Maialen Lujanbio

• Name — Maialen Lujanbio • Born — 26 November 1976 • Birthplace — Hernani, Gipuzkoa, Spain • Known for — bertsolari • Education — University of the Basque Country • Occupation — singing, competing and writing • Footnotes — Spanish

Lujanbio was born in Hernani in 1976. She took an interest in the Basque oral tradition of poetry whilst at secondary school. She attended specialist classes and continued to practise whilst at the University of the Basque Country. She won prizes at the junior and then senior level introducing novel approaches to the poetry discipline. In 1994 she became the Champion of Gipuzkoa. • Illustration — Maialen Lujanbio's composing a bertso at the 2009 Txapelketa Nagusi. In 2003 she wrote for the Basque newspaper, Berria, completing a column each day. In 2007-8 she took a postgraduate course at Mondragon University in the Basque language and its transmission. In 2009, Maialen Lujanbio Zugasti became the first woman to win the championship. In 2013 she was second just after Amets Arzallus and in 2017 and 2022 she won for the second and third time the Bertsolari Main Championship. Lujanbio collaborated with pop band 2princesesbarbudes on the song "Ondo lo egin" from the album Gaueko entziklopeida koxkorra, a Basque adaptation of the Catalan original, Enciclopèdia baixeta de la nit. The adaptation premiered at the Durangoko Azoka book and music fair in 2014.

Maialen, you are a doctor. You're observing two children suffering from cancer organising a wheelchair race in a hospital corridor, to which she composed the following bertso: