Spanish singer Rosa León has announced the release of her newest single, “La calle del gato que pesca,” a track featured on her upcoming tribute album dedicated to the Argentine novelist and poet María Elena Walsh, titled Carta de amor a María Elena Walsh. The single marks a unique artistic reunion, featuring a guest performance by humorist Joaquín Reyes. Nearly two decades after Reyes famously parodied León in a television sketch, the two artists have joined forces in the recording studio for a collaborative project that blends linguistic play with absurdist humor.
According to release announcements surrounding the project, Reyes’s career rooted in humor and the absurd aligns closely with the spirit of the work. The newly released track centers around intricate wordplay, where words are left intentionally incomplete at the end of verses for listeners to mentally fill in. León explained that this creative device draws inspiration from a literary technique utilized by Cervantes in El Quijote. The narrative of the song follows a feline character that steals hats, disguises itself as a police officer, and ultimately arrests itself—a storyline that encapsulates Walsh’s “intelligent humor capable of questioning logic from imagination and the absurd,” according to the release note.
Long before stepping into a recording studio together, Reyes portrayed León in the “Celebrities” segment of the show Muchachada Nui. Almost twenty years after that television tribute, the pair are collaborating as musical performers for the first time. In “La calle del gato que pesca,” Reyes lends his voice to mimic the singer while entoning portions of the song, merging musical performance with comedy.
Production and Star-Studded Album Collaborations
The broader album project, Carta de amor a María Elena Walsh, has been produced by Alejo Stivel. The tribute record brings together a prominent roster of Spanish-language music icons to honor the Argentine writer. Ahead of the complete album rollout, several notable artists have contributed to the collaborative tracklist, including Joaquín Sabina, Miguel Ríos, Ana Belén, Rozalén, and Silvio Rodríguez. Organizers confirmed that additional guest contributions from Joan Manuel Serrat, Víctor Manuel, and Santiago Segura will also feature on the final release.
María Elena Walsh remains an iconic figure in Hispanic literature and children’s culture, known for pioneering a unique genre of poetry, music, and storytelling that resonates across generations.
Concert Presentation and Future Schedule
To celebrate the release of the new material and her extensive musical catalog, Rosa León has scheduled a major live presentation titled Como la Cigarra en concierto. The performance is slated for September 29 at the Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid. The upcoming concert will feature a live walkthrough of the tracks included in the new tribute album alongside titles representative of León’s trajectory.
Keep reading