Alberto Cortez (born José Alberto García Gallo; 11 March 1940 – 4 April 2019)
was an
Argentine
Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...
singer and songwriter. Cortez and his wife Renée Govaerts lived in
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
.
Career
Cortez was born at 8:00 AM (11:00 GMT) on Monday, 11 March 1940, in
Rancul
Rancul is a town in La Pampa Province in Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the sec ...
,
La Pampa Province
La Pampa () is a sparsely populated province of Argentina, located in the Pampas in the center of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise San Luis, Córdoba, Buenos Aires, Río Negro, Neuquén and Mendoza.
History
In ...
, Argentina.
[Alberto Cortez: "Soy un animal de escenario"](_blank)
InfoRegión - Sep 13, 2007 He began elementary school at the Alberto Williams conservatory at the age of six. He began composing songs at twelve, including "Un cigarrillo, la lluvia y tú". Later he entered Manuel Ignacio Molina de San Rafael Junior High School in Mendoza province. There he continued his studies of music at the Chopin of San Rafael conservatory.
[Biography](_blank)
on the Official website (Spanish).
At seventeen, Cortez became the singer of the Arizona orchestra, where he was known as ''Chiquito García''. At eighteen, he went to study in the Social Sciences and Law School of Buenos Aires and sang in bars to help himself with his studies.
Later Cortez began to sing in the orchestra of Mario Cardi and was contracted to sing in the San Francisco jazz orchestra. He traveled all over the country with them and began to use his pseudonym "Alberto Cortez" while singing with the orchestra of Armando Pointier. Cortez dropped out of school and dedicated himself fully to music.
Aged twenty, Cortez travelled to
Antwerp
Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504, ,
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
where he recorded his first album. His record "Sucu Sucu" reached number one.
Cortez met Renee Govaerts and later married her. After a difficult start he consolidated himself as one of the most renowned composer-singers of Latin America with hits like "Mi árbol y yo", "Mariana", "Como el primer día", "A partir de mañana" and "Callejero".
He died as a result of a gastric hemorrhage at 3:30 PM (13:30 GMT) on Thursday, 4 April 2019, in the city of
Móstoles, in the
Community of Madrid, Spain, at 79 years of age.
See also
*
List of singer-songwriters
This is a list of singer-songwriters who write, compose, and perform their own musical material. The list is divided into two sections to differentiate between artists categorized as singer-songwriters and others who do not fall under the definiti ...
*
List of composers
References
External links
Official SiteSongs and BibliographyBrief biography and some lyrics(English)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cortez, Alberto
1940 births
2019 deaths
People from La Pampa Province
Grammy Award winners
20th-century Argentine male singers
Argentine male singer-songwriters
Argentine singer-songwriters
Argentine emigrants to Spain
Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners
Latin music songwriters
Argentine people of Galician descent
Deaths from gastrointestinal hemorrhage