A famous Spanish poet Federico García Lorca described Duende as some sort of a dark muse, a mysterious force that gives artists, poets, flamenco singers and dancers the power to create and to transmit strong emotions. Duende, he argued, has to do with darkness, it is not a light inspiration that comes easily, it is either there, present in the artist, or it is absent.
For the viewers it is instantly evident whether the artist possesses the duende force or not, for trying to imitate duende is pointless. It does not matter how genius one is, trying to summon duende will not help. The skills are not important, the abilities are not important, what really impresses the viewer is this duende. In some cases, an artist had to sacrifice their skills in order for Duende to come. That was the case of La Niña de los Peines, who had talent, but lacked duende at first, and had to let go of her talent in order to feel Duende and let it in.
Duende changes the form of the art completely, and it changes the viewers’ perception as well. Duende might come both from the author and the performer. This phenomena is closely related to death and death acceptance, which is why it is not unique to Spanish artists or Flamenco only, it can come to any artist and in any country of the world. However in Spain the horizons of Duende are wider due to how death is perceived. Lorca believes that in Spain death is only a beginning, thus Duende in Spain is a more reoccurring phenomenon. The proof of that is the Spanish art: from the paintings of El Greco to the bull festivals, most of the Spanish art celebrates death and has the essence of Duende.
Darkness is connected to sadness, thus, Duende is also about inexplicable sadness. Sadness as a theme in art is often related to love, especially romantic love. Love songs, as it is argued by Nick Cave in his lecture, must contain Duende, Spanish or not. Nick Cave believes that modern rock music lacks Duende, however such musicians as Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Van Morrison, possess it. Duende is not commercial, it brings no benefit, it is impossible to make money off of it, and thus, it is a rare thing among artists who only create music to make money.
For a love song to feel like one it has to be riddled with sadness and thus, it has to have Duende. Cave believes that a love song that lacks it is simply not convincing and the author of the song is a liar who does not understand art and love. A Duende filled love song is torn between acute, absurd emotions, emotions that sometimes do not make sense and contradict each other, but they create a convincing and deep piece together. Most of the modern pop songs about love lack these feelings, however on rare occasions Duende enters even these songs, such as “Better the Devil you Know” by Kylie Minogue.