Silvia Pérez Cruz — whose nickname could be “goosebumps,” as that word is so often used to describe a reaction to her singing — won in the best original song category at Spain’s 2017 Goya Film Awards.
With a voice at once deeply rooted and otherworldly, the Catalan singer-songwriter has been an ever-rising artist in Spain over the past decade and has fast been enchanting fans abroad.
At the Goya Awards on Saturday night (Feb. 4), she showed everyone why.
Pérez Cruz won the award for best original song in a movie for “Ai, Ai, Ai,” featured in Cerca de tu Casa — a movie in which she also stars, and for which she was nominated in the best new actress category. The film by Eduard Cortés centers on the struggles of people who were evicted during Spain’s recent financial crisis — tens of thousands of Spaniards lost their homes when they could not make their mortgages.
Accepting her award, Pérez Cruz paid homage to those evicted, not with “Ai, Ai, Ai,” but with another song she wrote for the soundtrack of Cerca de tu Casa, “No Hay Tanto Pan” (“There Isn’t So Much Bread”).
Trending on Billboard
Watch Pérez Cruz sing the moving song at the Goya Awards’ podium, heavy trophy in hand.