Enrique Ortiz de Landázuri Izarduy (born 11 August 1967), best known as Enrique Bunbury, is a Spanish singer and songwriter. He has been described as "by far the most international star of

Spanish rock Spanish rock is the term used for the variety of rock music produced in Spain. Most bands formed in Spain have sung in Spanish, but many others have sung in English, French and Italian, in addition to the other languages spoken in Spain, such as ...

." He was propelled to fame as lead singer of

Héroes del Silencio Héroes del Silencio (Spanish: ''Heroes of Silence'') (well known as Héroes or HDS) was a Spanish rock band from Zaragoza, formed by guitarist Juan Valdivia and singer Enrique Bunbury. The lineup was completed by bassist Joaquín Cardiel and ...

. After the band disbanded in 1996, Bunbury gradually developed a solo career. His "

tessitura In music, tessitura (, pl. ''tessiture'', "texture"; ) is the most acceptable and comfortable vocal range for a given singer or less frequently, musical instrument, the range in which a given type of voice presents its best-sounding (or characte ...

" singing style would be in the

baritone A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice-types. The term originates from the Greek (), meaning "heavy sounding". Composers typically write music for this voice in the r ...

range.

Career

Bunbury got involved in music in the early 1980s, making his debut in a high school band called Apocalipsis, and later played along with Proceso Entrópico. In 1984, Bunbury joined a group called Zumo de Vidrio, debuting as a lead vocalist. After adopting the nickname of Bunbury, taken from the

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

stage play ''

The Importance of Being Earnest ''The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People'' is a play by Oscar Wilde. First performed on 14 February 1895 at the St James's Theatre in London, it is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious ...

'', the musician founded the band

, becoming a major number in the Hispanic rock scene. The band eventually broke up in 1996 and Bunbury embarked on his solo career in 1997 by launching an electro-rock album, Radical Sonora with his new band: Copi (piano), Del Moran (bass), Ramon Garcias (drums) and former Héroes del Silencio guitarist Alan Boguslavsky. Known for reinventing himself, in 1999 Bunbury released the album ''Pequeño'' (Small), which sounded very different from anything he had ever done before. His band also underwent changes, Boguslavsky was replaced by Rafa Dominguez, and new faces came on board: Ana Belén Estaje (violin), Luis Miguel Romero (percussion), Javier Iñigo, Javier Garcia Vega & Antonio Ríos in the metal instruments. This band was known as the "Huracán Ambulante" ("Wandering Hurricane") they had great energy on stage and performed with tremendous gusto. In 2005 after 8 years together, Bunbury dissolved the band due to a series of events that caused Bunbury to feel frustrated with the record label and his future. Bunbury took a trip to disconnect and clear his thoughts by spending some time in Cuba. After some time he connected with Spanish singer songwriter Nacho Vegas. They agreed to record a new album titled "El Tiempo De Las Cerezas". The album was released in 2006 with a small tour. This led to the release of a live DVD performance at The Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona. In 2007, Héroes del Silencio agreed to take part in an exclusive worldwide tour consisting of ten concerts to be given in ten cities around the world, which bore the name "Tour 2007" and marked the 20th anniversary of their first performances and the ten years that had elapsed since their dissolution as a band in 1996. The first concert took place in Guatemala City on 15 September, followed by Buenos Aires (21 September), Monterrey, Mexico (25 September), Los Angeles (28 September), Mexico City (4 & 6 October), Zaragoza, Spain (10 & 12 October), Seville, Spain (20 October) and Valencia, Spain (27 October), which wrapped up the '07 Tour. Bunbury went on to ensemble a new band which goes by the name "Los Santos Inocentes" (The Holy Innocents). Bunbury has recorded eight studio albums with Los Santos Inocentes. Helville De Luxe (2008), Las Consecuencias (2010), Licenciado Cantinas (2011), Palosanto (2013), MTV Unplugged: El Libro De Las Mutaciones (2015), Expectativas (2017), Posible (2020), and Curso De Levitación Intensivo (2020). Unlike

