Maria del Mar Bonet
Singer-songwriter (Palma, 1947)
Although while Maria del Mar was still a girl she showed her love and talent for singing and music, she moved to Barcelona in 1967 to study Ceramics. When she was there her brother Juan Ramón introduced her to the group Els Setze Jutges, of which he was also a member. This group, formed in 1961, included a number of singers who were fighting for democracy, vindicated Catalan language and culture, and fomented the movement of the Nova Cançó. Among Els Setze Jutges there were singer-songwriters like Lluís Llach and Joan Manuel Serrat, who years later, like Maria del Mar, would be successful in their solo careers.
Regarded by many as one of the most beautiful voices in the Mediterranean, Maria del Mar gave up her studies and recorded her first record in 1969. In 1971 she won a Gold Disc in Spain. In the early 1970s she began to perform abroad, and over the years she has sung in all Europe, Japan, United States of America, South America, North Africa...
Her most important albums include A l’Olympia (1975), Alenar (1977), L’Àguila Negra (1981), Jardí Tancat (1981), Cançons de la nostra Mediterrània (1982), Raixa (2001), Amic, Amat (2004) and Terra Secreta (2007). These records have made her worthy of awards like the Creu de Sant Jordi in 1984 and the National Music Prize of the Generalitat de Catalunya in 1992.