Alberto Cortez (born José Alberto García Gallo; 11 March 1940 – 4 April 2019)
was an
Argentine
Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...
singer and songwriter. Cortez and his wife Renée Govaerts lived 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 ...
.
Career
Cortez was born at 8:00 AM (11:00 GMT) on Monday, 11 March 1940, in
Rancul,
La Pampa Province
La Pampa () is a sparsely populated province of Argentina, located in the Pampas in the center of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise San Luis, Córdoba, Buenos Aires, Río Negro, Neuquén and Mendoza.
History
In ...
, Argentina.
[Alberto Cortez: "Soy un animal de escenario"](_blank)
InfoRegión - Sep 13, 2007 He began elementary school at the Alberto Williams conservatory at the age of six. He began composing songs at twelve, including "Un cigarrillo, la lluvia y tú". Later he entered Manuel Ignacio Molina de San Rafael Junior High School in Mendoza province. There he continued his studies of music at the Chopin of San Rafael conservatory.
[Biography](_blank)
on the Official website (Spanish).
At seventeen, Cortez became the singer of the Arizona orchestra, where he was known as ''Chiquito García''. At eighteen, he went to study in the Social Sciences and Law School of Buenos Aires and sang in bars to help himself with his studies.
Later Cortez began to sing in the orchestra of Mario Cardi and was contracted to sing in the San Francisco jazz orchestra. He traveled all over the country with them and began to use his pseudonym "Alberto Cortez" while singing with the orchestra of Armando Pointier. Cortez dropped out of school and dedicated himself fully to music.
Aged twenty, Cortez travelled to
Antwerp
Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...
,
Belgium
Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...
where he recorded his first album. His record "Sucu Sucu" reached number one.
Cortez met Renee Govaerts and later married her. After a difficult start he consolidated himself as one of the most renowned composer-singers of Latin America with hits like "Mi árbol y yo", "Mariana", "Como el primer día", "A partir de mañana" and "Callejero".
He died as a result of a gastric hemorrhage at 3:30 PM (13:30 GMT) on Thursday, 4 April 2019, in the city of
Móstoles
Móstoles () is a municipalities of Spain, municipality of Spain located in the Community of Madrid. With over 200,000 inhabitants, it is the region's second most populated municipality after Madrid. Móstoles was a small town for a long time, but ...
, in the
Community of Madrid
The Community of Madrid (; ) is one of the seventeen autonomous communities and 50 provinces of Spain, provinces of Spain. It is located at the heart of the Iberian Peninsula and Meseta Central, Central Plateau (); its capital and largest munici ...
, Spain, at 79 years of age.
See also
*
List of singer-songwriters
This is a list of singer-songwriters who write, compose, and perform their own musical material. The list is divided into two sections to differentiate between artists categorized as singer-songwriters and others who do not fall under the defin ...
*
List of composers
This is a list of lists of composers grouped by various criteria.
Name
*List of composers by name
Women
*List of female composers by name
*List of female composers by birth date
*List of Australian female composers
Genre
*Anime composer
*List ...
References
External links
Official Site*
Brief biography and some lyrics(English)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cortez, Alberto
1940 births
2019 deaths
People from La Pampa Province
Grammy Award winners
20th-century Argentine male singers
Argentine male singer-songwriters
Argentine singer-songwriters
Argentine emigrants to Spain
Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners
Latin music songwriters
Argentine people of Galician descent
Deaths from gastrointestinal hemorrhage