, Bunbury's solo career has been very different in terms of musical sound but managed to keep the essence of rock, while experimenting with various rhythms from electronic music and Middle Eastern sounds in the early stages of his solo career to

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining o ...

music, rancheras,

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

flamenco Flamenco (), in its strictest sense, is an art form based on the various folkloric music traditions of southern Spain, developed within the gitano subculture of the region of Andalusia, and also having historical presence in Extremadura and ...

and

tango Tango is a partner dance and social dance that originated in the 1880s along the Río de la Plata, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay. The tango was born in the impoverished port areas of these countries as the result of a combina ...

, or to

salsa Salsa most often refers to: * Salsa (Mexican cuisine), a variety of sauces used as condiments * Salsa music, a popular style of Latin American music * Salsa (dance), a Latin dance associated with Salsa music Salsa or SALSA may also refer to: ...

, milonga,

boleros Bolero is a genre of song which originated in eastern Cuba in the late 19th century as part of the trova tradition. Unrelated to the older Spanish dance of the same name, bolero is characterized by sophisticated lyrics dealing with love. It has ...

and

cumbia Cumbia refers to a number of musical rhythms and folk dance traditions of Latin America, generally involving musical and cultural elements from American Indigenous peoples, enslaved Africans during colonial times, and Europeans. Examples include: ...

in one of his latest works which pays tribute to Latin America. According to La Banda Elastica, "Rock gods do exist... and Enrique Bunbury is definitely one of them." He is renowned for his powerful, operatic voice which can range from F2-A5 with the ability to hit C3. Bunbury is a baritone. The SESAC Latina Music Awards honoured him with the Icon Award in 2019. A documentary directed by Alexis Morante was released in 2016 entitled ''El camino más largo'' (The Longest Way), which chronicles the 2010 tour Bunbury did of the United States. He is a

vegan Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal product—particularly in diet—and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. An individual who follows the diet or philosophy is known as a vegan. ...

. On February 28, 2022 Bunbury through his social media announced his final tour and retirement from the stages, this is due to health issues, mainly respiratory that the singer had to get through for a long time. Despite the tour was meant to end in September, on May 10 Bunbury announced that due to an unexpected worsening of his health, he would have to cancel the rest of the tour, and retire earlier.

Discography

Studio albums

Live albums

Awards and nominations

Latin Grammy Awards

Note: Two other songs performed by Bunbury but not written by him have been nominated for the

Latin Grammy Award for Best Rock Song The Latin Grammy Award for Best Rock Song is an honor presented annually at the Latin Grammy Awards, a ceremony that recognizes excellence and creates a wider awareness of cultural diversity and contributions of Latin recording artists in the Uni ...

, "Gozilla" with Leiva and

Ximena Sariñana Ximena Sariñana Rivera (; born October 29, 1985) is a Mexican singer-songwriter and actress. In 2009, she received critical acclaim and a Grammy nomination for her debut album, '' Mediocre''. Early life Ximena Sariñana was born in Guadalajar ...

in 2019 and "El Sur" with

Love of Lesbian Love of Lesbian is a Spanish indie pop band. They were nominated for the MTV Europe Music Award for Best Spanish Act at the 2012 MTV Europe Music Awards. Their album ''La noche eterna. Los días no vividos.'' reached number 1 in 2012. On March ...

in 2021, both nominations went to the songwriters of each song; Leiva for the former and Santi Balmes & Julián Saldarriaga for the latter.

MTV Europe Music Awards

References

External links

Enrique Bunbury Official Web SiteOfficial pages on social media sites
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bunbury, Enrique 1967 births Alternative rock guitarists Alternative rock singers Living people People from Zaragoza Rock en Español musicians Spanish rock singers Singers from Aragon Spanish male singers Capitol Latin artists Latin music songwriters Rock songwriters MTV Europe Music Award winners Latin Grammy Award winners