| Miren Amuriza | |
| Birth Name: | Miren Amuriza Plaza |
| Birth Place: | Berriz, Biscay, Spain |
| Alma Mater: | University of the Basque Country |
| Employer: | Mondragon University |
| Awards: | Premio Igartza |
Miren Amuriza Plaza (born 1 March 1990)[1] is a Spanish bertsolari and Biscayan writer. She has collaborated with some music groups, singing and writing lyrics. In 2017, she was the recipient of the Premio Igartza.
Miren Amuriza has lived in the world of Bertsolaritza since she was young. She accompanied her bertsolari parents from town to town, watching them sing. However, her parents never encouraged Miren to follow the same passion. She herself decided to follow in the footsteps of her father,, who has always been the main point of reference for her in this profession.
Amuriza has a degree in Basque language Philology from the University of the Basque Country and has a master's degree in Teaching Qualification in Compulsory Secondary Education.In 2002, she sang for the first time in public when she participated in the Vizcaya school championship, in the El Carmen hall in Bilbao, and in 2003, she won the youngest category of this championship. That same year was the first time that she shared the stage together with her father, singing in the bertso-afari de Andikoa. In 2006, she participated in the Vizcaya school championship where she was proclaimed champion in the senior category and was also part of the Basque school championship where she would be a finalist. Two years later, she won the championship, and she also made her debut in the Vizcaya bertsos championship in which she participated three times, obtaining her best result in 2010, placing third. When she came of age, she appeared on television on the ETB 1 channel together with other bertsolaris such as her father, as well as Jexux Arzallus, Amets Arzallus, and, participating in the Euskal Kantuen Gaua program singing the popular song Gure Aitak amari. In 2009, she began her participation in the national championship of Bertsolaritza reaching the second phase. In 2010, on the occasion of the bertso eguna, together with her friend and fellow bertsolari, Maddalen Arzallus, they paid a resounding tribute to their mothers.[2]
In the 2016 Vizcaya championship, Amuriza created a new rhythm for the verses, covering a song by Chavela Vargas.[3]
Amuriza works as a teacher at the Mondragon University. She also likes to write. She collaborates with the Bertsolaritza association working as a teacher at the Bertsolaritza school giving classes to children.
She has collaborated with the magazine Anboto[4] and the magazine Argia[5] writing opinion articles. Her work has also been published in the newspaper Berria.[6] As for literature, in 2017, she won the Igartza Award for the Paperezko txoriak project.[7] In 2018, she obtained, together with Askoa Etxebarrieta, the lanku grant to develop the Tan takatan project, a project that tries to combine copla and flamenco.[8]