Manolo Escobar
Who is Manolo Escobar?
Manuel García Escobar, known artistically as Manolo Escobar, was born on October 19, 1931, in Las Norias, a hamlet of El Ejido (Almería). He was the fifth of ten children in a modest family: his father, Antonio García, worked several trades — running a guesthouse, trading goods, and even setting up the village’s first cinema — and always insisted his children get an education and be exposed to music. Manolo and his brothers learned guitar and lute as children and performed at village festivals and weddings under the name Los Niños de Antonio García.
The drought of the 1940s pushed much of the family to emigrate to Barcelona in search of work. Still a teenager, Manolo moved there with several of his brothers and worked a string of different jobs — in metalworking, carpentry, construction, a chemical factory, and as a post-office assistant — while continuing to sing at neighborhood festivals and local contests.
Career
His military service in Larache (Morocco) in the early 1950s unexpectedly opened a door into radio: through a contact he was introduced to Radio Barcelona, where he performed accompanied on guitar by his brother. With his brothers he formed the group Manolo Escobar y sus guitarras, recording his first records and building a following through tours of the Costa Brava and southern France in the late 1950s. In 1959 he married Ana Marx (Anita), a German woman he had met in Playa de Aro, in a wedding held in Cologne.
In 1961 he made his solo debut at the Teatro Duque de Rivas in Córdoba with the show “Canta Manolo Escobar,” the starting point of a career that quickly turned him into a popular idol. In 1963 he also debuted as a film actor with “Los guerrilleros,” beginning a film career that continued at a pace of roughly one movie a year into the 1980s. In the 1990s he also worked in television, hosting shows such as “Goles son amores” and “Mañana serán estrellas.” Manolo Escobar was best known for copla and pasodoble, though his repertoire also included rumbas, ballads, and rancheras.
Notable discography
Songs such as “El porompompero,” “Mi carro,” “La minifalda,” “Madrecita María del Carmen,” and “Mujeres y vino” are part of Spanish popular culture of the 1960s and 70s. His biggest hit, “Y viva España,” was reported at the time to be the best-selling record in the history of Spanish-language music, with several million copies sold. He also put his own stamp on copla classics such as “Antonio Vargas Heredia,” “Suspiros de España,” and “Malvaloca.” In 1978, when his daughter Vanessa was born, his brother Juan Gabriel wrote him the bolero “Mi pequeña flor,” which Manolo popularized by singing it together with the little girl.
Personal life and legacy
Throughout his career he received numerous tributes: in June 1975 he was honored at a national tribute event in Barcelona, where he was presented with 19 gold records in a ceremony hosted by Concha Velasco, and he went on to accumulate more than 25 gold records in total. He was also awarded the gold medal of the city of Almería, which made him an adoptive son, and received the Gold Medal of Merit at Work in 2011, having already been awarded the silver medal in 1969. He kept performing well into his eighties, celebrating his 80th birthday in 2011 with an anthology concert in Madrid. Manolo Escobar died on October 24, 2013, at his home in Benidorm, at the age of 82, from cancer.