El vicio de cantar, Joan Manuel Serrat's farewell tour, is just around the corner. On April 27, the iconic Spanish singer will begin his last series of concerts in New York, and is already feeling melancholic about it.

“I will miss the stage, as I have missed it during these two years of the pandemic,” he said.

It is difficult to summarize Serrat's extensive career in one go, but in La Vanguardia he offered a selection of 10 songs that have marked his career.

“It is a balanced selection between my production in Catalan and Spanish," said Serrat. 

He chose songs that stir "the depths of my feelings."

1. “Cancó de matinada”: “For me it was, and continues to be, a very innovative song, in its form, in its construction, in discovering and searching for the development of a dawn,” he said. It's a very rural song, which describes daily life in the 60s. At the time, the singer was a city man.

2. “Pare”: Despite being written 50 years ago, Serrat believes that “it remains tremendously current."

"It speaks of the great pending problems of society, incapable of being resolved by some leaders without enough courage,” he said. 

Today, he believes the fundamental problems of the world are climate change and a lack of solidarity.

3. “Seria fantàstic”: A song Serrat especially likes and enjoys.

"You think that life could be fantastic if things were simple and normal," he said, adding that it would also be ideal to be able to learn more from others and put aside individualism.

4. “Ja tens l’amor”: For Serrat, the song is “one of the best love songs I have done.” 

It's a short song, which describes love as something wonderful, complicated and difficult. What we keep of our lives is what "love touched and gave us."

5. “Cremant núvols”: “It is very pretty, very beautiful,” Serrat said.

The basis of the song was easy to write, but the details were more laborious.
 

6. “Mediterráneo”: Without a doubt, Serrat's most popular and universal song.

"For being my travel companion, is capable of getting into so many hearts, lives, of so many people in such different places," he said.

Serrat claims that the Mediterranean Sea is a unit, although it is increasingly diminished. Therefore, "we must protect it."

7. “Pueblo blanco”: The song can be conceived as a “cry against oppression, as reflected in the final verses,” and a vindication of the simple life.

8. “Aquellas pequeñas cosas”: For Serrat, this song is a small box where “everything you want to tell fits without the need to elaborate much.”

9. “De vez en cuando en la vida”: Serrat loves it because he loves life very much.

“When life approaches you, it kisses you, takes your hand, takes you out into the street, it makes the everyday magnificent,” he said.

10. “Los recuerdos”: Not so well known a song, but it speaks about a “discussion on the validity of memory as a notary of life.” Sometimes, the memory is deceitful, it tells us lies.

“People make their own memories,” said Serrat.