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Gipsy Kings |
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are a group of musicians from Arles and Montpellier who perform in Spanish with an Andalusian accent. Although group members were born in France, their parents were mostly gitanos, Spanish Romani people who fled Catalonia during the 1930s Spanish Civil War. Chico Bouchikhi is of Moroccan and Algerian descent. They are known for bringing rumba catalana, a pop-oriented music distantly derived from traditional flamenco music, to worldwide audiences. The group originally called itself Los Reyes.
Their music has a particular rumba flamenca style, with pop influences; many songs of the Gipsy Kings fit social dances, such as salsa and rumba. Their music has been described as a place where "Spanish flamenco and Romani rhapsody meet salsa funk". Los Reyes started out as a gypsy band. They traveled around France, playing at weddings, festivals, and in the streets. Because they lived so much like gypsies, the band adopted the name The Gipsy Kings. Later, they were hired to add colour to upper-class parties in such places as St. Tropez. But popularity did not come quickly to the band and their first two albums attracted little notice. At this point, the Gipsies played traditional flamenco invigorated by Baliardo's precise guitar playing and Nicolas Reyes' exceptional voice. Although they had devoted fans, the Gipsy Kings then had yet to gain wider recognition. That was until 1986, when they met producer Claude Martinez, who could see that the Kings had the makings of a world-class band. The three left-handed guitarists in the Gipsy Kings' line-up play guitars that are strung for right-handers, playing them upside-down. These left-handed performers focus on delivering the strong underpinning rhythms while the more complex leads are performed by the right-handed and conventionally styled Baliardo. They became popular with their self-titled first album, Gipsy Kings, which included the songs "Djobi Djoba", "Bamboleo" and the romantic ballad "Un Amor". The song "Volare" on their fourth album Mosaique is a rumba version of Domenico Modugno's Italian hit "Nel blu dipinto di blu". The Gipsy Kings were popular in Africa and throughout Europe, as well as in the Middle East.
In 1989 Gipsy Kings was released in the United States and spent 40 weeks on the charts, one of few Spanish language albums to do so. The band then covered "I've Got No Strings" for the 1991 Disney video and compilation album Simply Mad About the Mouse. Their cover version of "Hotel California" was an example of fast flamenco guitar leads and rhythmic strumming, The number was featured in the Coen Brothers' movie The Big Lebowski, as well on the HBO series Entourage. The 2010 film Toy Story 3 featured a version of "You've Got a Friend in Me" performed and recorded by the band; the Spanish language version was entitled "Hay un Amigo en Mi" and was performed in a more recognisably flamenco style.
