Billy Pontoni

Guillermo García Ocampo better known as Billy Pontoni (Cartago, Valle del Cauca, February 20, 1954) is a Colombian musician, considered by many to be one of the best male voices in popular music in his native country.

Early Years

In the early 1960s, after seeing the rise of Mexican and Argentine New Wave artists such as Palito Ortega, Leo Dan, Enrique Guzmán and César Costa, the boy Guillermo García convinced his parents to enroll him in the Pedro Morales Pino Conservatory in his hometown, Cartago (Valle del Cauca), Colombia, to study classical guitar.

At the age of ten, having thought better about the direction he should take in his musical career, García joined the Club Juvenil de Radio Cartago (a program broadcast on Saturdays on the most important station in his city of birth) where he made his first performances as a soloist.

Since the projection of such a small population was very small for an aspiring musician, in 1966 García moved to Bogotá in search of an opportunity, managing to be linked to the television show El Club Del Clan, directed by businessman Guillermo Hinestroza, who, after auditioning him, decided to give him the name Billy, since his real name seemed uncommercial to him. Younger than the rest of the stars of the program (Vicky, Claudia from Colombia, Maryluz and Emilce), Billy was admitted to the choir to sing the famous Muévanse Todos, a song that was performed at the beginning and end of the musical. His youth and his charisma made him very popular.

Thanks to that fame and at only 14 years old, Billy was invited by the Orbe label (of Eduardo Calle, also owner of Discos Bambuco) to record a four-song EP entitled Romántico, Hippie Y Sicodelico, which had no major hits on Radio. Yamel Uribe (on bass) and the brothers Edgar and Luis Dueñas, (on drums, the first and on keyboards and arrangements the second) participated in the musicalization.

With that record as a demo and trying to get hired to record an LP, Billy traveled to the offices of the Sonolux record label in Medellín to be heard. After listening to it, maestro Luis Uribe Bueno, the company's head of A & R, told him that at the moment there were no plans to record artists with his profile.

Upon returning to Bogotá, because El Club Del Clan had already gone off the air, and to help with his family's expenses, Billy began to go out at night in the bar areas of the city, offering to sing to the couples that were at the tables.

1970s

At the Grill Guadalajara, on Carrera 7.ª with Calle 30, in the current headquarters of Bancolombia, Billy got a temporary job as a replacement for the plant mariachi.

Then, with the goal of ascending in the musical field, in the company of his brother Humberto, also a professional singer, the two contacted Luis Ariel Rey, author of classics such as Ay sí sí and Carmentea and businessman.

Upon hearing them, Rey included them in his line-up under the name Los Hermanitos García, and asked them to focus their repertoire on bambucos and whirlwind corridors, which further dampened Billy's illusions of becoming a quinceañera heartthrob.

Los Hermanitos García were linked to the artistic caravans of the Boyacá Lottery, touring the entire region alongside national figures such as Emeterio and Felipe (Los Tolimenses), El Indio Rómulo, and Luis Ariel y sus Llaneros. Together with them, at the beginning of 1971 he traveled through the United States on a tour aimed at the Colombian colony residing in the country.

Upon returning to Bogotá, already with the experience of a first tour, Billy was hired by Álvaro and Mery Sanabria, owners of the famous El Caracol Rojo Grill (in the Bogotá neighborhood of La Bella Suiza) as a staff singer, for a monthly salary of 2400 pesos, to sing during the intervals of the orchestra between 7 PM and 4:30 AM.

On the recommendation of a mutual friend, and as a result of the good reputation achieved at El Caracol Rojo, Plinio Córdoba and Gentil Montaña hired Billy to serve as support during the intermissions of the dance batches of the famous orchestra La Tropibomba at the Gril The Pampa. Due to his versatility, shortly after Alberto Navarro, the band's director, would invite him to join them as a vocalist.

Already become a recognized figure in the local bar circuit and because the clientele of Club Miramar (one of the most important nightclubs in Bogotá in the 70s) began to emigrate to La Pampa, attracted by the show, Pedro Balaguera, its owner, hired Billy for 12,000 pesos to replace Jimmy Salcedo, who had retired to coordinate the artistic area of Mano a mano musical, a Punch Television program, presented by Fernando González Pacheco.

