More than a year ago, I met Ángeles Toledano in his homeland, Jaén, and I felt a luck that is rarely perceived: finding myself in the presence of an enormous talent, above the highest talents. I realized that I was facing an artist capable of reaching where the greatest reach, those who touch the deepest part of the human soul while being able to open doors and advance music towards barely explored territories.
That day, Ángeles Toledano closed a beautiful tribute to Supersubmarina in the city of Jaén. By the time we spoke, I had known about her for a long time and had heard her first album, mudbloodwhere the quality of his flamenco was evident. However, his greatness was presented on stage, which is where all musical greatness is presented and where emotions come to the surface. He went out to the Jaén theater and allowed himself to sing a version of ‘Supersubmarina’, one of the most emblematic songs of the group of José, Juanca, Pope and Jaime. It was a revealing moment: a flamenco singer, with that tradition in her throat, who heartbreakingly made such a particular pop song her own. The pinch was one of those that is not forgotten. An extraordinary one. Something very special.
That day, we talked a lot, especially in a bar after his performance, and perhaps what I remember most of all what we said is that I saw a person with a lot of talent, but also an immense vocation and with an intact desire to work and strive. In short, I saw an artist hungry for the future. An artist who, if she was great for quality, wanted to be more so for effort and love of the craft of singing. And that, being clear about all the work and dedication, is always important to become great.
That future is now present. Ángeles Toledano starred alongside Alba Molina in a great moment at the last Goya Awards gala and has just come from triumphing at the New York flamenco festival. In this last year, he has done a wonderful tour presenting Mudblood. There, I had the opportunity to see their last concert in Madrid and I further confirmed that everything I had perceived more than a year ago more than met my expectations. In Madrid, Toledano gave an outstanding recital of flamenco grounded in the earth, with his feet and hands touching the roots of cante jondo, but his soul flying free towards popular spaces, without pastiches or easy modern pyrotechnics. With a scenery reminiscent of the movie Flamenco of Carlos Saura, the singer and her people left a beautiful mark. That day, Toledano also conquered Pedro Almodóvar with whom I was able to speak after the concert. She had also conquered Jorge Drexler, who came out to sing with her and with whom she collaborates on the Uruguayan singer’s next album.
In some way, this singer from Jaén gives off something similar to what Rosalía gave off when I met her and she was moving around Madrid to present her first album, Los Angeles, back in 2017. Because in Ángeles Toledano there is very valuable raw material, but also a powerful aura. She, who has a tattoo of Lole and Manuel and openly declares that her musical tastes can include Camarón or the Morente as well as Billie Elish or Supersubmarina, represents a new energy for flamenco while symbolizing all the value of Jaén, an always important land and to claim more in cante jondo. The land of the sea of olive trees served as a gateway through Despeñaperros for the gypsies in Andalusia in the 15th century and, from there, the song took on character in the agricultural and mining eras. As a consequence, that land gave rise to its own songs, such as tarantas in mining and the labor songs that were made during the tasks of planting or harvesting, and left a valuable influence, partly also due to the abundance of Cafés Cantantes in towns such as Martos, La Carolina or Linares. There are many names in Jaén flamenco, but I highlight Carmen Linares, possibly a mirror for Toledano.
Without a doubt, Ángeles Toledano has already joined the list of big names that are renewing flamenco in the last decade. A list, fortunately, wide and varied with people like Rocío Márquez, Israel Fernández, María José Llergo, Soleá Morente, Yerai Cortés, Rosario La Tremendita… She is one of those artists in which the present and the future are in her, but not only in flamenco, a territory with its restrictions, but also in Spanish music. Because if something was clear to me from my conversation with that artist I spoke with in Jaén at the beginning of 2025, it was that that was her goal: to excite strongly everywhere. He’s already getting it.