Gipsy Kings - Career

Career

The Gipsy Kings are from France and are largely responsible for bringing the sounds of progressive pop-oriented flamenco to the world. The band started out in Arles, a town in southern France, during the 1970s, when brothers Nicolas and Andre Reyes, the sons of renowned flamenco artist Jose Reyes, teamed up with their cousins Jacques, Maurice, and Tonino Baliardo, themselves sons of flamenco guitarist Manitas de Plata. Manitas de Plata and Jose Reyes were a 2-man group that started the entire revelation of Gypsy Rumba, but mostly Jose, who was a famous singer, when he departed Manitas and started a band of his own made up of his children which he called "Los Reyes". Los Reyes would later become "Gipsy Kings".

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 color to posh parties in St. Tropez. But popularity did not come to Los Reyes quickly, and their first two albums attracted little notice. At this point, the Gipsies played traditional flamenco punctuated by Baliardo's precise guitar playing and Nicolas Reyes' exceptional voice.

Though 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 a right-hander, 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.

Success

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 Mosaïque 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 it spent 40 weeks on the charts, one of few Spanish language albums to do so. They covered "I've Got No Strings" on the 1991 Disney video and compilation album Simply Mad About the Mouse. Their cover version of "Hotel California" is an example of fast flamenco guitar leads and rhythmic strumming (this version 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 Gipsy Kings; the Spanish release featured the Spanish version, titled "Hay un Amigo en Mi" and played in a flamenco style.