Her cuban ballet teacher put María the nickname of Massiel. She made her debut in 1966 with "Di que no", considered as one of the first protest songs in Spain, a genre that would increase its popularity till the end of the Franco's dictatorship.
She gained inmediately success with hits like "Rosas en el mar", "Rufo el Pescador" or "Aleluya nº1" and appearances in song contests like Vina del Mar, Majorca and Rome. She also made films like "Vestida de novia" and "codo con codo". All her songs had compromised lyrics so she was then catalogued as a "protest singer".
During the 1968 spring she was touring Mexico when Spanish Television called her urgently to represent Spain in the 13th Eurovision Song Contest due to the withdrawal of Joan Manuel Serrat who wanted to sing in catalan the song "La, la, la".
Serrat announced his intention just 15 days before going to London, so Massiel had to came back to Madrid, record the song in Spanish, English, French and German, appear in some european tv stations and go to Paris to buy a costume designed by Courrèges specially for the Contest. Eventually, she won the Eurovision Song Contest 1968 with the song "La, la, la", which earned 29 points, beating out famous British pop crooner Cliff Richard, who placed second that year with "Congratulations". She continued to perform in Stage shows, and records music.
Massiel appeared in the film Cantando a la Vida filmed in 1968, which profiled a winner of a European Song festival suddenly disappearing. Massiel had the lead role as "Maria". The movie was filmed in Andalucía, Spain. Massiel sang the entire soundtrack to the film, and raked in 9,020,397 pesetas from the box office.
In 1977, she released an album covering the music of Bertolt Brecht/Kurt Weill in Spanish, called "Baladas Y Canciones De Bertolt Brecht".
During the 80's Massiel, for her popularity in the local market with popular hits like "Eres", "Mas fuerte que el viento", "El Noa-Noa", "Maria de los guardias", was an invited artist at the Festival de Vina del Mar in Chile.
At the time Chile was under the dicatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Massiel after singing for an hour, received the most important prize of the festival: "La Gaviota de Plata" (The Silver Seagull) In her her speech thanking the public for her "Gaviota" she said: "Thank you Chile, I would like to let you kno that Patricio Manns says hello from the Andes Mountains", the public cheered and celebrated her announcement. Patricio Mans is a well know composer, poet, member of the Chilean Communist Party who was in exile in Sweden following the September 11th, 1973 coup d'etat against Salvador Allende.
She has recorded more than 50 records, having worked for no less than 5 record companies: Zafiro, Polygram, Hispavox, Bat Discos y Emasstor. She has been married three times and has a son, Aitor, born in 1977, from her second husband, a socialist politician called Carlos Zayas. Since 1996 she is retired from singing due to the "dictatorship of radio stations and commercial charts" but she is still a popular woman and is a regular in different tv programmes. .
She re-recorded her Eurovision winner "La, la, la" in 1997, with a "hip-hop" sort of beat, background singers, whistling, and spanish percussion.
in 2005, Massiel appeared on the 50th Anniversary special of the Eurovision Song Contest, and sang the song that made her internationally famous. She also was invited to celebrate the 50th anniversary of TVE during a special gala.
Currently she is working on Tve's Misión Eurovisión, a serie of special programmes to choose the spanish representative and song for Eurovision 2007.
Rosas en el Mar
Massiel Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
que quiera comprender
la alegría y el dolor,
la ira y el placer,
un bello amor sin un final
que olvidé para perdonar.
Es mas fácil encontrar rosas en el mar
La la la la larara rosas en el mar
Voy buscando la razón de tanta falsedad
La mentira es obsesión y falta la verdad
¿Qué ganarán? ¿Qué perderán?
