Rocio durcal

María de los Ángeles de las Heras Ortiz (Madrid, October 4, 1944-Torrelodones, Madrid, March 25, 2006), known as Rocío Dúrcal, and by the nickname of La Española más Mexicana, obtained thanks to her contributions to music in Mexico, she was a Spanish singer and actress. As a performer, she specialized in various musical genres, but it would be thanks to ranchera music that her career would gain greater recognition and exposure until she became known as La Reina de las Rancheras .

Her albums managed to position herself with great success within the music industry, becoming one of the Spanish-speaking singers with the highest sales within it. In 2005, a year before her death, she received the Latin Grammy for musical excellence.

Biography and career

Early Years

He was born in Madrid on October 4, 1944 in the Cuatro Caminos neighborhood. There he would spend the first years of his life. His parents were Tomás de las Heras and María Ortiz. They claimed that her daughter was a very quiet girl, but that she always liked to get her way. Otherwise, she was capable of making a fuss to report that she was not satisfied with what they were doing to her.

After Jacinto, Rocío would have four more siblings: Carlos, María Antonia (Cuca), Arturo and Susana. The paternal grandfather worked as a janitor at the Institución Sindical de la Paloma, where the family lived for a time. He subsequently moved to Valencia, near Nazareth.

She was enrolled in the Colegio del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús (Chamartín de la Rosa), a small school run by Catholic nuns.

Beginnings as a singer

She began her artistic career participating in various festivals and radio singing contests, supported by her paternal grandfather. At the age of fifteen (1959), with the approval of her parents, she participated in the television program, now defunct, Primer aplauso that was broadcast by the public entity Televisión Española. The theme she chose was the traditional song La sombra vendo . Near the television station, Luis Sanz, a talent scout from Madrid, who was watching the program, was struck by her talent and personality. So much so that Sanz contacted the organization of the program to request the name and address of the young contestant. The conversation between Luis Sanz, who was already representing several famous Spanish artists, and her parents, was decisive in her future.

Within a week, the parents of María de Los Ángeles gave their approval to the businessman. Sanz decided that the girl should be placed in the care of private teachers to finish her high school studies and start singing, dancing and acting. At the same time that she reveals the secrets of her artistic profession, Sanz puts her in contact at various social events with the famous artists of her time. She later became very close friends with her contemporary, Rocío Jurado, and with Raphael, whom she knew, because at that time they lived in the same neighborhood and sometimes coincided in radio contests.

Since her name was not suitable to launch her to stardom, Sanz decided to call her Rocío. In a televised interview, Rocío said that her grandfather gave her that nickname, because she reminded her of morning dew. Thus, Sanz must have picked up the nickname from that family custom. But, thinking that he would need a "surname", he and the young woman looked for a map of Spain on which she randomly pointed out the town of Dúrcal, in the province of Granada. The nickname with which she achieved her passage to posterity was born. Later, she was declared an adoptive daughter of this town and a street was named in her honor.

Cinema

She started in the cinema, after some photogenic tests, with the film Canción de juventud by director Luis Lucia Mingarro, whose story, written with her in mind, portrayed a teenager with his own personality. The film was successful at the box office and from specialized critics.^{[citation required]} This success was repeated in the Spanish-speaking countries where the film was shown.^{[citation needed]} Sanz, as a result of this success, obtained permission to enroll Dúrcal in a school where he would improve his manners and study subjects that would serve to broaden his culture. Immediately, Dúrcal became the protagonist of Rocío de la Mancha, a film that also obtained the favor of the public. As a result of this, the young interpreter obtains her first recording contract with the transnational Phonogram (today Universal Music). The songs that the artist performed in both films were used to make her first album entitled Las películas de Rocío Dúrcal (1962). This first album marked the beginning of her successful recording career. Under these circumstances, he traveled for the first time to Mexico, Venezuela, Puerto Rico and the United States where he participated in the Ed Sullivan Show (Ed Sullivan Show).^{[ citation required]}

Dúrcal with Palito Ortega Love in the air (1967).

