Directly from Spain
DIEGO EL CIGALA – The Prince of Flamenco
Diego El Cigala is, quite simply, the most exciting and innovative flamenco singer in the world today. Passionate, profound, and immensely proud of his Spanish gypsy heritage, El Cigala has often been touted as “The Sinatra of Flamenco.” His earthy and exultant and richly emotive voice marks him as one of the great living singers of flamenco. He is also one of those rare crossover artists who stayed true to his musical heritage yet achieved name recognition with mainstream audiences around the world.
Born into a family of flamenco musicians, El Cigala began his solo career in 1997. It was the groundbreaking collaboration with the legendary Cuban pianist Bebo Valdés, the CD Lágrimas Negras (Black Tears) that became a global hit, selling over a million copies, which propulsed him onto the international scene. Ensued killer live shows and ecstatic reviews, garnering along the way one of his three Grammy Awards and “record of the year” by the New York Times. It was to prove just the beginning for El Cigala dared again to innovate with his interpretation of the great tango tradition of Argentina on the Deutche Grammaphon CD – Cigala & Tango – an electrifying recording “full of passion, ferocity, a burning tenacity, disarming frankness” (Guardian). It went on to generate fantastic sales, great reviews, and a sold-out tour that played to more than 160,000 awed fans. Once again, his latest landmark recording, Romance de la luna tucumana, a new interpretation of the Argentine repertoire, immediately went gold in Spain and won him his third Grammy for this golden voice of flamenco.
At last Montreal can hear once again the critically acclaimed singer Paco de Lucia has described as “one of the most beautiful flamenco voices of our time, a voice of sweetness that flows over everything.”
Preceding his New York City Carnegie Hall appearance, Diego El Cigala returns for one night only at the Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, Place des Arts on Wednesday, May 6th.
“Flamenco royalty… ” – BBC
“Diego El Cigala is without a doubt the best thing that has happened to flamenco in a long time” —Le Monde, Paris
Artist website : http://www.elcigala.com/
Opening for El Cigala: LUSITANIAE MUSICA & RAÍZES DE COIMBRA (Montreal & Portugal)
FANTASTIC concert of Diego Cigala yesterday night. However the Portuguese opening was HORRIBLE. Please keep tge standard of Salle Wilfrid Pelletier as it should be a pride for Quebec. Only the guitar players from Lusitaniae were good enough to be on the scene last night.