User:Groovy-Human-Bean/Bilbainada

The bilbainada is a musical genre typical of Biscay in which, as its name implies, covers topics relating mainly to Bilbao and its nearby towns and villages. Since 1988, Radio Nervión has held a contest centred on this musical genre in which many bilbainadas are performed and a prize is awarded to the best one (according to a panel of judges), and the winner is given a figurine or statuette of Diego López of Haro (founder of Bilbao) and a cheque containing a given amount of money.

History
To set the origin of these songs known as bilbainadas, one must look back to when Diego López V of Haro founded the town of Bilbao. It can be said that certain similarities exist between these songs and those notes and letters of those called "songs of the blind," popular displays between which news and successes were aired on the plazas of villages. In addition, in the 19th and 20th centuries the influence of Habanera rhythms would shape the bilbainada. Popular songs, in this manner, pick up the best of folkloric songs and the idiosyncrasies of a land of which's permanence and richness all Biscayans take part in.

Biscay has changed all which has been its own, and it has done so by contributing its own particular way of living and of understanding life, one of those ways being through bilbainada. In bilbainadas, group experience, curious and customary observation of reality, nostalgia, and irony converge with their own distinctions and all with celebration for the moment, because of which the music is very difficult to resist.

Between 1920 and 1930 the first bilbainada groups oriented towards a public majority and an artistic name were forged. The spreading of their popularity was as much thanks to the turntable as to the radio, opening up a new stage in the history of bilbainadas. Groups that were very connected with the town influenced the propagation of the term bochera. The Bocho, a word utilised to refer to Bilbao, gave name to bochera songs and to the group Los Bocheros. Chimbos, a traditional name for Bilbaoans, lends its name to chimberanas and to groups like Los Chimberos and Los Chimbos. This once-local terminology has passed into universality.

Bilbainada groups
Being a popular genre, the bilbainada cannot be understood without the entity and distinct personality of each of the groups that have performed it over the years:


 * Beti Aurrera & Azul Bilbao
 * Bilbotarrak
 * Los Chimberos
 * Los Cinco Bilbaínos
 * Bilbao Mapa Mundi
 * Indarra
 * Los Bocheros
 * Los Txikis
 * Gaupasa
 * Irrintzi

Its own evolution is marked by new groups which incorporate themselves into the genre, contributing their freshness and youth, without losing the essence of the traditional bilbainadas. One of these is Beti Aurrera, which rose to fame in 2007 with the intention of maintaining the musical tradition and cultural heritage displayed in bilbainadas, taking them even to cross borders on occasions like the presentation in New York of the 20th Bilbainada Contest organised by the City Hall of Bilbao and aided by the Nervión Group. 

Said contest was created by Radio Nervión in the year 1988 and now forms part of the history of the singular and exclusive genre that is the bilbainada, leaving patent the impulse that Radio Nervión gives to bilbainadas.

Songs
Some popular compositions of the bilbainada genre include:


 * A Portugalete fui / A mí me gusta el pin piribim pin pin (I went to Portugalete / I like the pin piribim pin pin [musical nonsense sounds])
 * Apaga luz (Turn Off the Light)
 * ¡Aupa Erandio! (Goodbye, Erandio!)
 * Beber, beber (To Drink, To Drink)
 * Bilbao y sus pueblos (Bilbao and its towns)
 * Desde Santurce a Bilbao (From Santurce to Bilbao)
 * "Disen" los albañiles ("Say" [misspelled] the bricklayers)
 * En el monte Gorbea (On the Gorbea Mountain)
 * La del pañuelo rojo (The Girl with the Red Handkerchief)
 * Los borrachos en el cementerio (The Drunkards in the Cemetery)
 * Los pintores de Vitoria (The Painters of Vitoria)
 * Maitechu mía (Love Me)
 * Si vas a Baracaldo (If you go to Baracaldo)
 * Un inglés vino a Bilbao (An Englishman came to Bilbao)