Their music made it all the way to the Vatican...
...and it made quite an impact. Spanish folk group “Siempre Así” performed songs from their album “Mass of Joy” in St. Peter's Basilica. Among the crowd watching them was Spain's ambassador to the Holy See.
The group decided to celebrate their thirty year anniversary in the Eternal City, which they described as filled with excitement.
RAFA ALMARCHA
It's immensely satisfying and a great thrill because not everyone can say:we got to sing here our album Mass of Joy, which we identify so strongly with, which marked a before and after in our lives. It is a group of songs that we made to bring the message of Jesus Christ to the 21st century in a very informal, cheerful way, and we received an award from the Spanish Bishops' Conference. The record went gold, it had a great impact not only on the Christian world but for all audiences because it reached best seller lists.
The group dedicated their performance to Spanish Cardinal Carlos Amigo Vallejo, who died in April. He was the former Archbishop of Seville and had planned to be present to preside over the Mass.
But they didn't only perform in St. Peter's. The previous day they held a concert with the “Rome ensemble orchestra” in the church of St. Ignatius of Loyola.
RAFA ALMARCHA
We are Christians, we are Catholics who were formed musically in our Church choir. We sang a lot, and it is a way of thanking God for all of the good things that have happened to us. We thought, where better for this than in the home of St. Peter? And we were invited to the by the Foundation for Music and Sacred Art of Rome which is something we couldn't even dream about.
The group from Seville made the about 300 people present cry, laugh, and dance to the sound of their claps and beating of the guitar.
That's how they celebrated 30 years together, during which they made 16 albums which have sold nearly a million copies, and performed more than 1,000 concerts around Spain and Latin America.
JRB
TR: JM
