Amaral, recorded during the 2025 Radio Encendida festival – an eleven hour marathon of the best Spanish Pop, Folk and Indie artists and bands all in one place and broadcast live by RNE España.
One of the groups performing is the Rock duo Amaral, who have been together since 1998. Amaral is from Zaragoza, they have sold more than four million albums worldwide. The band consists of Eva Amaral (vocals) and Juan Aguirre (guitar), who write their songs together. The two met in 1992 in a bar in Zaragoza. Amaral played drums in a local punk rock band called Bandera Blanca and also sang with Acid Rain. Aguirre was playing with a band called Días de Vino y Rosas at the time. Soon after they met, the two decided to play together and perform their own material. In 1997, they moved to Madrid and signed a major deal with EMI. Amaral’s musical style is categorized ad pop rock, but it is often fused with Latin beats, folk rock, synthesizers, poetic lyrics, and in particular, traditional Spanish folk music.
Aguirre was born in San Sebastián (also known as Donostia), in the Guipúzcoa province of Spain. He spent his childhood in the town of Gros [es], while Amaral originates from Zaragoza. Inspirations for their songs include cinema, friends, and literature. The duo have won numerous prizes, including the MTV Europe Music Award for their 2002 album, Estrella de mar, which was nominated in five other categories. They are one of the best-selling Spanish groups of all time. As of 2025, they have released nine studio albums, one EP, two live albums, and three live DVDs.
In 2004, they were supposed to record an album and play with Bob Dylan when he visited Spain, but Juan suffered a wrist injury, so they had to delay the recording and Eva sang alone with Dylan. Finally in November of that year, Eva and Juan recorded their fourth album Pájaros en la cabeza (“Birds in the Head”, a Spanish expression meaning “dreamer”), again with Cameron Perkins. On March 14th 2004 they released it. It contained 14 songs, in a pop and rock style. They toured all over Spain until October, and later left to play in Mexico and Argentina. At the same time they recorded a concert for a DVD called El comienzo del Big Bang (The Beginning of the Big Bang). It was the best selling album in Spain in 2005, and sold about 600,000 copies worldwide.
In May 2008, they released their fifth studio album named Gato negro.Dragón rojo (“Black cat, red dragon”). This is the first album in which Juan sings, in the track Es sólo una canción.
Eva has also sung with Moby.
In 2019 they released an album “Salto Al Color.” This was followed by the European tour “Giro Salto Al Color,” which completed successfully in spite of many Covid-related postponements.
They are currently getting to embark on a tour, primarily around Spain and Europe, beginning in May of this year. Check them out.
