"Malagueña" (, from
Málaga
Málaga (; ) is a Municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 591,637 in 2024, it is the second-most populo ...
) is a song by
Cuban composer
Ernesto Lecuona. It was originally the sixth
movement of Lecuona's ''Suite Andalucía'' (1933), to which he added lyrics in Spanish. The song has since become a
popular,
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...
,
marching band
A marching band is a group of instrumental musicians who play while marching. Historically they were used in armed forces and many marching bands remain military bands. Others are still associated with military units or emulate a military sty ...
, and
drum and bugle corps Drum and bugle corps is a name used to describe several related musical ensembles.
* Drum and bugle corps (modern), a musical marching unit
* Drum and bugle corps (classic), musical ensembles that descended from military bugle and drum units retur ...
standard and has been provided with lyrics in several languages. In general terms,
malagueñas are
flamenco
Flamenco () is an art form based on the various folkloric music traditions of southern Spain, developed within the Gitanos, gitano subculture of the region of Andalusia, and also having historical presence in Extremadura and Region of Murcia, ...
dance styles with
paso doble
Pasodoble (Spanish language, Spanish: ''double step'') is a fast-paced Spanish military march used by infantry troops. Its speed allowed troops to give 120 steps per minute (double the average of a regular unit, hence its name). This often wa ...
elements from
Málaga
Málaga (; ) is a Municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 591,637 in 2024, it is the second-most populo ...
, in the southeast of Spain.
Origins
The melodic themes which form the basis of "Malagueña" were not of
Ernesto Lecuona's invention, having been prominent in Spanish folk songs named "malagueñas" for several centuries, though at least one was popularised internationally by 19th-century American composer
Louis Moreau Gottschalk in his solo
piano
A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...
composition ''Souvenirs d'Andalousie'' (
English: ''Memories of Andalusia'').
The malagueña originates in the
fandango
Fandango is a lively partner dance originating in Portugal and Spain, usually in triple metre, triple meter, traditionally accompanied by guitars, castanets, tambourine or hand-clapping. Fandango can both be sung and danced. Sung fandango is u ...
style of
Málaga
Málaga (; ) is a Municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 591,637 in 2024, it is the second-most populo ...
, hence its name. It was also exported to the
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...
around the 18th century by Spanish mariners, where it has developed its own separate identity as the malagueña c''anaria,'' with a distinct style for different islands ranging from variations similar to the original fandango, to slower and more lamenting melodies such as those from the island of
Tenerife
Tenerife ( ; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands, an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain. With a land area of and a population of 965,575 inhabitants as of A ...
. On the island of
Fuerteventura
Fuerteventura () is one of the Canary Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean, geographically part of Macaronesia, and politically part of Spain. It is located away from the coast of North Africa. The island was declared a biosphere reserve by UNESCO i ...
the malagueña ''de los novios'' (
English: ''of the bride and groom'') is played at weddings in honour of the nuptials, and is much more elegant.
Notable vocal performances
A
German-language
German (, ) is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family, mainly spoken in Western and Central Europe. It is the majority and official (or co-official) language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein. It is a ...
version, sung by
Caterina Valente, with
Werner Müller's orchestra, was very popular in the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
(not making the
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...
chart
A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphics, graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can repres ...
, but charting on ''
Cashbox'', peaking at No. 42) in February
1955. Valente also sang "Malagueña" in
Spanish. English lyrics were written by Marian Banks and a later charting version was recorded by
Connie Francis
Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero ( ; born December 12, 1937), known as Connie Francis, is a retired American Pop music, pop singer, actress, and top-charting female vocalist of the late 1950s and early 1960s. She is estimated to have sold more th ...
in
1960
It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism.
Events January
* Janu ...
that reached No. 42 on ''Billboard's'' chart as the
flip-side of her No. 1 pop hit "
My Heart Has a Mind of Its Own", which were included on her 1961 compilation album ''
More Greatest Hits''.
In 1962,
Violetta Villas recorded "Malagueña" in
German- and
Polish-language versions. Singers
Vigen Derderian and
Googoosh adapted the song for
Iranian pop.
Notable instrumental performances
Lecuona's "Malagueña" was recorded by the composer as a piano solo on the 1955
RCA Victor
RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic ...
