José Velázquez Jiménez (born 19 November 1951 in

Telde Telde is a municipality in the eastern part of the island of Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, overseas (Atlantic) insular Spain. It borders Las Palmas to the north and is part of its urban area. It is the second most populous municipality on the is ...

Gran Canaria Gran Canaria (, ; ), also Grand Canary Island, is the third-largest and second-most-populous island of the Canary Islands, a Spain, Spanish archipelago off the Atlantic coast of Northwest Africa. the island had a population of that constitut ...

), better known by his stage name José Vélez (), is a Spanish singer. In the late 1960s, a music teacher from the Organización Juvenil Española (Spanish Youth Organisation) had the idea to create the music group Grupo Marabilla with some of his students, among them José Velázquez. When the group was dissolved, he began his solo career. In 1968 he participated in the talent contest ''Salto a la fama'' in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

and he began to get some recognition, which led him to establish in Madrid. In 1976, he brought out his first album, ''Vino Griego'', and in 1977 he participated at the

Sopot International Song Festival The Sopot International Song Festival or Sopot Festival (later called ''Sopot Music Festival Grand Prix'', ''Sopot Top of the Top Festival'' from 2012–13 and ''Polsat Sopot Festival'' in 2014) is an annual international song contest held in S ...

with the song "Romántica". He was internally chosen by

Televisión Española (acronym TVE, branded tve, "Spanish Television") is Spain's national state-owned public television broadcaster and the oldest regular television service in the country. It was also the first regular television service in Equatorial Guinea. T ...

as the Spanish entry for the

Eurovision Song Contest 1978 The Eurovision Song Contest 1978 was the 23rd edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Paris, France, following the country's victory at the with the song "L'Oiseau et l'Enfant" by Marie Myriam. Organised by the European Broadcas ...

in Paris with the song " Bailemos un vals". He placed 9th in a field of 20. From that moment onwards he has developed most of his career in Latin America, where he has achieved 19 platinum record and 32 gold records.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Velez, Jose 1951 births Living people People from Telde Singers from the Canary Islands Spanish male singers Eurovision Song Contest entrants