"Mi querida España" ("My Dearest Spain" or "My Lovely Spain") is a song. It was written and sung by the Spanish songwriter Cecilia in 1975. It was included on her album Un ramito de violetas (A bouquet of violets). This song was considered a protest song in the last years of Francisco Franco's dictatorship because of its lyrics.^[1]

"Mi querida España" was a hit in the 1970s and became a part of Spanish music history.^[2] It has become a national symbol.^[3]

The lyrics include social criticism toward the Franco government.^[1] Some sentences were considered controversial by the government authorities in those years. For example, where Cecilia sung:^[4]

Spanish Esta España viva, esta España muerta
English This living Spain, this dead Spain

this was changed by the censors to this version:

Spanish Esta España mía, esta España nuestra
English This Spain of mine, this Spain of ours

The music video was filmed in Retiro Park, Madrid by Enrique Martí Maqueda, TVE's producer in those times, for the 1975 OTI Festival.

In 1987, the Spanish band La Década Prodigiosa released a cover of the song.^[5]

In 1996 (twenty years after Cecilia's death) it was published in a tribute album titled: Desde que tú te has ido (Since you are gone). Several artists sang her singles in memory of Cecilia. Miguel Bosé recorded this song.^[source?]

In 2015 "Mi querida España" was performed by Kiko Veneno and Rozalen for the soundtrack of the Spanish movie Perdiendo el norte.^[6]

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