Nino Bravo, the power of an immortal voice

"The happiest years of my life were spent listening to his songs."

"If my daughter is called Noelia, it was because of her song."

"A unique voice."

The dedications in the visitor's book (from Argentina, Colombia, Tarragona...) of the museum dedicated to Nino Bravo in his hometown, Aielo de Malferit, reflect the international success of a singer who, in reality, barely spent three years on the crest of the recording wave.

A traffic accident took his life at the age of 28.

But in that short period, between 1969 and 1973, he gave him time to immortalize at least five songs that were number 1 in Spain and Latin America, as well as leaving an indelible memory thanks to his prodigious voice and his close personality.

“My father had things very clear for how young he was.

He had three very successful years, he worked very hard, but at the same time he liked being with his family.

He was very close and funny at short distances, although he might not seem like it.

My mother told me all this, of course," explains Eva Ferri, daughter of Luis Manuel Ferri Llopis, better known as Nino Bravo.

She was born shortly after the death of the Valencian singer on April 16 on the National III highway, on the way to Madrid, near Villarrubio.

Costumes by Nino Bravo in the Aielo de Malferit museum dedicated to the singer.

Monica Torres

“Our whole life has been marked by the absence of our father and by his artistic career.

It impresses me how people still love him, he talks to you about his life in relation to songs like

... They continue to get emotional and so do I, they are songs that are part of his lives”, adds one of the two daughters of the Valencian artist (his wife does not want to appear in the media).

Amateur singer, Eva she performed the song

con la padre de ella, whom she never met, in a virtual duet on a 1997 tribute album.

Of the 61 songs that make up Nino's repertoire (in one he also appears as a composer), perhaps his favorite is

As he died very young, we have this feeling that we are missing something, but at the same time with such a sudden disappearance everything is good.

I think he was a very serene man, who conveyed elegance.

Much is said about his voice, which is indisputable, but he did what he wanted with his voice, it went up and down.

Everyone sees his vocal power, but it's very difficult to sing like he does.

How he changed in a sentence, how he vocalized, everything was understood ”, he comments by phone from Valencia.

Cover of a popular album by Nino Bravo.

Eva participated this Saturday, along with her sister Amparo, at the beginning of the museum's activities for the Nino Bravo Year, declared by the Valencian Parliament and unanimously approved.

There is no political polarization with a popular myth that maintains several songs among the most requested in Spanish in karaoke, as confirmed by various classifications and Carlos Serra, manager of Lost, a specialized room in Valencia.

and

are the most claimed and reproduced.

There are many versions of her songs performed by Luis Miguel, Social Security or Rosario Flores.

"If I were based on the number of views on Spotify, his most popular song is

, with almost 68 million, and later

with 24 million," says Darío Ledesma, author of the most complete (and authorized) biography. about the singer,

(Millennium publishing house).

He began to collect clippings from publications, records, covers, photos, material that over the years he posted on a web page, today the official one.

“The response was tremendous, a lot of people were interested, from Latin America, from Spain, his bassist, Vicente López”, he explains.

It became the official page of the performer who has sold some 14 million records.

Universal, Nino's record company, has not yet revealed any new project on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the singer's death.

A projection room of the museum dedicated to the singer.

Monica Torres

The biographer denies with data and testimonies the legend that

was written by the renowned composers Pablo Herrero and José Luis Armenteros as a tribute to

Peter Fechter, a young man who died trying to jump the Berlin Wall.

“Nino never made reference to that story to his musicians or to anyone.

And Herrero, who had traveled to France and other countries, saw everything that was happening and that in Spain the youth needed an awakening”, he points out.

For his part, Armenteros stated that Franco's Spain was enough to demand freedom.

The song was a hymn of liberation for the prisoners of the Pinochet dictatorship, whose army also tried to appropriate it.

Nino was not politically significant.

He was an autodidact who soaked up everything from the music he heard on the radio at the time.

“Manolo Caracol, Lola Flores;

he liked cante jondo, voice demonstrations.

She was a sponge.

He saw the movie

several times , with Antonio Molina.

He liked Domenico Modugno and Frank Sinatra and he had a rock past with his group Los Supersons, ”says the biographer.

Among his projects in his mind, he was thinking about recording songs in Valencian and folklore from his land.

He also had the idea of ​​setting up a curious disco dedicated to Jules Verne, with rooms that recreated the author's books that he liked.

“And he wanted to set up a recording studio in Valencia.

He was annoyed that the singers had to go to Madrid to record, ”adds Ledesma.

Melodic and very popular singers, such as Nino or Camilo Sesto (another prodigious voice who was born in nearby Alcoi, 35 kilometers from Aielo), were underestimated in the eighties by critics.

“We were rockers and melodics were the enemy.

With their suits and ties...", comments veteran critic Diego A. Manrique.

“We were unfair, we had prejudices.

We didn't pay enough attention to them.

Nino not only had a great voice, he did interesting things.

In addition, he had no stain, no

, like others, because unfortunately he died very young, and on the road, like many musicians, ”says the journalist.

Nino is God in Aielo, where he was born in 1944. Although he moved very soon with his family to Valencia, which dedicated a street to him and named him an adoptive son, he never lost his relationship with his people.

He bought a chalet shortly after reaping his first successes.

"Now I would be my age," says an octogenarian in the March de Aielo bar, with 4,650 inhabitants, almost 80 kilometers from Valencia.

“Of course we met him, and his family.

When he came he sang flamenco to us, not the well-known songs, ”says another from the same farm.

"I am family", adds a third party.

All the patrons are ready to tell their story and gather around an old photograph in which a skinny and shy teenager Nino Bravo appears with his parents in that same bar.

Nino Bravo, in an image from 1972.NinoBravo.net / Ferri Martínez Family

"When he came, all the kids ran after him," recalls the mayor, Juanra Espí, at the singer's municipal museum.

Tight suits, flared pants, velvet jackets, shirts with huge collars, a belt with his initials NB, records, performances, awards, photographs, a cover of the frustrated exclusive of his wedding... The museum, with nearly 4,000 visits a year, it is a small paradise for the

fan or aficionado

that will now be expanded with more funds donated by the family and aid from the Generalitat.

The Nino Bravo Year also promotes a commemorative stamp.

And the family has discovered a color musical short from 1971 with three

for broadcast on Argentine television that the Filmoteca de València has digitized.

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