The Miramar was frequented by the most important figures of television and entertainment at the time. One night after finishing his performance, Billy approached a table where Otto Greiffestein, Alí Humar and Fernando González Pacheco were. He told them that he was looking for a complement to his stage name. Pacheco suggested the surname Pontoni in honor of the singer Rocky Pontoni and the player of the Independiente Santa Fe club René Pontoni. Billy's conversation amused the presenter, and for this reason he invited him the following week to appear on the programs Operación Ja-ja and Mano a mano musical.

After appearing on both programs and with the advantage of being in the memory of those who had known him for El Club del Clan, Billy Pontoni was hired as an exclusive artist in 1972 by the recently inaugurated CBS Colombia, today Sony Music, to record a first album with the subsidiary Epic.

Alguien Cantó Una Canción, a theme by Gyentino Hiparco was the first single from the LP and became a hit throughout the country. It was followed by José De La Cruz (song by Eduardo Cabas and Santander Díaz) with which Billy participated in the qualifying rounds for the OTI 1973 festival, in which he finished second. The jurors justified the decision saying that the letter had a revolutionary and leftist content.

Príncipe de Oro 73, the way the album was titled for Pontoni's victory at the Ondra awards that year, was a sales success and underpinned the Carthaginian's career beyond Colombian borders. Record World magazine chose its cover as the best of the year. The promotional tour included the United States and much of Central and South America and took about a year and a half.

In 1975 Borra appeared, his second full-length. The song that gives the album its title was a version of the classic Risque (by the Brazilian Ary Barroso) previously popularized in the voice of singers such as Lucho Gatica or Alberto Granados, and was the second great success for Billy Pontoni. It was followed by Dime Qué Pasó (which immediately became a ballad classic in Colombia) years later, re-recorded by the Latin Brothers; For loving you so much, and Esperanza Esperanza.

That same year Billy Pontoni was chosen by Coca-Cola to be the official image of its La Chispa de La Vida campaign for Latin America, he won the award from the Colombian Association of Entertainment Journalists as best male singer and was recognized by the Record World magazine as the Colombian singer with the greatest international projection. A new tour kept him busy for the next two years.

The release of Ayer, Hoy y Siempre, in 1978, (his third LP, and perhaps the most successful of his career), was anticipated by the arrival at number one of Angélica, his version of the old classic by Los Chalchaleros, and for the consecutive successes of Por Qué Ahora, (creation of Bobby Capó), Limosnero De Amor, Manos Adoradas (launched for Mother's Day) and Luna Roja (now a very famous composition by Jorge Villamil, made known to the world in the voice of Pontoni). Once again, at the end of the year, Billy Pontoni was chosen to represent Colombia at the OTI festival, this time to be held in Santiago de Chile.

Despite his insistence on participating with Águila (composed by Raúl Rosero Polo from Nariño), the jury again opposed it (this time saying that the Andean cut of the song did not correctly represent Colombianness). In its place, Joven by the composer Eduardo Cabas was chosen. The results at the festival were poor and the Chilean press spoke of Joven as the worst song of the event, although at the same time they referred to Billy as the best voice among all the competitors.

1980s

To prove to the Colombian judges their error, the following year Billy recorded Águila, a song that reached number one in a matter of weeks, which today continues to be a national classic, and which preceded the release of El Amor Es Algo Esplendoroso (El Amor Es Algo Esplendoroso (his fourth album, 1980), produced by Richard Ferreira, with whom there were artistic differences from the beginning. Apart from Águila, the album produced the relative success Amada Mía. Águila is a very interesting fusion in which the traditional ballad is mixed with string arrangements and a distinctive charango, a typical instrument from the Andean countries.

A year later, Y Soy Feliz (1981) appeared. Without being a considerable success, the album produced some relatively successful songs, such as the version of Paisaje De Catamarca and El Cazador, in a style similar to Angélica and Luna Roja, respectively, although ultimately much less impressive. The attempts of a more pop style and perhaps with more commercial potential, such as the song that gave the album its title or Desde Que Tú Llegaste A Mí, did not receive the necessary promotion or reception. To celebrate Pontoni's eight years with CBS, the label released its first hits compilation a few months later. In a bad business decision, classics such as Tell Me What Happened and Manos Adoradas were excluded from the repertoire.

The results of the Y Soy Feliz album led to differences between CBS and Pontoni over the musical direction his career should take and fueled tensions that led to a cancellation of the musician's contract. It took the label five years to give the artist a letter of freedom, which restricted the artist from making studio recordings during that time. With this impediment, between 1982 and 1986 Billy dedicated himself to making presentations in which he alternated with artists such as Julio Iglesias, Camilo Sesto, Raphael, Joan Manuel Serrat, Nelson Ned, Danny Rivera and Daniel Santos.

