Pérez-Villalba, Esther

Dr. Esther Pérez-Villalba is a Lecturer in English Studies at the University of Zaragoza (Spain). She completed her Cultural Studies-based Ph.D. Thesis at The Nottingham Trent University (England) in 2005. She has written on Spanish political singer-songwriting of the Transition and is currently working on British and American Cinema.

How Political Singers Facilitated the Spanish Transition to Democracy, 1960-1982

2007 0-7734-5417-9
This book explores the politics of identity in works by popular male singer-songwriters Víctor Manuel and Joaquín Sabina and in those by well-known female political singer Ana Belén between the years 1968 and 1982. It examines the connections that existed between their works and the broader Spanish context of the Transition (1960-1982) to democracy. It also explores the representations of Spanish national identity – with special reference to gender differences – that appeared in their texts between 1968 and 1982. It compares the relationship that existed between representations of the nation and national identity in their musical work and Francoist notions of Spain and Spanishness as constructed in different hegemonic discourses. Finally, this book examines some of the most relevant roles that Spanish canción de autor/a, cantautores and cantantes políticos fulfilled at the time of the Transition, especially among different anti-Francoist collectives.