Cante - Grupo I: Tarantas Competition: What It Is, Where It's Run and How It's Judged

A solo flamenco singing round in the tarantas style, one of the mining songs of south-east Spain, sung to guitar and marked out of 100.

Cante - Grupo I: Tarantas is a solo singing round for the tarantas, one of the cantes mineros that grew out of the mining districts of southern and south-eastern Spain. The taranta is sung slowly, in a free and sombre line, with long held notes and a rising, searching quality that makes it one of the more demanding songs to carry well. The singer is accompanied by a flamenco guitarist and decides how to shape each phrase.

In the competition the tarantas is not an open class. The rules the template is built from put it in Grupo I beside the cartageneras and the murcianas and other mining cantes, and keep that group apart from the fandango-derived cantes of Grupo II and the large palo groups of Grupo III. A singer entering Grupo I is therefore compared with others singing the same family of songs, not with someone singing a soleá or a bulerías.

The template carries it as an individual item open to both genders in the Open (16+) group, sung in Spanish, scored as Marks out of 100 with a ten-minute limit on the clock. In the source competition entry is by online or postal application with a photograph, a short biography, a video and a bank certificate, the minimum age is 16 and former winners of the top trophy are barred. Those are organiser rules; the template records the item, the group, the clock and the score.

An organiser runs it as a staged round. The source competition moves from a video screening through regional selection rounds to semi-finals and a final, and on eTalenter the same item can be scored again at each stage so a coordinator reuses one setup and carries the advancing singers forward. Because the top trophy of the source competition asks finalists to sing a mining cante drawn from Grupo I, a strong tarantas can matter well beyond its own round.

Where Cante - Grupo I: Tarantas is run

On eTalenter this item is used in one template, built from the published rules of a long-running flamenco singing, guitar and dance contest held in La Unión in the Murcia region of Spain. The taranta belongs to the mining tradition of the south-east, so other contests that include it are mostly flamenco festivals and peñas in Spain; each event's own notice sets its classes and rules.

• Spain (the mining districts of the south-east, including the Murcia region)

Key facts

• Individual item: one singer, one guitarist accompanying, one score
• Grupo I of the cante classes, alongside the cartageneras and the murcianas and other mining cantes
• Open (16+) group, both genders, sung in Spanish
• Scored as Marks out of 100, with a ten-minute limit on the template clock
• Source rules require the singer to be at least 16 and bar past winners of the top trophy
• A separate under-30 cantaores jóvenes class exists on the template for younger singers

On eTalenter, Cante - Grupo I: Tarantas is filed under On Stage and typically scored with Marks. It appears in 1 ready-made event templates — each one can adjust its time limit, age-group assignment and scoring setup independently.

Across the templates that use it, Cante - Grupo I: Tarantas is most often entered as an Individual competition, typically scored out of 100, commonly time-limited to around 10 minutes where a limit is set.

What judges look at in Cante - Grupo I: Tarantas

What a Cante - Grupo I: Tarantas panel is actually weighing up, and where the marks are usually won or lost:

• Command of the cante: the singer must show that the taranta is built differently from the cartagenera and the murciana, with its own melodic climb and closing phrase, and not sing one mining cante as if it were another
• Voice and breath control: long notes held in tune and steady through the rise of the line, with breaths placed where the thought ends rather than inside a word
• Rhythm and compás: the pulse is free, so the panel listens for how closely the singer and guitarist stay together through pauses and held notes
• Expression and ornament: ornaments and melismas that belong to the verse and deepen it, not added for show
• Interpretation of the text: clear, correctly pronounced Spanish, with the sombre feeling of the verse carried in the voice
• The template records one total out of 100 and does not print a split; a panel that wants separate headings agrees its own before the round

Treat these as the judging focus, not a fixed rubric: publish your own weighted criteria for Cante - Grupo I: Tarantas under Scoring Setup, or start from our judging and score tabulation guide.

How to prepare for Cante - Grupo I: Tarantas

How entrants and their teachers usually get Cante - Grupo I: Tarantas right on the day:

• Read the notice first for the time limit, the group, the entry deadline and whether the round is a video screening, a live round or both
• Pick verses whose words you understand fully and can sing with conviction; a short, well-judged selection beats a long one that tires the voice
• Rehearse with the guitarist who will play on the day and agree the key, the introduction and how the guitar will wait for your held notes
• Plan your breathing across the longest lines, mark where you breathe and keep the same plan every time
• Record yourself and listen for pitch that sags on high held notes and for words that are not clear
• Warm the voice before the round and keep a calm routine, since a slow song leaves nowhere to hide nerves
• After a loss, ask which of command of the cante, breath, rhythm or expression cost most and rehearse that one element alone before the next round
• Ideas, not rules: listen to the tarantas next to a cartagenera and note where the melodic line and the pauses differ, then practise switching between the two so the contrast is clear to a panel

Frequently asked questions

Is Cante - Grupo I: Tarantas judged individually or as a team?

Across eTalenter's templates it's most often run as an Individual entry, though an organiser can set either participation type when assigning the item to an age group.

What are tarantas in flamenco?

They are one of the cantes mineros, flamenco songs from the mining districts of southern and south-eastern Spain. They are sung slowly with a free pulse to guitar accompaniment.

Is Cante - Grupo I: Tarantas judged individually or as a team?

Individually. The template records one singer, one performance and one score out of 100.

Is the tarantas the same as the cartageneras?

No. They are separate cantes, though both sit in Grupo I with the murcianas and other mining cantes. They are listed as separate items, each with its own round and score.

How long can the performance be?

The template clock is set to ten minutes. The event notice states the exact running time for each round.

Want the full judging picture? Read our judging and score tabulation guide, or browse every on stage competition item.

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