During the years lost by the dispute with the record label, a new generation of Colombian musicians appeared with different proposals. While other artists of his generation such as Fausto, Raúl Santi or Galy Galiano (initially a balladeer) continued pressing records, Billy was absent from the radio during that period and unable to launch a new product.

With the problem of the contract resolved, Pontoni decided to create his own record label, Disco Visión (later called Musi Visión). Despite the lack of faith of the programmers and promoters, his first single, with the songs Bella y Tu Complemento, gave Billy some of his dormant validity.

The two songs were the starter for Después De La Tempestad (1989), a relaunch album, released in partnership with Discos FM, remembered for hits like Last Night, I Want To Be In Your Body, but above all for the advertising campaign for the song How to Make Her Understand That I Love Her.

At night a team confidentially hired by Pontoni covered several walls in Bogotá with graffiti with the message "how to make her understand that I love her" signed by an anonymous named BP. The matter caused great concern in the press until one day the journalist Yamid Amat, on the air, invited the unknown BP to identify himself on his 6 AM 9 AM radio show. The whole country was shocked to learn that BP was Billy Pontoni.

1990s

In 1994 Sony Music released Billy Pontoni, Greatest Hits, with the same repertoire as the 1981 compilation and again without some key tracks.

After dedicating himself to advising and promoting other artists, in 1996, with the El Dorado label, Billy Pontoni released the album 100%, an album of original rancheras and cantina music, possibly conceived as a tribute to his time in the Grill Guadalajara. Por Qué Te Perdí (with a sound similar to that of Rocío Dúrcal in her productions with Juan Gabriel) was number one. Maldigo and Los Dos Amantes also achieved some popularity on popular music stations, especially in the province and the Coffee Region.

In 1997 (with El Dorado, too) Recordando, a medley cover album, was released as a tribute to some of the singer's and his parents' favorite old-school artists. The disc did not have any figuration in charts.

Recent Years

In 2000 (with Sonolux) Todo Este Tiempo was released, with new versions of Pontoni's classics and a couple of new songs.

Billy ventures as a businessman diversifying his artistic activities, this time as an investor, making a new start in the gastronomic world between 2002 and 2003 and opening a typical Colombian restaurant at that time, located in the city of Bogotá, in Carrera 25 between streets 65 and 66 (7 de Agosto neighborhood), well remembered by the residents of the sector since events for very special people were held at that location, such as the 20th anniversary of fashion designer María Andrea Rojas.

In 2008 (again with his independent label, now called BIP Music) Billy Pontoni recorded Nada Es Igual, his first album after an eight-year silence, made up entirely of original songs. Among the musicians who collaborated with Billy on this project were Willy Newball (musical director of the programs of the Do Re Creativa TV programmer); and Mauricio Montenegro (from La Planta and Aterciopelados). The album was recorded at the Audiovisión studios in Bogotá.

During this year, Pontoni was also the official image for the launch of Alpina, and participated as a guest actor in the soap opera El Penúltimo Beso, as well as being one of the participants in the posthumous tribute to the recently deceased Óscar Golden, one of his best friends. Additionally, it was included in one of the titles of the Nuestra Tierra catalogue, from Sony Music, with a compilation of hits similar to that of years ago pressed by Sony Music, but with the inclusion of the Sonolux versions of Bella and Tu Complemento.

During 2014, in the company of Fausto, Vicky, Fernando Calle and Isadora, his colleagues and contemporaries, Billy has been promoting Unidos, a dream team of Colombian ballad stars, with a view to a national tour and a duet show. The bad streak is the title of the objective song by Billy in this project.

Discography

• Romantic, Hippie and Sicodelic. Orbe. (1968)
• Prince of gold 73 Epic. (1973)
• Borra. CBS. (1975)
• Yesterday, today and forever. CBS. (1978)
• And I'm happy. CBS.(1981)
• Love is a splendour. CBS. (1982)
• After the storm. FM. (1989)
• 100% El Dorado. (1996)
• Recalling. El Dorado. 1997)
• All this time. Sonolux (2000)
• Nothing's the same. Bip. (2008)
• United (With Vicky, Fernando Calle, Fausto and Isadora). Sony Music. (2014)

Compilations

• Best of Billy Pontoni. CBS. (1981)
• Great Successes. Sony Music (1994)
• Our Earth. Sony Music. (2008)