Raimon started singing in public in 1961, while he was still a student at the University of Valencia where he took his degree in History. At the same time, he was on the fringe of the Barcelona movement of the Nova Cançó, to which he brought a personal and divergent style which placed him in an absolutely original position with regard to both this movement and also the Spanish musical scene in fashion at that time.

He sang for the first time in Barcelona at the Forum Vergés in 1962. His music, words and way of singing caused a great surprice in the artistic circles of the early sixties. His first song. Al vent, was an instant success.

His recital of November 1966at the Institut Quimic of Sarrià, of January 1967 at the Palau de la Música Catalana, of May 1968 at the Economics Faculty of the University of Madrid, of October 1975 at the Palau d'Esports of Barcelona, the only recital he was allowed of the four promised to him at the Pabellón de Deportes of the Real Madrid in February 1976 or the four recitals in the Palau d'Esports of Barcelona in March of the same year and the one of July in Valencia in the fielld of Levante, as well as the spectacle he presented in the Palau Sant Jordi of Barcelona on April 23, 1993 with the title "Raimon, 30 anys d'Al vent", (Raimon, 30 years of In the Wind), and the five recitals in the Palau de la Música Catalana in the spring of 1997 are hall outstanding moments in a possible "collective autobiography". They are performances which have gone beyond the circle of music lovers to become social phenomena.

A point of reference in the fight for democracy and against the dictatorship, Raimon is a singer and poet who brings to music his distinctive and personal voice which is far removed from the usual fashion and circuits of pop music.

Raimon's international importance and vocation is evident from the edition of records and recitals in different countries around the world.

Translated by Angela Buxton (Nova Integral 2000)

Al vent (1959)
Translated by Angela Buxton

IN THE WIND

In the wind;
the face in the wind,
the heart in the wind,
the hands in the wind,
in the wind of the world.

And we all,
all full of night,
searching for light,
searching for peace,
searching for god,
in the wind of the world.

Life gives us sorrows;
being born is a great cry;
life could be this cry;
but we

in the wind
the face in the wind,
the heart in the wind,
the hands in the wind,
the eyes in the wind,
in the wind of the world.

And we all,
all full of night,
searching for light,
searching for peace,
searching for god,
in the wind of the world.

Web page by Carme Ros and Nausica Solà for AELC.
Photographs: Cover photograph © Pere Duran; biography's photograhs from Raimon's personal files and from AELC's files.