Judges, Guitars, Freedom and the Mainstream: Problematizing the Early Cantautor in Spain

Cantautor is the word in the Spanish, Catalan and Galician languages coined in the 1960s to refer to a politically engaged singer who performed his/her own songs. In Basque, the term is kantari. ¹ The output of these musicians was labelled canción de autor (literally author’s song), or sometimes canción protesta (protest song). ² This chapter deals with these early musicians and songs, from their emergence until the death of General Francisco Franco – that is, the second half of the Franco dictatorship (1959–1975). The context of late-Francoism is crucial in the birth and rise of the canción de autor. This emerged as a political action and flourished throughout the 1960s and into the 1970s. It was mainly a form of protest against the Franco regime and eventually declined in the 1980s with the consolidation of the democratic process. ³