Maruja Limón:
party, groove and flamenco

Traquen’Art presents a Barcelona-based sextet that gives Catalan rumba a fiery new twist

March 19, 2026

At Club Soda on March 29, Montreal will welcome Maruja Limón, the all-female Barcelona sextet making its local debut as part of Traquen’Art’s World Music and Traditions series. Built as a collective celebration, the performance promises a release of clapping, shouting, smiles, and movement, with rumba driving a contagious surge of energy across the room.

Female-fronted rumba, bold and joyful, infused with sensitive and sometimes ironic lyrics about love, freedom, and everyday struggles.

Carried by forceful vocals, bright guitar lines, and an explosive rhythmic pulse, the group brings a contemporary flamenco sound shaped by Catalan rumba, Latin grooves, urban pop, and electronic accents. Their music is direct, feminine, and joyful, threaded with lyrics that move between tenderness, irony, love, freedom, and the frictions of everyday life.

Emerging from Barcelona’s vibrant music scene, the six musicians draw on the legacy of Catalan rumba and reshape it into something immediate and present-day. They sing in Spanish and Catalan, set flamenco guitar against tense percussion, a buoyant bass, bright brass, and powerful harmonies, while keeping tradition in constant motion rather than treating it as a fixed inheritance.

In the wake of icons such as Ojos de Brujo, the Barcelona cult group that reinvented urban flamenco in the 2000s and that Montreal audiences may remember from the Montreal International Jazz Festival, Maruja Limón pushes Barcelona’s art of musical fusion even further. Their rumba is feminine, direct, and joyful, woven with sensitive and sometimes ironic lyrics about love, freedom, and everyday struggles.

With a striking trajectory — from Barcelona clubs to major European festivals such as Eurosonic, Trans Musicales, Sziget, and Cruïlla, and then on to North American stages including Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, and World Cafe Live — the group has established itself as one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary rumba.

‘Maruja Limón turns the legacy of Catalan rumba into a living, forward-looking form.’

Their latest project, Te como la cara, released in two EPs, takes the sound even further: Catalan rumba, flamenco, and quinqui rumba mingle with Cuban, Latin, and electronic colours to create a sound that is organic, modern, and irresistibly danceable.

This North American tour takes them from Phoenix to Orlando, Cleveland, and Knoxville — where they share the bill at the Big Ears Festival with David Byrne — before continuing on to Minneapolis and London, Ontario, and finally reaching Montreal. On March 29 at Club Soda, Maruja Limón will offer far more than a concert: a full immersion in today’s Barcelona, between working-class alleyways, sleepless nights, and choruses that linger long after the final note.

Maruja Limón
Catalan rumba with a feminine edge

Presented as a Montreal premiere by Traquen’Art,
as part of the World Music & Traditions series.

Sunday, March 29, 2026, 8 pm., at Club Soda
1225 Saint-Laurent Boulevard

Tickets

Feature image: courtesy of Traquen’Art

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