Santo Domingo. DR
This Sunday, April 16, marks the 50th anniversary of the death of the Spanish vocalist Nino Bravo. The musical world of the romantic ballad pays homage to him and nostalgically remembers that deep and powerful voice that, despite the fact that half a century has passed, remains in force and has marked several generations, including Dominicans.
In Aielo de Malferit, Valencia, his hometown, he was declared “The Year of Nino Bravo”, among other tributes to commemorate the 50th anniversary of that fateful outcome that cut short a career that had been growing.
Nino Bravo’s daughters, María Amparo and Eva Ferri, have participated in various tributes to the late singer, in which Eva has performed songs to remember her father.
After the success of a previous concert in his honor, which was held on February 14, this tribute to Nino Bravo returns to Valencia on April 27 by the Municipal Band of that town.
Felipe Garpe, Sheila García and Eva Ferri, daughter of Nino Bravo, will perform at the concert, who will perform the best-known pieces by the singer from Aielo de Malferit.
In addition, the Play Radio Valencia station will carry out the programming “50 hours with Nino Bravo”, which will begin at 9:00 p.m. on April 14 until 12:00 a.m. on the 16th of the same month, the date on which the unforgettable singer lost his life.
A photographic exhibition is also held in the Plaza La Reina, in Valencia, which goes from 1968 to 1973, covering the singer’s professional career and there will be concerts throughout Spain to remember him.
On April 16, 1973, around noon, Luis Manuel Ferri Llopis, name of Nino Bravo, died. after a road accident. At that moment the singer died and the myth was born.
At first, Nino’s manager, Vicente Moya, had planned to make the trip by plane, but for various reasons they decided to do it in the singer’s car, a BMW he had recently purchased.
The artist’s record company had an agenda to launch it worldwide that same year, which included a new tour of America that would take him, among other countries, to Vemezuela, whose last trip had been in 1971, to Mexico, where he was in 1972 and would land. for the first time in the Dominican Republic, where he was eagerly awaited.
“This is the best singer in my country and one of the three best in the world,” Julio Iglesias said at the top of his lungs after raising his arm, when he coincided with Nino Bravo on Mexican television in November 1972.
with the best
Nino Bravo has often been compared and even ranked higher than the best singers and voices in history such as Tom Jones, Elvis Presley, Freddie Mercury, Engelberg Humperdinck, Fran Sinatra, Tony Bennett, among other legends.
And along with his countrymen Raphael and Camilo Sesto, they are considered the three greatest Hispanic singers of all time.
Most of the coaches who have analyzed his voice agree that he has been the most attuned of the Spanish-speaking singers, with an absolute mastery of air control, something that speaks highly of his talent, since the Valencian does not they know him musical studies.
The Mexican Luis Miguel is the closest to him in these lines and José José, if he had not had the pneumonia that affected his lungs in 1972, would be in this category.
In his live performances, Nino Bravo surpassed his albums recorded in studios and the public is well aware of his last trip to Venezuela where he performed on Radio Caracas Televisión, where he performed live “Un Beso y una Flor”, Mi Gran Amor and Noelia”, leaving reflected in the last song one of the most spectacular live performances of the Spanish-American ballad.
His participation as a guest at the Viña del Mar International Festival is also remembered, where despite the fact that the public asked for more, he could only sing three songs because the orchestra only had the scores for “Un Beso y una Flor”, “Como Everyone” and “I love you, I love you”.
Manuel Alejandro’s proposal
Nino Bravo’s record house introduced him to the composer Manuel Alejandro in 1969 so that I could prepare his first songs for him.
This is how Alejandro, considered the most important composer of the Hispanic ballad, writes the songs “Como Todos” and “Es el Viento” for him, however the songs do not achieve public favor and Nino stumbles upon a failure.
Then Alejandro gives him the song “No Debo Pensar en Ti”, with which he participates in the Festival del Mediterraneo in Barcelona, an event at the level of the Benidorn Festival, where Nino is eliminated and fails to advance to the final.
Faced with this new failure, Manuel Alejandro, who had worked with Raphael for many years and whom he no longer held in high regard as a singer, had fallen in love with Nino’s voice and proposed that they both settle in America, where the composer would promote him and understood that They could succeed, however the singer rejected the idea, arguing that he did not want to get away from the family.
Many people could not explain how a singer with such a quality voice found it difficult to connect with popular taste and that is because Nino did not like to publicize himself or make news outside of music.
A chronicler asked him in 1972 about an accident he had had and he replied: yes, he was going from Valencia to Barcelona. Nothing happened to me, but it did to the automobile that was destroyed. I could have taken advantage and launched the event but I didn’t want to because it is outside my profession. It matters more to me to say that my songs are heard right now in Belgium and the Netherlands, that I want to go to Europe and that I am going to Mexico again”.
Its popularity in the Dominican Republic
Nino Bravo is one of the singers with the highest levels of admiration in the country, including young people, and the proof is that at festivals and karaokes his songs are among the most requested.
“America, America”, “Cartas Amarillas”, “La Puerta del Amor”, “Noelia”, among others, are among the most sung by young people.
As for the patio artists, he is the idol of many of them, among which El Jeffrey stands out, who popularized “Mi tierra”, to the rhythm of merengue; Eddy Herrera, who gave the merengue voice to the well-known song “Carolina” and Hansel, who always performed his songs on local television.