Manolo Escobar

Manolo Escobar was born on 19 October 1931 in El Ejido, Almería, Spain, the fifth of ten children. His father left the family tradition of farming to devote himself to hospitality and culture. He met a retired teacher who had lost his family in the Spanish Civil War and offered him room and board in exchange for teaching his children music. Escobar started playing the flute and the piano in his early years. When he was 14, he moved from Almería to Barcelona with his brothers, working as an apprentice in various trades. He began his career in show business between Badalona and Barcelona's red-light district, with the group Manolo Escobar y sus guitarras (Manolo Escobar and his guitars). His brothers Salvador and Baldomero were also in the group. Later, when the group started to become successful, another brother, Juan Gabriel, joined. Juan Gabriel and sister, Maria José, would later write songs for the group. In 1962, he rose to fame with Canciones del Maestro Solano, his debut in Madrid and Barcelona, and the premiere of the movie Los Guerrilleros, filmed in Arcos de la Frontera (Cádiz). Even after 1965, when the copla genre's popularity was in decline, Escobar topped record sales lists, and was one of the few artists who had his own company and show. In 1959, he married German-born Anita Marx, whom he met three months earlier. They were married in Cologne, Germany, without knowing how to speak each other's language. They remained married for 53 years until his death. They adopted a daughter a few years later and named her Vanessa. She was only 3 days old at the time. The song "Mi pequeña flor" (My little flower) is dedicated to her. In the early 1990s, he moved into his "Porompompero" chalet in Benidorm, named after his acclaimed song. He appeared in more than 20 films and recorded almost 80 albums, 24 of which are gold records. He also had a platinum selling cassette. His best-selling album was Y viva España, which sold 6 million (10 million in subsequent official reprints) copies. It was the best-selling album in Spain from 1973 to 1992. Manolo Escobar died of colon cancer on 24 October 2013, at the age of 82.