Angelillo
Who is Angelillo?
Ángel Sampedro Montero, known artistically as Angelillo, was born on 12 January 1908 in the Madrid neighborhood of Puente de Vallecas, the son of a Galician father and of humble origins. Before devoting himself to cante he worked as a chimney sweep and jeweler’s apprentice, and as a young man he even dreamed of becoming a bullfighter, a path he eventually abandoned for music.
His entry into the world of cante came in 1924, when he won a singing competition held in his native Vallecas and also took part in the Copa Pavón contest, two milestones that marked the start of a career that would soon take him to Madrid’s most important stages.
Career
He performed in venues and theaters such as the Kursaal Imperial and the Teatro Barbieri in Madrid, the Teatro Romea, the Salón Variedades in Seville and La Viña P in Barcelona, and in 1934 he toured Spain in a tour organized by the impresario Vedrines. He was accompanied by top-tier guitarists such as Ramón Montoya, Sabicas and Habichuela, and his career overlapped with other great figures of the cante-copla of the era, such as Pepe Marchena and Juanito Valderrama. He was also a film actor, with roles in movies such as “La hija de Juan Simón” (1935) and “Suspiros de Triana” (1954), several of them produced by the republican company Filmófono.
After the Civil War he went into exile, first in Oran and then permanently in Argentina, where he lived for nearly two decades, with only occasional returns to Spain. In Buenos Aires he continued his career and became one of the most recognizable figures of the expatriate Spanish community.
Palos and discography
His repertoire was very broad and encompassed fandangos, fandanguillos, caracoles, granaínas, mirabrás, soleares, seguiriyas, malagueñas, tarantas, mineras, murcianas, saetas, verdiales and cantes de ida y vuelta with American influence, such as the colombianas. He is credited as one of the pioneers of bringing orchestral accompaniment to flamenco cante, a striking innovation for its time that set him apart from the previous generation of cantaores accompanied solely by guitar.
Legacy
Angelillo died on 25 November 1973 in Buenos Aires, during stomach surgery in which, according to accounts from the time, an electrical failure occurred in the operating room. He is remembered as one of the voices who brought Spanish cante and copla into orchestral territory and as a representative figure of the popular culture of the Spanish republican exile in the Americas.