The Algarve musician Vítor Bacalhau will represent Portugal at the European Blues Challenge 2018, which takes place in March 2018, in Hell, Norway. This competition brings together, annually, 21 blues bands from as many European countries.
Vítor Bacalhau had already been nominated in the last three years to represent Portugal, but this was the first time he was elected. «It's an honor and I hope to be up to the challenge», the musician from Armação de Pêra vents to the Musical|Sul Informação.
The competition started in 2011 and this is the third time that Portugal is present. Budda Power Blues and Messias and The Hot Tones have represented our country in previous editions.
The choice is organized and supervised by the BB Blues Portugal Association, through the voting of a jury that, this year, left The Ramblers, Delta Blues Riders, Black Dog Blues Band and Nuno Andrade Blues Drive in their tracks.
The election will allow Vítor Bacalhau to gain greater visibility in Europe. “My main objective is precisely that. I already have some things scheduled outside Portugal and I hope that, with this, I can go out there more and more», confesses the guitarist.
Despite not knowing his “opponents” yet, a word that causes some strangeness to the musician, and despite knowing that the level in the competition is usually high, Vítor Bacalhau is thinking of victory. “I'd like [to win], of course I'm going there to think about it!”, says the musician.
At the beginning of November, Vítor Bacalhau released his second album “Cosmic Attraction”, a record he is promoting at the time, and which he will take to Norway in March 2018.
As for the musical genre, the blues is not one of the most publicized, but «it has had an unusual growth, going from less than half a dozen festivals, to 10, 15 or 20, in a matter of two or three years».
Vítor Bacalhau explores a sound «with a “foot in rock” and in other genres». The blues is considered the basis of many styles of contemporary music, and «just as Fado merged with other genres and sounds, to continue to thrive and gain public, in Blues the same thing is happening, even with names internationals like the Black Keys or Jack White who do things completely “outside”. Still, the genesis is always there and those are the ones that really influence me», reveals the musician.
Another good news for Portuguese blues is that the European Blues Challenge, in 2019, will be held in Ponta Delgada, Azores. It will certainly be an important contribution to the development of the national blues.
“Old Soul” is one of the themes of the new album, where Vítor Bacalhau shares his voice and guitar with Budda Guedes, producer of the album. The musician reveals that the music arose from the “Jams Sessions” that followed the recording of the first songs, having been the first that he composed entirely in the studio.
Comments