FAMOUS PERSON'S BIOGRAPHY

ANDRÉS CALAMARO

Andres Calamaro is one of the most popular Argentinean pop-rock songwriters. He was born in 1961 and he began his professional musical career at the age of 17 playing keyboards in Raíces. In 1981 he incorporated to one of the main bands of the Argentinean '80s rock scene: Los Abuelos de la Nada.  In 1984 he made his solo debut with Hotel Calamaro. The album was a mix of styles and musicians, and it didn't gain public or press support. In 1985 he left Los Abuelos de la Nada and registered his second album Vida Cruel. The album was a disappointment: both commercially and artistically. But he had an intense and successful work as a producer of bands like Los Enanitos Verdes, Los Fabulosos Cadillacs and Don Cornelio y La Zona. He also worked and collaborated with many artists of different styles and genres, it was constant through his whole career. The third album Por Mirarte showed Calamaro in a better established band. Released in 1988, it contained some songs such as "Con los dientes apretados" and "Me olvidé de los demás," while others like "Cartas sin Marcar" and "Loco por tí" helped the album to get popular. When Calamaro released in 1989 Nadie Sale Vivo de Aquí, Argentina was living it's worst economical crisis: few albums were released. The album title suggest it all: Nobody comes out alive from here. The LP production was paralyzed, and the few that could make it were almost ignored. That was Calamaro's case. This situation lead the singer to settle in Spain, following a road token by many Argentinean rockers. There he met Ariel Rot y Javier Infante, members of Tequila. They formed Los Rodríguez in 1991, a pop-rock band that was very popular in Spain and Latin America: Calamaro's songs began to be popular like in the early '80s. While being part of the band he didn't released any new solo material, just Grabaciones Encontradas 1 y 2, a couple of CDs that contained unreleased and rare material from the '80s. After these, Calamaro returned to his solo career recording Alta Suciedad in 1997, an album produced by Joe Blaney. This album brought him the commercial success and sold 300.000 copies just in Argentina. No doubts, that album helped him to be placed between the star legends of the national rock scene. Before that album Calamaro was considered an important character, appreciated by the other musicians, but not a main one. Later he released in 1999 the double CD Honestidad Brutal. It was not as successful at the previous album, but showed a new Calamaro: desperate, decadent and often elegant at the same time, with a new and raw lyrical approach. The last one was El Salmon, which followed in spring 2001