In 2017, at the age of 10, he was winner of “Mallorca Talent” and two years later, in 2019, he received the award for the revelation artist of the Infest International Film Festival. He was also a finalist in 2021 in the Concurso Internacional del Cante de las Minas (The flamenco oscars), being the youngest artist who had participated to date. Last year he received the New Creators Award from the Institute of Gypsy Culture, promoted by the Ministry of Culture and Sport, and the Venecia Flamenca, the highest award of the Festival Flamenco de la Mistela. In 2024 has just been proclaimed winner of “The Battle of the Judges” in Got Talent Spain. Despite his youth, he has shared the stage with great artists such as Pitingo, Duquende and Jorge Pardo.

Antón Cortés Marín was born in Mallorca in 2007. One afternoon his mother found a small toy keyboard abandoned in the street. Probably broken, she thought. He came home, put batteries in it, and it worked. A new toy for her eight-year-old. No musical tradition in the family, no instrument before in his home. The boy Anton had never had a teacher. He couldn't and didn't ask for one. He listened to music, watched videos on youtube and was fascinated by the magic of being able to transfer all those songs to the keys of his new entertainment. And he didn't stop playing it until his parents took him to that contest and, without rehearsal or previous touch, he sat down in front of it. He caressed it in such a way that he won it”. He plays barefoot. Always. Four years after his first public performance, his bare right foot rests on the sustain pedal of the grand piano that presides over the stage of the Cante de las Minas international festival, held this summer in Murcia. A prestigious contest considered as the 'oscars' of Flamenco and the best in the world in its specialty. The left hand hits the warm wood of the platform according to the metric of the chosen palo. He surprised everyone with a taranta of his own composition that thrilled the audience and jury for its execution and expressiveness, allowing him to pass to the Final and make himself known to all fans, connoisseurs and musicians of the demanding world of flamenco in this country. For his second exhibition he chose to interpret Antonia, by guitarist Paco de Lucia, under his own piano transcription. “I prefer to interpret, but in my own style, other people's compositions rather than my own,” he acknowledged to the surprise of his parents, who admired his son's ability to compose quickly and spontaneously in any palo....

Months before he did it before the general and popular public with his golden pass for the final of Got Talent Spain. Correct and elegant always towards others, but his people recognize that at first Antón did not want to go to this television contest because it seemed to him “a circus” where flamenco was not valued in its fair measure. After his exhibition in the semifinal, with his own composition, his mentor Fernando Peguero, a key figure in the formation of little Antón and who bought him his first piano, suggested him to play something more classical, more commercial, and leave flamenco aside and explore other styles to have a better chance of winning. He sent him Asturias by Isaac Albéniz by whatsapp. Antón listened to it and replied “Thank you Fernando, I love it, it's a great song, now I'll get on with it”. Six minutes later he sent him a video of him playing it at home.

I had never heard that piece before. All the arpeggios, chords, melodies, silences and strokes that Albéniz composed to turn it into a universal classic were there, in Antón's fingers. And executed with the utmost expressiveness and emotion. A piece that lasts exactly six minutes and starts at Allegro tempo has many notes. And they were all there. This journalist had access to that chain of messages, and to the video. Their temporal correlation is exact, and the execution of the video, fascinating. Six minutes. Just as long as the composition lasts. Normally a professional classical pianist needs a minimum of two hours to transfer to his instrument, completely and correctly, the score of a new theme. Anton listened to it, sat down in front of his piano at night and played it by ear as he has always done. Naturally, freely and letting his fingertips flow across the keys. Although he has recently started reading classes, even today he offers his recitals based only on his ear, his improvisation and his feeling of the moment.

But in the end he decided to play his flamenco in front of the cameras and, as expected, the winner was chosen from among more commercial and convenient proposals, despite the excellent assessment of the public and jury in his final performance. That experience, together with the day he was rejected from the Conservatorio Superior de Baleares during the direct access tests because “in spite of his excellent technique and perfect execution” the jury added that “he lacks the minimum knowledge of musical language necessary to make the most of our studies”, forged his firm decision to dedicate himself exclusively to flamenco with his own style and through a self-taught method. Anton, initially disappointed and saddened by this moment, became aware that he only wanted to dedicate himself and focus on flamenco and piano. He looked for a private teacher at the Conservatory specializing in classical piano, but soon he gave up, recognizing that he could not teach him anything. His technique was unknown, superior, and more effective than him.