Marga Córdoba
Marga Córdoba Heredia is a Gitana flamenco singer from Granada who embodies, like few others, the most authentic and deeply rooted flamenco: the kind that doesn’t chase the big stages, but lives and breathes in the tablaos, caves and peñas (flamenco clubs) of her homeland.
Marga usually performs at tablaos and peñas in and around Granada, such as La Alboreá, despite having been offered international tours and shows in Japan. Her answer says it all: “What more do I want? I’m happy with this: my home, my family, my singing… I’ve got it all right here in Granada.”
In her fifties, she still sings every day whenever work comes along, and although it’s a busy and unpredictable life, it is what she loves most. She is an artist who chooses the truth of flamenco over easy glamour.
Her whole life revolves around cante (flamenco song). Her husband, Juan José, also Gitano, a singer and guitarist from Nerja, has always shared flamenco with her, and their home is full of reused scraps of paper with song lyrics scribbled on the back. Juan José devoted much of his time to the family forge, which inspires Marga, who loves the martinete, the flamenco song style born in the blacksmiths’ forges.
Her repertoire is a mix of her favourite styles: martinete, tarantos and tangos “her own way”, fandangos de Huelva, bulerías and sevillanas. She is usually accompanied by guitarists such as her son José de la Marga, Manuel Fernández, Juan Moreno and Rafael Fajardo.
Marga Córdoba is a renowned singer in Granada and a regular at Tablao La Alboreá. Critics and audiences who have seen her up close agree: those who have attended her performances describe a “magnificent performance” that leaves its mark on everyone who hears her.
In short, Marga Córdoba Heredia is a living portrait of flamenco that needs no spotlights or posters to shine, only her voice, her compás (rhythm) and the duende she carries within.