ALEJANDRO SANZ…singer-songwriter extraordinnaire, heartthrob with a vulnerable side...the ultimate fantasy.
We absolutely had to start with Alejandro Sanz. While he no-doubt stands on the shoulders of Spanish crooner history, this talented singer-songwriter broke with the tradition of Eurovision prodegés, and suddenly made it OK for mere music-loving mortals like us, to love a Spanish crooner. In our humble opinion, Corazon Partío is the best Spanish love song of his generation and made Sanz the definitive Flamenco-pop hearthrob of the modern era. Winner of 15 Latin Grammy and three Grammy Awards, Alejandro Sanz undeniably lives up to the stage name he started out with in 1989 ‘Alejandro Magno’ ("Alexander the Great"). Thank goodness his mother’s attempts to impede his intensive guitar playing as a child (leading her to actually break his guitar) did not work!
Although Sanz’s fame has not always been for the right reasons - mental breakdown, the revelation of a secret child outside of marriage and a public fight on twitter with Jorge Alonso - the bad boy of romance is clearly a senstivie soul. His outspokenness over the enviornment, on ‘La Ley Sinde,’ and being the first Spanish musician to give a lecture at Harvard University, Sanz is more than just a simple crooner; a loner 'looking for paradise’, a wonderful song writer...and we are not the only ones to think so, if this clip of guests he rolled in to sing the song with at his 2006 concert are anything to go by...
JULIO IGLESIAS is STILL the Latin Artist who has sold most records in history (300 million)
On top of that, Gorgeous Julio, 1980’s global housewife’s fantasy, is also Guinness World Recorder for having sold the most records in the most languages in history (14) undeniably making him the greatest crooner ever. Betraying somewhat his affectionate lyrics, statistics suggest that much of his success is down pure grafting and ambition, which led him to give 41 concerts in 41 cities in Spain in just 30 days in 1970.
As well as ladies man, a myth-breaker of Spanish laziness! Spain is lucky indeed, for if this heart-throb had not had a car accident on September 22nd 1963, he would perhaps never have discovered his true passion for producing romantic ballads, as he was previously a goal keeper for one of Real Madrid’s football teams. Casillas, you’d better start taking taxis…
ENRIQUE IGLESIAS… a mere shadow of his father? A rather popular shadow nonetheless…
So abounding were the father’s crooning talents, there was enough over spill to sustain the career of Iglesias Junior. It certainly wasn’t for his voice that Enrique won 16 Billboard Music Awards, 23 Billboard Latin Music Awards, as well as a Grammy, and 7 World Music Awards. Initially, Enrique tried to avoid being tarred with the same brush as his father by working under the name of ‘Enrique Martinez.’ That was until he realised that his father’s legacy was rather more to his advantage.
You could say that Enrique’s global stardom could also be attributed to his grandfather; for it was after he was kidnapped for two weeks in 1986, by the Basque terrorist group ETA, that Enrique and his brother moved to Miami to live in safety with Julio, providing Enrique with the opportunity to learn English, crucial to the international renown that would soon come his way.
While Enrique’s quests to extend his fame to film and musical theatre have proved less successful, his goods looks have served him well – currently providing the face of the fragrance ‘Blue Star men’ by Tommy Hilfiger alongside Beyoncé. And of course he has that essential celebrity relationship with tennis star and Russian blond bombshell Anna Kournikova, making one wonder what new version of the Iglesias crooning dynasty that will produce…
NINO BRAVO died in a car crash at the age of twenty-eight, having just signed a major record deal
Once upon a time, back in 1958, a shy Valencian 14-year-old called Luis Ferri Llopis, with a tendency to befriend older people, found himself on a trip with two well-known musicians, bassist Vicente Lopez and Paco Ramón. The story goes that upon waking from a nap, and hearing the boy sing for the first time, Lopez predicted that Llopis, subsequently to be renamed Niño Bravo, would become a superstar.
Bravo refused to move permanently to Madrid despite the pressures this placed on his career, but soon became a hit in Spain and Latin America. If Spain was deprived of many romantic hits when his life was cut short, the legacy lived on after through his besotted fans. His posthumous cd “América América”, sold 90,000 copies, a book was written about his life ‘De Manolito a Niño Bravo,’ a museum was set up dedicated to his memory ‘El Museo Niño Bravo,’ and even a musical consisting of his songs entitled ‘Niño Bravo, ¡el musical!’ has been created.
CAMILO SESTO was voted ‘The most famous famous spaniard in history,’
Beating the likes of Julio Iglesias and Niño Bravo, this 1970s chanteur from Alicante, sought his international fame by moving to Los Angeles. After starring in the Spanish version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Jesus Christ Superstar in 1975, Sesto began reaching the top of the charts all over America, Latin America with his own songs, leaving classics like Algo de mí (Something of me) (1972), Amor...Amar (Love.. to love) (1972), Melina (1975), a song about Melina Mercouri, ¿Quieres ser mi amante? (Do you want to be my lover?) and Perdóname (Forgive me) (1981), the latter being his most successful hit.
During the 70s,80s Sesto created many hit songs and a great fortune, and almost every song came from his sole inspiration, being the author, interpreter, composer, and producer of all of his works. They catapulted him as a consummate multi-talented artist. Gilette offered him 500,000 dollars just to shave his beard in one of their adverts, money this good hearted crooner proceeded to donate to an orphanage. Finally retiring in 2008, he did not let the curtain fall so easily on his singing career, organizing a leaving tour consisting of 100 shows which would last until 2011.
