Underground song

Any time you’ve changed metro lines in Barcelona, you’re likely to have heard strains of opera, reggae, salsa, folk guitar or even Chinese flute music wafting through the underground air. You might have even tossed one of these performers a coin or stopped to listen for a moment before going on your way.

It may look like these musicians simply decided to try their luck busking below ground to make a bit of extra cash, but performing in the metro is a complicated business. The selection process for the Musics al Metro programme has been evolving for nearly two decades and requires undergoing a rigorous audition─a kind of musical test designed by the nonprofit Association of Street and Metro Musicians of Barcelona (AMUC) and the Municipal Public Transport of Barcelona (TMB). The project is part of TMB Cultura, which aims to establish links between citizens and cultural associations in the metropolitan area.

Auditions are held every spring in front of a jury composed of two professors from the Escola de Musics, Bartolomé García-Plata and Cesc Pascual. The extensive audition requires the preparation of 20 to 30 songs—a repertoire of at least two hours—in order to prove to the jury that the entertainer can hold their own for the two-hour slot they may be allotted.

The objective of the audition is not, as the organisers explain in their mission statement, to judge the musicians based on subjective musical preferences. It is simply to verify that the applicants are professional artists and not hobbyists. The jury selects songs at random from the repertoire list that each candidate provides. The criteria, according to AMUC, is ‘interpretive quality, the variety of the repertoire, originality, creativity, and the cultural, stylistic and instrumental diversity of the pieces performed’. Typical turnout for the annual auditions is between 50 and 70 musicians.

Those who are eventually selected are awarded membership of AMUC and can be found dotted across the 38 spaces in the metro reserved for musical performances. There are 600 card-carrying members of AMUC, although only 90 currently play below ground on a regular basis due to space limitations.

The organiser of AMUC, Rubén H., explained that the average acceptance rate after the auditions is 60 percent. “The purpose of the selection criteria is to prevent amateurs from taking the spot of someone who makes their living as a musician. We don’t want musicians who can’t play well, or who might offend the public, or who make too much noise,” he said. “This is about co-responsibility between musicians and the TMB to respect both the space and the art. If we don’t organise ourselves in this way, there could be complaints and the Musics al Metro programme would disappear.”

In the early days of the programme, the selection process was simpler but, since 2013, the demand for auditions has greatly outstripped the number of slots available and the process has become more complex. Now, the jury gives each applicant a numerical score, eliminating those musicians who score less than the average. From the remaining pool, the applicants are selected randomly via lottery.

One musician who made the cut this year is Francesc Sansalvadó, who prefers to be known by his artistic moniker, Cesc. He is a 23-year-old primary school teacher who sings and plays guitar in the Diagonal metro station. He studied piano and guitar as a child and has been active in AMUC for about a year.

“I’ve always been very attracted to playing in the metro,” Cesc said. “It gives me the opportunity to meet new people and to hopefully make their day more beautiful with my music. I get a lot of benefits from playing on the streets, or under them in this case. You have to understand that everything is in motion, and it forces you to perform differently. But the most important thing is that [playing here] allows me to make money from doing what I love.”

That’s not to say that presenting your art in the metro is easy—Cesc and his companions have to work hard for every euro they earn. For Cesc, the financial aspect is not easy, but the biggest challenge to any artist is not necessarily the money, but the ephemeral nature of what they do. “As a musician, I have to know how to bring a little bit of magic to people who are rushing from A to B, to try to share something important with them, if only briefly,” Cesc said. “This is simultaneously the best and worst part of the job.” He has to give the best of himself for two hours straight to people who have other things on their mind. There is no time to build a dynamic with his audience, as his audience may only be with him for 10 seconds. He gets one chance to connect—one chance to catch someone’s eye (or ear) and possibly make their day just a little bit better.

Kate and Robin, two British researchers passing through Barcelona on holiday, paused to watch Cesc perform, pleasantly surprised by the unexpected free show. “How cool that the city supports local musicians this way,” said Kate. “There’s nothing like this where I live!” Robin is curious as to how it all works. “This guy here is really good, but is he just playing for change? I mean, how do these people live? Does the city pay them?”

The answer is no. If a musician makes it successfully through the audition process, they are given permission to set up in a designated spot underground, for the privilege of playing for tips. As it becomes more challenging for musicians to make money on the live music scene, playing on the street or in the metro can sometimes be more profitable than playing so-called ‘normal’ shows. As a result, some local professional musicians see it as a viable career option.

Every day, musicians like Cesc play their hearts out for 120 minutes while the city passes by in a rush. But he says that the effort is worth it. “You learn to live every day to the fullest because you don’t know if the next day will be good or not. Playing in the metro forces you to hone your skills and it teaches you to appreciate the moment you’re living in right now.”