LP ''Lecuona Plays Lecuona''. The recording is available on
RCA
RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded in 1919 as the Radio Corporation of America. It was initially a patent pool, patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Westinghou ...
/
BMG CD compilations and
reissue
In the music industry, a reissue (also re-release, repackage or re-edition) is the release of an album or single which has been released at least once before, sometimes with alterations or additions.
Reasons for reissue
New audio formats
Reco ...
s.
As a pianist,
Stan Kenton
Stanley Newcomb Kenton (December 15, 1911 – August 25, 1979) was an American popular music and jazz artist. As a pianist, composer, arranger and band leader, he led an innovative and influential jazz orchestra for almost four decades. Though ...
first had the piece arranged for the ''
Sketches on Standards
''Sketches on Standards'' (subtitled ''Request selections from the Kenton Dance Library'') is an album by pianist and bandleader Stan Kenton featuring performances of jazz standards recorded in 1953 and originally released on the Capitol label a ...
'' LP in 1956, which mostly went unnoticed at that time. After the 1960 Connie Francis version,
Bill Holman's 1961 arrangement for the Stan Kenton Orchestra re-imagined the song again as a fiery
big band
A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s and ...
showpiece, with an even larger orchestra. Performances of this arrangement appeared on Kenton's 1962
Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...
-winning album ''
Adventures In Jazz'' and on the 1962 American TV show ''
Jazz Scene USA''.
Marco Rizo's solo piano performance of "Malagueña" can be found in ''Lecuona, a Musical Legacy''. Rizo, who in 1938 became the official pianist of the Havana Philharmonic, performed under the direction of Maestro Ernesto Lecuona and gave duo piano recitals with Lecuona in 1939.
Sabicas adapted it for flamenco-style guitar, and it was included on his 1957 album, ''Sabicas Vol. 2'', on
Elektra Records
Elektra Records (or Elektra Entertainment) is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group, founded in 1950 by Jac Holzman and Paul Rickolt. It played an important role in the development of contemporary folk and rock music between the ...
. This recording was influential in the piece becoming a guitar standard, even though it was originally written for piano.
An acoustic instrumental demo of "Malagueña" was performed by
Ritchie Valens and recorded in early 1959 at his manager
Bob Keane's home studio. It was to have been worked on and completed later that year, but Valens died in a plane crash on February 3 before anything further could be done. About two years later, Keane chose Valens' demo as one of several unfinished tracks featured on the album ''
Ritchie Valens in Concert at Pacoima Jr. High.'' Other artists as varied as
Chet Atkins
Chester Burton Atkins (June 20, 1924 – June 30, 2001), also known as "Mister Guitar" and "the Country Gentleman", was an American musician who, along with Owen Bradley and Bob Ferguson (musician), Bob Ferguson, helped create the Nash ...
,
Count Basie
William James "Count" Basie (; August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. In 1935, he formed the Count Basie Orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and the ...
,
Roy Clark
Roy Linwood Clark (April 15, 1933 – November 15, 2018) was an American singer, musician, and television presenter. He is best known for having hosted '' Hee Haw'', a nationally televised country variety show, from 1969 to 1997. Clark wa ...
,
Ray Conniff
Joseph Raymond Conniff (November 6, 1916 – October 12, 2002) was an American bandleader and arranger best known for his Ray Conniff Singers during the 1960s.
Biography
Conniff was born November 6, 1916, in Attleboro, Massachusetts, United S ...
,
Xavier Cugat,
Esquivel, Connie Francis,
Ted Heath and
Chico O'Farrill have also performed the piece.
Other popular versions
Another version in the pop music scene is that of
Puerto Rican guitarist
José Feliciano as part of his 1969
gold record
Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...
''
Alive Alive O!''. He performed his particular arrangement live many times over the decades. American guitarist
Roy Clark
Roy Linwood Clark (April 15, 1933 – November 15, 2018) was an American singer, musician, and television presenter. He is best known for having hosted '' Hee Haw'', a nationally televised country variety show, from 1969 to 1997. Clark wa ...
recorded an instrumental version of "Malagueña" and also performed the song in an episode of the US television show ''
The Odd Couple''. Clark went on to close his shows with the song on a
12-string acoustic guitar for many years afterward.
In 1964, the Minneapolis group
The Trashmen released a surf rock style rendition of the song on their
''Surfin' Bird'' album.
