Raimon (Xàtiva, 1940). He began to sing in 1962, and in 1963 he released his first album with the iconic song Al vent. He writes his own songs and sets them to music, all of them characterised by great beauty and strength, whether they are criticising the dictatorship or are love songs. But he has also set writers such as Ausiàs March, Salvador Espriu, Joan Timoneda, Jordi de Sant Jordi, Bernat Metge and Pere Quart to music.
He has produced almost forty albums, and many of the mythical songs in Catalan that everyone remembers are his: Diguem no, T’he conegut sempre igual, D’un temps, d’un país, Cançó de les mans, Si un dia vols, País Basc, 18 de maig a la vila, Sobre la pau, Cantarem la vida, Veles e vents, Cançó de la mare, and the delightful Com un puny. He has received numerous distinctions, prizes and tributes and has sung all over the world. He is possibly the greatest exponent of Catalan song and an outstanding representative of the struggle for language and freedom.
LiberPress Song Award 2007
The first LiberPress Song Award was given to him because he is one of the most important representatives of the Nova Cançó and of Catalan culture, for a great career carried out with exceptional rigour and professionalism, for his continuous, tenacious struggle in favour of oppressed peoples and individuals, for the coherence of his work, for all the wonderful poetry written by him and by others which he has turned into song, and because “we have always known him as he is now” and he has wanted to be a man, a poet, a musician and a singer who is free and has a sense of solidarity, “the son of a time and a country”.