Alfredo Zitarrosa

Alfredo Zitarrosa ( born March 10, 1936 in Montevideo, † January 17, 1989 ) was an Uruguayan singer, poet and journalist. He is regarded as one of the outstanding figures in the Uruguayan and Latin American music of the 20th century.

Biography

Began in 1954 Zitarrosas artistic biography as a radio announcer and presenter as well as in the theater scene of his homeland. In the following years he worked as a writer and journalist, most recently at the weekly Marcha before 1964, now in Peru, his career as a singer began, first in programs for television, in which he gave a fellow director of an advertising agency. Back in Montevideo in 1965 he made his debut as a singer at the influential Sodré ( Servicio Oficial de Difusión Radioeléctrica ). Through this performance, he got an invitation to the 1966 Festival de Cosquín in Argentina. In the 70s he became one of the most popular musicians of Latin America.

Of political commitment on the left, which is currently in his songs, and his commitment to the leftist Frente Amplio he was forced by the military coup of 1973, to flee into exile before the dictatorship. He lived in Argentina, Spain and, since 1976, in Mexico. At the same time his music in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay was prohibited during the dictatorships in these countries. The relaxation of political persecution in Argentina after the Falklands War in 1982 enabled him to move to Buenos Aires, where he gave three concerts in the Estadio Obras Sanitarias in early 1983. 1984, a year before the country's return to democracy, he returned to Uruguay, where he gave his first concert significant after the Exile.

Work

From the beginning of his career Alfredo Zitarrosa established itself as one of the great voices of popular music in Latin America. His roots were in folk music, which he supported by his powerful voice and his hearty guitar playing, developed its own distinctive style. As a poet, the Premio Municipal de Poesía he received in 1959 in Montevideo for his book Explicaciones. 1988 his short story collection Por si el recuerdo has been published.