Si todo esto pasara
Es mas fácil encontrar rosas en el mar
La la la la larara rosas en el mar
La la la la larara rosas en el mar
Voy pidiendo libertad y no quieren oír
Es una necesidad para poder vivir
La libertad, la libertad
Derecho de la humanidad,
Es mas fácil encontrar rosas en el mar
Es mas fácil encontrar rosas en el mar
La la la la larara rosas en el mar
La la la la larara rosas en el mar
Voy buscando un lugar perdido en el mar
Donde pueda olvidar del mundo la maldad
La soledad quiero buscar
Para poder vivir en paz
Es mas fácil encontrar rosas en el mar
Es mas fácil encontrar rosas en el mar
La la la la larara rosas en el mar
La la la la larara rosas en el mar
Massiel's song Rosas en el Mar is a moving plea for love, reason, truth, and freedom in a world that seems to lack all of them. The lyrics describe the singer's search for a love that can understand both joy and pain, anger and pleasure, and that can forgive without forgetting. She also seeks the reason for so much falsehood and lies and wonders what will be gained or lost if they were to disappear. She pleads for freedom, which she sees as a necessary condition for life, but which seems to be denied her. In her search for a place of peace where she can forget the world's evil, she realizes that it is easier to find roses in the sea than to find what she is looking for.
The song is a protest against the injustices and the lack of love and understanding that the singer perceives around her. The image of roses in the sea symbolizes the seeming impossibility of finding what one is searching for in a world that is indifferent or hostile to one's needs and desires. The repeated refrain of "La la la la larara rosas en el mar" underscores the despair and frustration of the singer's quest.
Line by Line Meaning
Voy buscando un amor que quiera comprender
I am searching for a love that is willing to understand
la alegría y el dolor, la ira y el placer
the happiness and the pain, the anger and the pleasure
un bello amor sin un final que olvidé para perdonar
a beautiful love without an end that I forgot in order to forgive
Es mas fácil encontrar rosas en el mar
It is easier to find roses in the sea
Voy buscando la razón de tanta falsedad
I am looking for the reason behind so much falsehood
La mentira es obsesión y falta la verdad
Lying is an obsession and truth is lacking
¿Qué ganarán? ¿Qué perderán? Si todo esto pasara
What will they gain? What will they lose? If all of this were to happen
Voy pidiendo libertad y no quieren oír
I am asking for freedom and they do not want to hear
Es una necesidad para poder vivir
It is a necessity in order to live
La libertad, la libertad, derecho de la humanidad
Freedom, freedom, a right of humanity
Voy buscando un lugar perdido en el mar
I am searching for a place lost in the sea
Donde pueda olvidar del mundo la maldad
Where I can forget the world's wickedness
La soledad quiero buscar para poder vivir en paz
I want to search for solitude in order to live in peace
Es mas fácil encontrar rosas en el mar
It is easier to find roses in the sea
Writer(s): R. JIMENEZ, LUIS E. AUTE
Contributed by Madelyn C. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@Alex-966
Iba ayer viajando en el Autobus rumbo a mi trabajo y el chófer tenía está canción y me llamo mucho la atención, me percate que era como de los años 60's y decidí buscarla hoy y la encontré, me gustó mucho esta canción 😬👍🏻❤️
@elensruiz3969
🎉🎉si es muy bonita la canción, me encanta
@soldado_hisp_mex
Chófer con cultura, de esos casi no hay
@gilbertocardenas2034
Si también a mí me gusta
@rubenbenitezrobles108
Cómo desearua trasmitir vía satélite a todas las TV de Nicaragua está canción, pues aumenta la fe en un futuro mejor.
@ivanhoesanchez2606
Mis papás lo escucho
@fannys7931
Era la canción de mi abuelita❤️ siempre la cantaba.
Falleció cuando yo más la necesitaba, cuando yo tenía 11 años.
Fue mi mamá, ella me crío y me enseñó muchas cosas.
Disfruten a sus abuelitos, son un tesoro.💕
@erick613
Hola soy erick mucho gusto
@ivanhoesanchez2606
Cierto
@massielleonproenza8296
Mi papá me puso ese precioso nombre Massiel por ella, gracias a mi papi tengo un gran gusto musical me siento muy bendecida ❤