Spanish singer and songwriter Clara Montes has left the intensive care unit at the University Hospital of Toledo after surviving the Urda train crash.
The 57-year-old artist was transferred from intensive care to a regular hospital ward in the neurosurgery department on Friday, October 30, following a significant improvement in her condition. Doctors at the public hospital in Toledo, the capital of the central Spanish region of Castilla-La Mancha, say her life is no longer in danger.
Montes was a passenger on the Alta Velocidad Española (AVE) high-speed train involved in the rail collision in Urda, a municipality in the province of Toledo, on Wednesday, October 28. The disaster claimed 69 lives and left the singer with serious injuries, although neither the hospital nor her family has disclosed the specific details of her medical diagnosis.
Her relative Javier Ayarza confirmed her discharge from intensive care to Castilla-La Mancha Media, the regional public broadcaster. Expressing relief after several days of anguish for the family, Ayarza told the broadcaster that Montes had left the unit on Friday and was making favourable progress.
Family response and message from hospital
The singer's husband was in the southern province of Cádiz, where the couple live, when the crash took place along the high-speed rail corridor between Madrid and Andalusia. He set off for Toledo immediately after receiving a telephone call confirming that his wife was still alive.
According to the Andalusian public broadcaster Canal Sur, her husband recognized the gravity of the accident and expressed his gratitude to the medical staff treating her at the University Hospital of Toledo. He also said he was confident that her recovery would be a matter of time.
Montes reassured her followers directly on Thursday, one day after the tragedy. In a social media post accompanied by a black mourning ribbon, she wrote that it was difficult to find the words to describe what had occurred and said that, on that day more than ever, she was thankful to still be here.
She dedicated the remainder of her statement to the victims who did not survive the collision, to the families mourning lost loved ones, and to the emergency workers who responded to the scene in Urda.
Royal hospital visit and industry support
In her Thursday statement, Montes also thanked King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia after the Spanish monarchs travelled to the University Hospital of Toledo that day to visit survivors of the crash.
Montes was one of the injured patients who spoke with the king and queen on the wards during a day marked by grief and uncertainty. King Felipe VI, who became Spain's head of state in 2014 alongside Queen Letizia, regularly visits hospitals and affected communities following major national emergencies.
Figures across Spain's cultural sector have also rallied behind the injured performer. The Sociedad General de Autores y Editores (SGAE), Spain's main rights organization representing songwriters, composers, playwrights, and music publishers, shared an emotional message of support for Montes.
The AVE network on which Montes was travelling is Spain's flagship high-speed passenger rail service, operated by the state railway company Renfe and linking Madrid with major cities across the country.
Musical career from Antonio Gala to Rafael Alberti
Born in Madrid and closely tied to Andalusia, Montes resides in Zahora, an Atlantic coastal village in the province of Cádiz near Cape Trafalgar. From there, she has built a musical career spanning nearly three decades that bridges flamenco, singer-songwriter music, poetry, and copla, a traditional Spanish genre of dramatic narrative song.
She released her debut solo album in 1998, setting poems by the prominent Spanish poet, playwright, and novelist Antonio Gala to music. That record won a Premio de la Música, one of Spain's top music industry honours, and established her signature approach of adapting verses by major Spanish literary figures.
At the time of the crash, Montes was on tour promoting Marinera en Tierra, her musical tribute to the poet Rafael Alberti, which was released in 2025. Alberti, who was born in the province of Cádiz, was one of the leading poets of Spain's Generation of '27 literary movement, and the album title echoes his early poetry collection.
On Sunday, October 25, three days before the rail collision in Urda, Montes had performed a concert in Logroño, the capital of the northern region of La Rioja. Her final social media post before the tragedy had celebrated the success of that show, and her family now expects her recovery in Toledo to continue step by step.