In 1973, Hans Vermeulen, leader of
Dutch pop band
Sandy Coast, produced a version by Los Angeles, which made it to the top three of the Dutch charts.
The piece has become a favorite in the sport of
figure skating
Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games, with its introduction occurring at the Figure skating at the 1908 Summer Olympi ...
, used notably by US pair skaters,
Gillian Wachsman and
Todd Waggoner in their 1988 season long program. Their innovative choreography gave them a 5th place finish in the 1988
Calgary Winter Olympics and 4th place at the
1988 World Championships. It was also used by
Kristi Yamaguchi for her gold medal-winning program at the
1992 Winter Olympics
The 1992 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVI Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Albertville '92 (Franco-Provençal, Arpitan: ''Arbèrtvile '92''), were a winter multi-sport event held from 8 to 23 February 1992 in and aroun ...
and
World Championships
A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...
, and more recently by world champion
Javier Fernández, who used the piece for his short program during the 2015–16 and 2016–17 seasons. The score for the program consisted of an instrumental solo guitar section performed by
Paco de Lucía
Francisco Sánchez Gómez (; 21 December 194725 February 2014), known as Paco de Lucía (), was a Spanish virtuoso flamenco guitarist, composer, and record producer. A leading proponent of the new flamenco style, he was one of the first flamen ...
and a vocal section by
Plácido Domingo
José Plácido Domingo Embil (born 21 January 1941) is a Spanish opera singer, conductor, and arts administrator. He has recorded over a hundred complete operas and is well known for his versatility, regularly performing in Italian, French, ...
. The program was choreographed by
Antonio Najarro, director of Spain's National Ballet.
Pair
Pair or PAIR or Pairing may refer to:
Government and politics
* Pair (parliamentary convention), matching of members unable to attend, so as not to change the voting margin
* ''Pair'', a member of the Prussian House of Lords
* ''Pair'', the Fren ...
figure skaters
Aleksandra Boikova and
Dmitrii Kozlovskii also used the piece as their free program music for the 2021-2022 Olympic season. In the 2023-24 season,
Ilia Malinin
Ilia Malinin (born December 2, 2004) is an American competitive figure skater. He is a two-time World champion (2024 World Figure Skating Championships, 2024 & 2025 World Figure Skating Championships, 2025), two-time Grand Prix of Figure Skating ...
skated to the piece in his short program.
The melody from bar 70 of the original "Malagueña" piano arrangement by
Lecuona appears as a guitar solo in the opening lines of
Shirley Bassey
Dame Shirley Veronica Bassey (; born 8 January 1937) is a Welsh singer. Known for her career longevity, powerful voice and recording the James Bond music, theme songs to three James Bond films - the only artist to officially perform more than o ...
's 1967 version of "
If You Go Away" from her album ''
And We Were Lovers''.
Drum corps, marching band
"Malagueña" is often performed in
drum and bugle corps Drum and bugle corps is a name used to describe several related musical ensembles.
* Drum and bugle corps (modern), a musical marching unit
* Drum and bugle corps (classic), musical ensembles that descended from military bugle and drum units retur ...
and marching competitions. The song has been performed and recorded numerous times by both the
University of Massachusetts Minuteman Marching Band and the
University of Minnesota Marching Band and, as such, has become one of the songs most identified with both groups. One of the most memorable drum and bugle corps performances was by the
Madison Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps in 1988, which earned them the
Drum Corps International
Drum Corps International (DCI) is a governing body for drum and bugle corps. Founded in 1971 and known as "marching music's major league," DCI develops and enforces rules of competition and judges at sanctioned drum and bugle corps competitions t ...
(DCI) championship title (the group played the song other years, as well, both before and after 1988). A non-jazz arrangement was played by another top drum and bugle corps in 1988, the Velvet Knights of
Anaheim
Anaheim ( ) is a city in northern Orange County, California, United States, part of the Greater Los Angeles area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 346,824, making it the most populous city in Orange County, the tenth-most ...
, California, which has continued to be a fan favorite.
References
External links
*
ASCAP
The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadc ...
Malagueña (From Spanish Suite "Andalucia")List of recordings of the song
{{DEFAULTSORT:Malaguena (song)
Songs with music by Ernesto Lecuona
Connie Francis songs
Bill Haley songs
Caterina Valente songs
Songs in Spanish
Song recordings produced by Norman Newell