9 February 2014

Flamenquito by Pitingo

Antonio Manuel Álvarez Vélez, born in 1980 and known as Pitingo, is a cantaor onubense (flamenco singer from Huelva) and a Latin soul singer. He has worked with many legendary artists and is most popular for being accompanied by Juan Carmonaa French flamenco guitarist. Additionally to bringing flamenco and Andalusian folk music to people, Pitingo has covered many well-known songs by groups and artists such as the Beatles, Badfinger, Roberta Flack, Donna Summer, Gloria Gaynor, Stevie Wonder, Bobby McFerrin, Lola Beltrán, the Wailers and Bob Marley. All à la flamenco, of course; and this makes it clearly a flamenquito. You can listen to what it sounds like watching the following YouTube videos.

So, below are some examples of Pitingo's way:

Roberta Flack's 1973 number one hit Killing Me Softly With His Song written by Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel in the 1960s:






Gloria Gaynor's 1978 hit song I Will Survive written by Freddie Perren and Dino Fekaris:




Badfinger's 1970 song Without You:


A couple of more things: here's his cover of Yesterday and here of Let It Be, songs by the Beatles released respectively in 1965 and 1970. In Pitingo's repertoire there is also Bobby McFerrin's 1988 song Don't Worry Be Happy. Alas, there's no good video for this one. But here you have Pitingo's version of Cucurrucucú Paloma1954 Mexican folk song written by Tomás Méndez.

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