The evidence says that great parties should start very well and end even better. If applause is a thermometer, Wednesday’s Ondas Awards ceremony hit the nail on the head. The first of the 26 statuettes awarded was collected by journalist Gemma Nyirja for her programme Ideas Café After thanking her, he expressed his hope that “Othman, Salma, and Muhammad” would win these awards in the future, because that would mean that whoever wanted to expel them would not be able to do so, and on the other hand, this country gave them the opportunity they deserve.” He finished his sentence and cheers filled the Gran Teatre del Liceu.
José Miguel Monzón, from El Gran Wyoming, also did the magic in the end, delivering one of those harsh speeches that characterize him so much, yesterday without a trace of humour, warning against those who call themselves journalists and “the drunkards who occupy the information space to spew lies and malicious schemes.” He called on the new information professionals to “fight the enemies of freedom: they were and will continue to be with flamethrowers or chainsaws.” The Liceu band roared again at the end of the concert organized by Grupo Prisa and Radio Barcelona-Cadena SER.
It was two hours in which radio, television and music were vindicated in compassion, respect, kindness and conversation, as the event’s host, Mara Torres, was able to sum up. But the future has also slipped into that discourse, the young people who will have to control it in the coming years and who now live in a sea of uncertainty, if not instability. Paco Lobaton, winner of a special award for his career, asked them a favor: “Don’t let instability get you down, we need you to fight hoaxes.”
Almost everyone spoke about the difficulties, including Pastora Soler, who received an award for her music career. He recalled that his 10-year-old daughter asked him what Ondas Prize he would receive, and he said he tried to make it understandable in a few words: an award “because I have dedicated my whole life to what I have dedicated my whole life to, with many ups and downs.” The tone of “getting up again” that Neerga has used before or overcoming obstacles, as pointed out by Alejandra Herranz, presenter of the RTVE News Today program and who yesterday received an award for her career, but yesterday she recalled her first live performance, at Barcelona Airport. “My bosses didn’t see it clearly,” he explained of this first offer. He closed his speech by saying, “Here I am,” in an attempt to build trust.
“The word of the day is thank you,” said SER journalist Isaias Lafuente, winner of the Ondas Award for Best Professional Work after 40 years in the profession. The veteran briefly reviewed his career, which he began 40 years ago as an apprentice, and defended young people who one day arrive in the media “with an expiration date on their forehead” because they do not have the opportunity to mature or pursue a career like the one he ended up forging.
Two hours ago, outside, in an atmosphere marred by the dust of countless businesses on the Ramblas and the Christmas lights lit since last weekend, a traditional red carpet greeted guests and award winners. That “world that scares us a little” has gone unnoticed, as documentary award winner Monica Terrebas put it. I left Opus Dei. “We will expel the people who want to exterminate this country,” he said, very much in keeping with the entire ceremony.
During the pre-ceremony lunch with the winners, Pilar Gil, CEO of Prisa Media, highlighted the role of radio and old transistors. It happened during the catastrophic damage that devastated Valencia on October 29, and Gil again remembered the central role he played on April 28, when a major blackout left Spain without power. “That afternoon, we all looked up to Transistor to see what was happening, to hear it, to figure it out, to understand it, to get context,” he said. Barcelona Mayor Jaume Colboni, host of the winners’ reception, called for a commitment to cultural creativity from the Catalan capital, which he said was the champion of a “new cultural spring.”