What is heard and seen at the mass mass of Hakuna, the Christian band that brings together more than 15,000 people at Wizink

On January 6, at nine at night, more than 15,000 people gathered at the WiZink Center in Madrid to pray. It was a kind of mass mass led by Hakuna Music Bandthe Christian group that emerged from Hakuna religious movementfounded in 2013 by the priest José Pedro Manglano (better known as Josepe), which in 2020 left Opus Dei to form this current. In the darkness, the first thing that was heard was the voice of a boy who remembered that if centuries ago Melchor, Gaspar and Baltasar left everything to “worship the king”, this Three Kings Day in 2024 those present were going to do the same because “Jesus is still king.”

And so they did it for more than two hours and throughout 23 songs or, as Macarena Torres, a member of Hakuna, said minutes before the concert, “prayers in their deepest sense.” In fact, before going on stage, the entire band organized a holy hour in the chapel they had set up in one of the WiZink rooms. In those holy hours, a believer (it may be a priest) gives a talk and then Adoration is done singing. Only in Madrid, recalls Victoria, Macarena's partner in the band's choir, 15 are organized weekly. In the morning, in another space of the pavilion, they organized a mass. “We do it to be aware that everything that is going to happen is not ours,” they explained. “That helps us a lot to become aware that the engine that moves everything is God. We leave everything to Him. Let Him do whatever He wants and let Him use everything we do.”

When you enter WiZink, you can identify many families with very young children fighting for popcorn and soft drinks. There are groups of friends, maybe more friends, between 16 and no more than 25 years old. Two of these girls drink a glass of Fanta and wait in line for the bathroom because she, she says to the other: “Then we can't go out to pee and miss a song.” Two colleagues, much older, who with their minis of beer in their hands celebrate their date on Twelfth Night, do not have the same plan: “Planazo”. A young priest, one of the many seen in the hallways of the concert hall, explains to the couple accompanying him where their places are: “Like the Almighty. Up, and the higher up, the higher, the closer.”

They all seem to have complied with the required etiquette, which in popular terms is known as the Cayetan style. Previously known as posh. They, with very long, loose hair, sweaters, baggy pants and sneakers. They, with hoodies, chinos and also sneakers. It's the uniform hakuner.

Although Cristina, 16, and her friends appear in the crowd, they have put on makeup with small diamonds on their cheeks. Her favorite song is Burnsthe song with which Hakuna pays tribute to Saint Joseph, “A humble carpenter sleeps his God in his arms,” the lyrics say. The six girls go to the same school and to the parish of Santa Eugenia (Madrid). “Since we were in fourth grade we listened to Hakuna,” they say. Thanks to the father of one of them, they got the tickets, which ranged between 30 and 40 euros.

Cristina invented a bracelet with the name of her favorite song. A few meters from where she and her friends are waiting in the front row to enter, they sell similar ones for two euros. They are the star product, “for those who enjoy it,” one of the salespeople defines them. They are made of cloth, with the names of Hakuna songs. “They are not like those of the swifties [las fans de Taylor Swift]”, clarifies another saleswoman. “Those are made of beads and with the lyrics of their songs.” At the same stand you can get t-shirts for between 15 and 30 euros (none with very explicit religious slogans), sweatshirts for 60 and books like Holy shit and outrageously happy for 5 and 20 euros.

The concert begins and although some of the 50 members of Hakuna on stage constantly remember that they went there to pray singing, this is not like a gospel mass, where hands are raised, shouts are shouted to the sky and even fainting occurs. . Here ecstasy is pop style. There are many hugs between friends, dancing from one side to the other. At the peak moments, circles are organized in the middle of the floor in which they look at each other or choreographies are organized such as raising and lowering their arms in praise of God.

This band has become one of the greatest phenomena of Christian music in Spanish — they sold out the entire WiZink in a few hours, they were the star performance of the World Youth Day (WYD) in Lisbon, to which they were personally invited by the Pope Francis, who had previously received them at the Vatican—because they have had the ability to turn mass songs into effective pop hits.

The Hakuna movement knows that to prevent the percentage of believers from continuing to fall in Spain, it must be the young people who talk to the young people about “their streaks, concerns, the questions and the bullshit of life,” the members have explained several times. of this band. They don't just speak the same language. They dress the same. Cayetano's uniform is the same above and below the stage.

No one stands out on stage. Pairs or trios of singers take over. That today they perform a certain song, but that at the next concert they will recite another. Macarena Torres, on Saturday night, had to sing Da
nce and stop telling stories, a tribute to a Hakuna member who died of cancer, he explained. “None of this has to do with us, we are spectators of what is happening and we experience it as enormous luck,” said Ignacio Serrano, another member of Hakuna. He is so well calculated that visuals with religious allegories and song lyrics follow one another on the main screen. The smaller screens, the side ones, are for the singers.

An effect similar to the Instagram filter occurs: the public sees 50 boys and girls between 18 and 32 who could be them. The difference is that it is now the Church, not social networks, that tries to convince you that if the members of Hakuna have found answers to all their doubts in God, He can also solve a few problems for you. “Blessed be God who gives life,” they shouted enthusiastically, to the rhythm of pop.

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