JOAN MANUEL SERRAT – the thinking woman’s Spanish crumpet
If Niño Bravo sought to protect his Valencian heritage whilst his love songs brought him fame all over Spain, Joan Manuel Serrat showed his devotion for Catalunia through his love songs. When in 1968 Serrat was asked to represent Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest with his song ‘La,la,la’ his requests to sing the song in Catalan were refused and he was replaced by Massiel who went on to win the competition with her Spanish version of the song, leaving Serrat to travel to South America where he could sing without the restrictions of censors while his songs were banned and his records burned in the streets of Spain. The cantautor's condemnation of the Franco regime in a press conference in Mexico in 1975 forced him into exile in the country and he did not return to Spain until after Franco’s death.
Despite such aversion to the central Spanish government, he did not produce his first cd in Catalan until 2006, and was actually criticized by his own people for singing in Spanish. However, Serrat became one of the most popular singers in the Spanish speaking world, embraced as much for his love songs as for his politics, fitting perfectly into the ambient of Latin American cancion de protesta, alongside the likes of Silvio Rodriguez. The fact that in 2006 Barcelona’s City Council awarded him a gold medal for his achievements proves that no matter what language Serrat may choose to sing in, there is only one language of love...
Raphael
This most theatrical of spanish crooners with an extreme falseto seemed to be able to cast a bizarrely powerful spell over his female fans in the 1960s and, er...the Generalisimo Franco, Spain's ruthless dictator at the time, who apparently confessed to falling prey to Rafael's effeminate charisma. In 1966 and 1967 Raphael represented Spain at the Eurovisian Song Contest in Luxembourg. He went on to become hugely succesful in Latin America, with his rendition of Latin American folk standards including "Huapango torero", "Sandunga" and "Llorona"; they were hits in Mexico. He appeared live on The Ed Sullivan Show with great success on October 25, 1970, singing (in Spanish, English and Italian) "Hallelujah" and "Hava Nagila." He appeared again on December 27, 1970, with the songs "Maybe" (Somos), "When my love is around" (Cuando llega mi amor) and "The sound of the trumpet" (Balada de la trompeta). We love this clip below particularly for the elegant lighting of a cigarette before embarking on a love song...classic!
PABLO ALBORAN...the YouTube Generation's Crooner?
If ‘La Ley Sinde,’ has caused many artists to look disparagingly upon music sharing sites such as Youtube, this is not an opinion shared by this Spanish beau whose fame and success was made possible through such a site. Indeed, after uploading videos onto Youtube from the age of 14, his talent spread through word of mouth, or, better put, through ‘link-sharing’ by his fans whom he indisputably owes for his rise to fame; his videos have over 6 million visits on Youtube, without mentioning his 230 million followers on Facebook. Having started singing at the age of seven, some of his songs that he wrote at the mere age of 13 feature on his number one album. Although he was the artist who sold the highest amount of CDs in 2011 in Spain, it is not just his adoring Spanish fans who have supported his efforts, as Kelly Rowland eagerly desires to produce a single with this crooney…
DAVID BISBAL - Spain's male Leona Lewis
Runner up of Spain’s version of Fame Academy- ‘Operación Triunfo’, this rather sentimental solo artist has sold more than 5 million records in Spain and America, getting 35 Platinum albums, 17 gold and 2 diamond, a crooner who has certainly worked his way from zero to hero. After performing a Spanish version of ‘Wavin’ Flag’ feat K’naan supporting Spain to their victory in the World cup in 2010, his catchy ‘No hay dos sin tres,’ followed Spain to their third victory in the Eurocup earlier this year, showing romance is not this crooner’s unique passion.
Never forgetting where he came from, he is currently a judge on ’La Voz,’ (the Spanish version of ‘the Voice,’) helping out those who are starting out where he did. Indeed, it seems very little can make Bisbal fall from his pedestal of success (if we look past the besotted fan whose embrace did cause Bisbal to quite literally to fall from the stage during a performance at the opening show of Operación Triunfo in Peru) and if you are looking for a soppy lockdown tribute, here we have it...
SERGIO DALMA - To end where we began...at The beloved Eurovision... the king-maker of the crooners
Spanish crooning certainly has its love affair with the Eurovision. Rising to fame when he represented Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest, this forty-eight year old heartthrob is considered one of the most popular pop singers in Spain. Perhaps bringing the most original style to the table out of this list of crooners, his “Via Dalma II” is a homage to classic Italian songs and their reputation for dealing with the more sentimental aspects of life.
That said, Sergio's songs have not come without controversy and ‘Ave Lucia,’ was claimed to not be fit for the public when it was released in 1992 because it focusses on abortion, an opinion which was shunned as old fashioned by the singer, childbirth being a sensitive topic for the solo artist whose wife would later endure a miscarriage. Despite such difficulties, his heartfelt music has certainly touched the Spanish nation, and a book ‘ Los tesoros de Sergio Dalma,’ has recently been published dealing with his life and works.
And one for luck...
DAVID BUSTAMANTE ...crooner, fragrance, tourist board and video game.
Another runner-up of ‘Operación triunfo,’ his first album ‘Bustamante’ reached number one straight away. Always in the public eye, and not just for his sentimental ballads, this hearthrob image not only caught the attention of his girlfriend Paula Echevarria, (who would appear in the music video for ‘A contracorriente,’ based on the film ‘Notting Hill,’) but has also made him the image of the tourist campaign ‘Cantabria Seduce,’(see video below) as well as the official image of Police and Nintendo. As well as joining Bisbal in returning to the roots of his fame as he became a judge on the talent show ‘Numero Uno,’ alongside Sergio Dalma, he is one of the few Spanish singers who can claim a videogame has been made about him. As if his Latino good looks or his romantic pop songs aren’t enough to charm the senses of the Spanish public he has recently released his own fragrance ‘Muy mio,’ so that now his fans can delight not only in his voice and image but in his scent too.
