Aníbal Velásquez Hurtado (born June 3, 1936) is a Colombian singer, composer and musician, recognized for playing the
accordion
Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...
. He is also known by his nicknames "El Mago" ("The Magician") and "El Rey de la Guaracha" ("The King of the Guaracha").
Biography
Aníbal Velásquez was born in 1936 in
Barranquilla
Barranquilla () is the capital district of Atlántico Department in Colombia. It is located near the Caribbean Sea and is the largest city and third port in the Caribbean Coast region; as of 2018 it had a population of 1,206,319, making it Col ...
, Colombia to parents José Antonio Velásquez and Belén Hurtado, and is the brother of the musician José "Cheíto" Velásquez. He is the father of Nelson Velásquez, former member of the
vallenato
Vallenato () or "Szlager" in Wayuu language (from the German "Schlager"), is a popular folk music genre from Colombia. It primarily comes from its Caribbean region. ''Vallenato'' literally means "born in the valley". The valley influencing th ...
group Los Inquietos del Vallenato.
He had his first hit ("La Gallina") in 1952 as part of the band Los Vallenatos del Magdalena with Carlos and Roberto Román and remained with the band until it disbanded due to Roberto's death. Later, he created his own group with his brothers Juan and José, and with them created a distinctive style of
guaracha
The guaracha () is a genre of music that originated in Cuba, of rapid tempo and comic or picaresque lyrics. The word had been used in this sense at least since the late 18th and early 19th century. Guarachas were played and sung in musical thea ...
music with accordion at the beginning of the 1960s; it drew on both Caribbean and South American genres and influences.
Due to the local rise in
cartel
A cartel is a group of independent market participants who collude with each other in order to improve their profits and dominate the market. Cartels are usually associations in the same sphere of business, and thus an alliance of rivals. Mos ...
-associated violent crime, Velásquez moved to
Caracas
Caracas (, ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the ...
,
Venezuela
Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
in the 1970s and resided there for 18 years before returning to Barranquilla.
In 2018
Telecaribe
Telecaribe is a regional television network for the Caribbean region of Colombia.
History
The station was set up in the early 1980s in Valledupar, Colombia and was created by a local entrepreneur named Jose Jorge Dangond. It started as an unlice ...
, a regional television network for the
Caribbean region of Colombia
The Caribbean region of Colombia or Caribbean coast region is in the north of Colombia and is mainly composed of 8 departments located contiguous to the Caribbean. Over his six-decade-long career, it is estimated Velásquez has recorded over 300 albums and potentially over 500 singles.
In 2019, Velásquez was reported to be seriously sick and was hospitalized in Barranquilla due to a severe lung infection.