This week in Solera Flamenca, we bring you the guitar of Mercedes Luján, considered the best female guitarist in flamenco today, who comes to present her next album “Ahora o Nunca”. Her playing radiates strength and sensitivity, two attributes difficult to find in the same artist. Her technique is precise and clean and her body expression transmits a surprising sensation of comfort and ease while playing, an unmistakable sign of total mastery of the instrument.

Mercedes Sanguiao Horneros, Mercedes Luján, is a flamenco guitarist from Lorca and was born in 1987. She is the daughter of flamenco agitator Luis Terry and copla singer Rosa María Luján. Her love of music began to manifest as a child, as she accompanied her mother on her performances and tours around Spain. Her paternal grandfather, the famous Jerez guitarist Maestro “Palmita”, who was awarded by the Chair of Flamencology of Jerez de la Frontera and was a pupil of the master Javier Molina, passed on his love of flamenco to her.

In 2017, Antonio Benamargo, “an angel who came into my life”, convinced her to perform at the Festival de Flamenco Joven de Madrid, and she did so alongside colleagues of the stature of José del Tomate and Rosalía, with whom she shared the stage. It was then when Luján realised that playing the flamenco guitar was what she really loved and that “no one could have got me out of the stage, not even with hot water”.

Her work, as it usually does, has paid off, and after performing on stages as important as the ‘Festival Internacional de Cante Flamenco’ in Lo Ferro or touring with Valderrama in his “Mujeres de carne y verso” tour, Mercedes Luján took the leap and decided to pursue solo concert guitar playing.

She has performed his art in many cities, both nationally and internationally: Teatro Villamarta in Jerez de la Frontera, Teatro Romea in Murcia, Teatro López de Ayala in Badajoz, Teatro de Molíns de Rei (Barcelona), Teatro Español in San Miguel de Tucumán (Argentina), Teatro de Lodz (Poland), etc.

She has shared the stage with numerous flamenco singers and artists of the stature of Luís Aguilé, Mariana Cornejo, Chano Lobato, Fosforito, Juanito Valderrama and India Martínez, among others. She has also participated in the documentary film Tocaoras, a film that unveils to the world the invisible role of the female guitarist.

Without further ado, we leave you with “Ahora o nunca”, a beautiful song with a bulería rhythm that also gives title to her first album as a soloist. In this luxury production, we see the artist accompanied by the percussion of David Domínguez and the vocals of Joaquín Gómez “El Duende”. In this recording, Mercedes Luján has used a guitar made by Felipe Conde Crespo in the year 2021, the nº51 a guitar with duende and magic, just like the playing of our artist.