To mark the ‘Broadway’ or ‘Champs Elysee’ of Madrid’s centenary - once called Soviet Union Avenue during the civil war between 1936-1939 - an offering from an artist with the biggest-selling album of the year in Spain: Joaquin Sabina. It’s a suitable dedication coming from a man forced to flee to London during the dictatorship, and for a boulevard which resisted the shells of war

Pongamos que hablo de Madrid (‘Let’s Say I’m Talking About Madrid’) | In 2009 the singer was presented with the key of the city

T LoveT Love | High school friends, old school rockersFor the politically inspired, Warsaw struck musical hearts in the UK at least - David Bowie (Warszawa, 1977) inspired Joy Division‘s Rudolf Hess ode, Warsaw, in 1978. But it’s ‘punk hard rock’ Polish band T Love‘s Warsaw (1991) which is the firm homegrown post-transition classic: ‘I love the city where Hitler and Stalin did what they did’ runs one memorable lyric

Warszawa (‘Warsaw’) | Originally called T.Love, the band debuted in 1982

For the French, 1968 was marked not only as the year of strikes, protests, the winter olympics but also Monsieur Jacques Dutronc: ‘Il est cinque heure, Paris s’éveille‘ (‘It’s 5am, Paris wakes up’) has become the mantra for many a brooding morning whisperer, socialist revolutionary or not

‘Paris s’éveille’ (‘Paris wakes up’) | Jacques Dutronc

In Italy, it was left-wing crooner Antonello Venditti who put the ‘Roma Roma Roma’ in romantic - he serendaded his home city in Roman dialect with this song in 1972, and is generally known for singing about his home city

Roma capoccia (‘Rome ‘) | Antonello Venditti allegedly refused to perform the song for years after, declaring it politically empty

Back to Spain, on its east coast, much has been sung about the country’s ‘other capital’. Barcelona is one of the most modern city favourites in Europe, and rappers ZPU agree that you can llámalo the place to be:

Noches en BCN (‘Nights In Barcelona’) | Zpu featuring Nach

Additional appraisals are owed to the Austrian drum and bass master D Kay and Epsilon who had Brits kicking up their legs to Barcelona in 2003, and the head-swaying feeling that the eccentric 29-member Swedish pop band I’m from Barcelona gave to us with this track in 2006:

‘We’re from Barcelona’ live | I’m from Barcelona cleverly rhymed ‘Barcelona’ with ‘gonna give it to ya’

'LDN'‘LDN’ | Lily Allen combines a ska sound to William Wordsworth influences, she saysIn the same year, a fresh-faced Lily Allen changed the tone for city love songs, bringing her poop-and-cigarette-butts-in-the-sunshine view of the British capital LDN. However it’s former Seeed frontman Peter Fox who goes one step further with this reggae vibe and his anti-love songs to Berlin. He cites the Neukölln and Ku’damm districts of Berlin in his 2008 ode to ‘city monkeys’ (Stadtaffe), whilst lyrics to his 2009 award-winning song Schwarz zu blau (‘You can be so ugly, so dirty and gray…You’re not beautiful and you know it’) probably wouldn’t earn him a Sabina-esque medal from the city anytime soon…

‘Stadtaffe’ (City Monkeys) | Peter Fox currently lives in Kreuzberg, Berlin

Additional thanks: Fernando Acuña, Judith Argila in Madrid and Barcelona

Images: T Love in 2008 by ©Patryk Korzeniecki/ Wikimedia, LDN single cover ©myspace/lilymusic