Singer Eva Amaral this week created headlines by baring her chest at a festival, joining a string of other artists asserting this freedom in the name of defending women’s rights. Read the full article on The Guardian
In the middle of her performance at the Sonorama festival in the northern Spanish town of Aranda de Duero on Saturday, Eva Amaral was about to lead her band Amaral into her song Revolución when she took off her red sequin top and threw it on the floor.
“This is for Rocío, for Rigoberta, for Zahara, for Miren, for Bebe, for all of us,” she said, listing the names of fellow artists before uncovering her breasts. “Because no one can take away the dignity of our nakedness. The dignity of our fragility, of our strength. Because there are too many of us.” In a concert marking the Spanish band’s 25-year career, going topless was a way of defending women’s dignity and freedom to go nude, and “a very important moment”, Amaral later told El País.
But it was also a show of solidarity with a growing number of Spanish artists who are resorting to nudity to defend women’s rights, and have been censored or attacked as a result.
In June, police stopped a concert by the singer Rocío Saiz during Pride in Murcia after she took off her top to perform her song Como yo te Amo, something the singer says she has done during performances for over 10 years. The local police have since apologised and opened an inquiry into the incident, adding that a police officer acted “incorrectly”.
Last year, Rigoberta Bandini’s hugely popular ode to motherhood Ay Mamá became a kind of feminist anthem in Spain, thanks to lyrics such as “I don’t know why our boobs are so frightening” and “sticking out a breast, Delacroix style”
