Spain and Portugal for Visitors

The phenomenon of Más in 1997/8 put Sanz firmly at the top of the pop world. His solid flamenco background and musicality are the foundations of his songwriting and performance, in contrast with the superficiality of his heartthrob image.

Teen idol of the moment. Unbearable.

Duo from Saragossa, which produces moderately catchy, eminently danceable pop songs and always seems to go down well live. All their songs sound the same, which I suppose is not a problem if you like the original.

Carmen Paris is unclassifiable, from her origins - is she Catalan or Aragonese? How old is she? - to her eclectic mixture of styles: jazz, flamenco, Aragonese jota... The result is often closer to cabaret than to rock or pop, though her 2008 album, inCubando, looks set to prove more commercial than anything she has done before. This is the second time I have included this link, as Carmen Paris' website disappeared a year or two ago and has now resurged.

Fabulous, hard-rocking Celtic rock group from Valladolid which I nearly have to include under "Spanish Folk Music," as that is precisely what they began as, a folk group. Celtas Cortas has moved on, though, and these days sounds more like punk than folk, although they have incorporated quite sophisticated sounds along the way. Their live performances, especially, are overwhelming.

Wikipedia describes Deluxe as "a one-man... music group from Galicia, Spain," and that kind of tantalizing paradox is just the effect "its only member and founder," Xoel López, is striving for. Not, it must be said, out of this world musically, but interesting, thoughtful, thought-provoking and all-round pretty damn good, and the pop-rock world would be better off if there were more like it. Or him. Or whatever.

Eighties rock band - correction, excellent eighties rock band - which made the mistake of not splitting up until nearly 2000.

Leader of the near-heavy rock band from Saragossa, Heroes del Silencio, which broke up in 1997 (and got back together again in 2007). Bunbury is adored by the media, but has never had the same success solo as with Heroes del Silencio, perhaps because he changes his image every five minutes, perhaps because the music is, simply, not as good.

Noxious, whining, daddy's boy, unmusical, untalented... I really do not understand how anyone can bear to listen to him.

Duo as famous for their good humour and working class image as for their undoubtedly catchy music.

Rock band from Extremadura, geddit?

Proof if proof were needed that the best way to achieve success in the music world, or at least lasting success, is to believe in what you do, for the repertoire of the group of Adolfo Cabrales (Fito) is almost eclectic, running from rock to soul, through blues and swing. Fito & the Fitipaldis is famously a great band to see live.

Rock group from Saragossa, Aragón, which was tremendously successful 1987-1997, when they broke up. Until then, Heroes del Silencio was one of the rockier rock bands on the Spanish music scene, without actually being heavy. They re-formed for an anniversary tour in 2007, and considering that not even the band's charismatic leader, Enrique Bunbury, had much success on his own it is not improbable that it will stay together.

Proof that lack of musical talent is no impediment to producing good pop, and somewhere between bubble-gum and punk, Hombres G were an authentic phenomenon in the mid-eighties, particularly in South America, and their flag song "Muere Cabrón" (Die, you ****!) is still hummed. Jollily. They got back together in 2004 for an anniversary tour and everyone said "Why?"

The band of Pau Donés had its first hit in 1997 with "La Flaca."

Legendary singer-songwriter whose lyrics are more like poems and whose concerts are honest-to-god life-enhancing experiences (and "life-enhancing" is an expression I would normally be embarassed about using).

Veteran singer/songwriter from Madrid.

Antimusic. But however awful Julio Iglesias may be (start at "very" and work upwards), he is nothing like as repugnant as his son.

Colourful, veteran rocker who has fallen about as low as it is possible to get and pulled himself up again.

Spain's most country-club band. Actually, some of their stuff is quite good, but their image is 100% counter-counterculture.

Spanish pop-rock trio, erstwhile quartet, with a curious though repetitive sound making heavy use of Mexican-type brass (or its synthesized equivalent) and the ranchero voice of their female lead singer. This sound tells the most interesting thing about La 5ª Estación, which is that they achieved success not in Spain but in Mexico and Latin America, returning triumphally to Spain with their third album, El Mundo Se Equivoca. Their name is a kind of play on words, meaning either "The Fifth Season," or "The Fifth Station," and I did say that that was not the most interesting thing about them.

The hardest rocking, raunchiest band Spain has ever seen, led by Argentinian Andrés Calamaro.

Playing intelligent but deceptively easy-listening pop-rock with a notable country influence, Los Secretos are the nearest thing in Spanish rock to The Eagles (they have worked with Jackson Browne). Formed in 1980, Los Secretos were heavily marked by the drugs-related death (overdose or suicide is not clear) of singer Enrique Urquijo in 1999, but a tribute record in 2000, A Tu Lado, was highly successful (deservedly - it is among my top faves of all time) and Los Secretos returned to performance and recording in 2002.

Cheerful, Barcelona-based, multicultural and multilingual band with an eclectic but bouncy sound - think Ojos de Brujo or Manu Chao.

The band of Spanish actress Leonor Watling is original and funky. Marlango's repertoire (Watling is their songwriter) is thoughtful with a touch of adolescent angst, like Tom Waits for teenagers, which appeals to me, personally.

Undoubtedly historic but nauseatingly poppy band of the Cano bros and Ana Torroja. Someone is putting together a petition to have them join up again - God forbid. One of those awful musicals based on their greatest hits is sometimes performed - if you are the sort of person who likes, say, Abba, you will probably enjoy it.

Very irreverent, very funny, very hard-rocking and all-round pretty damn good. More like satire than rock, though.

Beloved and imitated by transvestites for her flamboyance and overacting, at least she rocks.

Eight (or nine, or more)-piece band from Barcelona, Ojos de Brujo (literally "Eyes of a Warlock") has a seemingly endless ability to surprise. They have evident flamenco roots, even if more pop than serious flamenco, and more than a touch of flamenco in their image, and have actually won awards as a flamenco outfit, but they refuse to be limited by the flamenco tag and add elements of hip-hop, rap, Caribbean music or anything else that takes their fancy.

I suppose Pedro Guerra deserves credit for getting over the barrier of looking exactly like a pop star shouldn't, and I recognise his considerable musical talent, but I find him unbearably twee.

Easy-listening verging on musak, with just a touch of jazz and a female singer who never looks even slightly raunchy, Presuntos Implicados appeals to twenty-something, middle-class girls, and if you aren't one you probably won't understand why. When I was a lad, this sort of thing used to be labelled "bed-sit rock."

Very talented songwriter who makes good use of Caribbean and other exotic rhythms, Rosana is also an excellent performer, who can carry a crowd effortlessly. In fact, the only thing I have against her is her early patronage by the very sinister Teddy Bautista of the SGAE, the fiendish Spanish Writers and Songwriters Society.

And what, pray (I hear you ask) has Shakira to do with Spain or Portugal? Well, nothing really, but when you're in love...

Punk didn't really make much of an impact in Spain, the whole thing was just too Anglo-Saxon. Siniestro Total (meaning "complete write-off," one of the best names for a band I know) were honourable exceptions.

"Violadores del Verso" could translate as "Verse Violators," but I think "Rhyme Rapists" captures their intelligent, iconoclastic, non-PC approach better. I'm not a great rap fan, myself, but I have to admit that the Violadores (for short) are top quality writers and performers, drawing on a broad range of musical styles.