reasons and I started my studies at 18, when I could afford them with my job. I had to work very hard working and studying language and attending university at the same time, but it was what I wanted and I knew what I could do. In the interview for the scholarship, the person in charge of granting it highlighted that my studies at the Taller de Músics were not as serious as those of a conservatory and that, perhaps, I had chosen the wrong specialty. She recommended me to change to something else."
"With a one-way ticket and money to support myself for a month or two at most, I began a great adventure into the unknown. It was only a year and a half, but it was a crucial moment for me"The singer does not hide how much those words hurt her, "but I decided not to listen to them. I reapplied the following year, with good grades in musical language and with basic knowledge of Dutch. The same person who had denied me the scholarship, accepted it and congratulated me. You should never listen to the voices that tell you that you can't, unless it's to give you momentum. We have to deal with those thoughts and transform them."
As a reflection ---or consequence--- of her innate generosity, Lidia works in primary education teaching music classes. "I enjoy my work and discover things with my students. I think more importance should be given to music in classrooms and although its importance in the integral development of the person, its universality and transversality are discussed, when it comes down to it, it is not given the space or importance it should," she asserts. "It seems a luxury that nowadays someone has access to musical studies and music should be within everyone's reach, as Gianni Rodari said, not so that everyone becomes an artist, but so that no one is a slave."
The two sides of an urban coin
With a Barcelonian father and a Soria mother, raised in Poble Sec and a resident of various neighborhoods for many years, the artist Lidia Sobrino defines herself as very urban even though she currently lives in a town on the outskirts. "For me, life in the city and in the town represent two sides of a coin that form a complete whole," she emphasizes, considering herself fortunate for it.
"For me, life in the city and in the town represent two sides of a coin that form a complete whole""Barcelona captivates me, it has its nooks and crannies that always surprise, its cultural diversity, its colorfulness. I like its offer for all tastes, its face to the sea... I remember when I was younger, for me the city was very big, it was when I traveled that I thought 'how small!' And, at the same time, I felt a certain relief because I could easily explore it. My ideal size!" she affirms, before regretting the fact of "seeing the streets dirty, full of waste," of a Barcelona whose care "we all have to become aware of." She also dislikes "the loss of identity, the overcrowding. All of this is becoming more and more present. I appreciate the people who resist this inertia, they are like little lights of hope."
---Here at the Bar we have not lost an iota of our character and we are willing to prove it to you through our culinary offer. There is everything: menu, à la carte, tapas... Are you up for it?
Finishing her cocktail, Lidia Sobrino thinks for a moment, before deciding: "Well, let it be a menu, with many options to choose from." Then, a brief silence before concluding: "And for dessert, let there be chocolate coulant, eh?" she says, once again displaying the most radiant smile of Barcelona's musical scene.