Aníbal Velásquez Hurtado (born June 3, 1936) is a Colombian singer, composer and musician, recognized for playing the

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

. He is also known by his nicknames "El Mago" ("The Magician") and "El Rey de la Guaracha" ("The King of the Guaracha").

Biography

Aníbal Velásquez was born in 1936 in

Barranquilla Barranquilla () is the capital district of the Atlántico department in Colombia. It is located near the Caribbean Sea and is the largest city and third port in the Caribbean region of Colombia, Caribbean coast region; as of 2018, it had a popul ...

, Colombia to parents José Antonio Velásquez and Belén Hurtado, and is the brother of the musician José "Cheíto" Velásquez. He is the father of Nelson Velásquez, former member of the

vallenato Vallenato () is a popular folk music genre from Colombia. It primarily comes from its Caribbean region. ''Vallenato'' literally means "born in the valley". The valley influencing this name is located between the ''Sierra Nevada de Santa Mar ...

group Los Inquietos del Vallenato. He had his first hit ("La Gallina") in 1952 as part of the band Los Vallenatos del Magdalena with Carlos and Roberto Román and remained with the band until it disbanded due to Roberto's death. Later, he created his own group with his brothers Juan and José, and with them created a distinctive style of

guaracha The guaracha () is a genre of music that originated in Cuba, of rapid tempo and comic or picaresque lyrics. The word has been used in this sense at least since the late 18th and early 19th century. Guarachas were played and sung in musical the ...

music with accordion at the beginning of the 1960s; it drew on both Caribbean and South American genres and influences. Due to the local rise in

cartel A cartel is a group of independent market participants who collaborate with each other as well as agreeing not to compete with each other in order to improve their profits and dominate the market. A cartel is an organization formed by producers ...

-associated violent crime, Velásquez moved to

Caracas Caracas ( , ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas (CCS), is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the northern p ...

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

in the 1970s and resided there for 18 years before returning to Barranquilla. In 2018

Telecaribe Telecaribe is a regional television network for the Caribbean region of Colombia. History The station was set up in the early 1980s in Valledupar, Colombia and was created by a local entrepreneur named Jose Jorge Dangond. It started as an unlic ...

, a regional television network for the Caribbean region of Colombia, launched a bio-series as a living tribute to his career, called ''Aníbal 'Sensación' Velásquez''. Over his six-decade-long career, it is estimated Velásquez has recorded over 300 albums and potentially over 500 singles. In 2019, Velásquez was reported to be seriously sick and was hospitalized in Barranquilla due to a severe lung infection.

References

External links

Aníbal 'Sensation' Velásquez
Telecaribe series website {{DEFAULTSORT:Velasquez, Anibal Living people 1936 births 20th-century accordionists 21st-century accordionists Colombian accordionists Colombian composers 20th-century Colombian male singers Cumbia musicians Musicians from Barranquilla