On the occasion of Composer's Day in Mexico, we relive (from our archive) a talk that one of our collaborators had with the greatest exponent of the romantic genre in our country.
Heir and brilliant follower of the romantic song, Armando Manzanero He is currently the most important Mexican composer.
Born in Yucatán a distant December 1934, at the age of sixty-two* He is at the peak of his career: tours, concerts, nightclubs, cinema, radio and television, both in Mexico and abroad, keep him permanently busy. His way of being, simple and spontaneous, has earned him the love and sympathy of all his audiences.
With a catalog of more than four hundred recorded songs - the first written in 1950, at the age of fifteen - Armando is proud to have around 50 world hits, of which ten or twelve are recorded in various languages, including Chinese, Korean. and Japanese. He has shared artistic honors with Bobby Capó, Lucho Gatica, Angélica María, Carlos Lico, Roberto Carlos, José José, Elis Regina, Perry Como, Tony Bennet, Pedro Vargas, Luis Miguel, Marco Antonio Muñiz, Oiga Guillot and Luis Demetrio, among many others.
For fifteen years he has been a leader and to date vice president of the National Association of Authors and Composers, and his work in defense of copyright has strengthened the group and has earned him international recognition.
His first hit "I'm crying" is followed by "With the dawn", "I'm going to turn off the light", and then "I adore", "It seems like yesterday", "This afternoon I saw it rain", "No", " I learned with you"; “I remember you”, “You drive me crazy”, “I don't know about you”, and “There is nothing personal”. He is currently recording the music for the movie Alta Tensión.
Were you a troubadour in the beginning?
Yes, of course, like all Yucatecans, I inherited my father's taste and passion for music. My father was troubadour of red bone and from that he supported us, with that he raised us. He was a great troubadour and an excellent person.
I learned to play the guitar like everyone else in Mérida. I started studying music from the age of eight. At twelve I picked up the piano, and from fifteen onwards I live fully in music. I just sing, I live for music, as I live from it!
I started writing songs in 1950 and was working as a pianist in nightclubs. When I was twenty I went to live in Mexico and accompanied Luis Demetrio, Carmela Rey and Rafael Vázquez on the piano. It was precisely Luis Demetrio, my friend and fellow countryman, who advised me not to compose as I did in Yucatán, that I had to do it with more freedom, with more mischief, that I should tell a more suggestive story, a love anecdote.
What was your first major success?
"I'm crying", recorded by Bobby Capó, Puerto Rican author of "Piel canela". Then comes Lucho Gatica with “I'm going to turn off the light”, recorded in 1958, and then Angélica María, who shoots me as a composer for films, since her mother, Angélica Ortiz, was a film producer. There he begins to sing the famous covers that are known: "Eddy, Eddy", "Say goodbye" and others.
Later Carlos Lico comes with "Adoro", with "No", and then the uncover, already strong, at the national level. Internationally, it had been for a long time, especially in Brazil.
The first time they recorded me in another language was in Brazil, in 1959, the Trio Esperanza, the song is called “Con la aurora”, just look! Roberto Carlos records "I remember you", and Elis Regina the biggest success in Portuguese, "You leave me crazy." Curiously the last song he recorded. I arrived on a Friday to meet with her the following Monday and continue recording and she dies that weekend.
How do you see the future of romantic music?
It's the first question they always ask me. The romantic music it is necessary, it is the most played and sung. As long as there is the desire to hold the hand of the loved one and express our love, it will continue to exist, it will always exist. It will have its ups and downs, but it will remain. Mexicans have a great tradition of interpreters and composers of romantic music. It is a perennial music. Moreover, the Mexican music catalog is the second most important in the world due to the large amount of music it exports.
What role do the muses play?
Muses are important, but they are not indispensable, nor are they irreplaceable. It is very important to say something to someone because there is a need to communicate. If there is a good muse, how cute! It is very nice to sing to someone: "With you I learned." It is really true, I learned to live, not because I had a great romance, a madness of love, but because there was a person who taught me that I could live better according to my possibilities.
Is your wife also an artist?
No, nor did the Virgin send it! Tere is my third wife, and I never do it again in my life. They say that the third time is the charm and it beat me.
* Note: this interview was conducted in 1997.