In her third film I am 17 years old (1964), Rocío Dúrcal puts aside her role as a "girl prodigy". In this year she performed her first play titled A Sunday in New York. In 1966, in keeping with this maturity, Dúrcal shared the leading role with the then young Mexican actor and singer Enrique Guzmán in the film Acompáñame. The custom has become of editing an album for each film in which she stars and in this album she begins to perform duets with different singers, which in this case were Jaime Morey and Amalia de Isaura. When she intervenes in Amor en el aire (1967) she shares roles with the young Argentine singer and composer Palito Ortega. But it will not be until the following year, when she films Cristina Guzmán , which is the first of her films intended for audiences over 18 years of age.

Relaunch and subsequent works

In 1977, she would record the album Una vez más, which would make her decide to dedicate herself definitively to her musical career.

During that year, while in Mexico, she met the Mexican composer and singer Juan Gabriel and decided to record an entire album with her hits in ranchera rhythm, which was entitled Rocío Dúrcal canta a Juan Gabriel. This recording obtains such high sales levels that Dúrcal and Juan Gabriel considered the possibility of making a new recording. Their collaboration is as successful as the previous one and this led to the making of five LPs together, which marks the revitalization of the singer's career. A version completely in Portuguese for the Brazilian market was made of this first recording, but this recording has never been released, with the songs "Menino do Río" and "Último drama" appearing on a single disc (EP) recorded in 1979., the only known recordings of Dúrcal in that language and the rest is totally unpublished material. In the book Dear Alberto, which narrates the life of the Mexican singer-songwriter, it is stated that she recorded many other songs by the singer-songwriter that never made it to the record market.

Ten albums emerged from the collaboration between Dúrcal and Juan Gabriel, but it is the album Canta a Juan Gabriel Volumen 6 that is among the ten best-selling albums in the entire history of Mexico, recorded in 1984 and with which he thus obtained his first Grammy Award nomination.

Announcement (below Desert Inn) a Dúrcal concert in Las Vegas, 1989.

Rocío's collaboration with Juan Gabriel is interrupted by disagreements with the artist and problems that the Mexican singer had with his record label, for which she continues recording albums with other composers such as Marco Antonio Solís and Rafael Pérez Botija under whose In 1981, he recorded the album of ballads Confidencias (La Gata in Spain), with the hit "La gata bajo la lluvia", which earned him artistic recognition. In 1988, she recorded the album Como tu mujer under the production of Marco Antonio Solís and two years later she made her first album in CD format entitled If I could lie to you . In 1991, Rocío Dúrcal gave a concert at the National Auditorium in Mexico City that was recorded on a double disc El concierto... En vivo. Between 1992 and 1993 she recorded the album Desaires , an album produced by the Mexican singer-songwriter Joan Sebastian with which she once again interpreted ranchera music and which brought her popularity. With this album, released simultaneously in Mexico, the United States, Colombia, Venezuela and Spain, she went on a promotional world tour.

In 1995 his production Hay amores y amores was released, with compositions and production by Argentine Roberto Livi and was nominated again for the Grammy Awards in the Best Latin Pop Albums category. In 1997, the double album Juntos otra vez brought Dúrcal and Juan Gabriel together for the last time, although that album was made out of a commitment to the record company and not so much because of the desire of both artists to continue cooperating. From this double album, the songs "El destino" and "Qué bonito es Santa Fe" are broadcast, of which a remix version was made.

In the same year, with the direction of its discoverer Luis Sanz, he made the series Los negocios de mamá, broadcast by Televisión Española, thus venturing into television. More than twenty years had passed since she last acted in the medium, in an episode of the series Unusual Women , directed by Cayetano Luca de Tena in 1977 and playing Cleopatra VII.

In the year 2000, Dúrcal celebrated his forty-year artistic career, so within the framework of the performances for this anniversary, the launch of Reader's Digest magazine in Mexico in February of that year stood out. from the album Rocío Dúrcal: La Antología, with a compendium of her hits from recent years and the celebration at the National Auditorium in Mexico City. In that year, she returned to ranchera music with the album Caricias under the production of the musician, composer and producer Bebu Silvetti. In 2001 Rocío Dúrcal recorded Entre tangos y mariachi, an album that includes ten of the most famous Argentine tangos interpreted with bolero ranchero arrangements in the style of the previous album, once again produced by Bebu Silvetti. In the summer of 2001, Dúrcal made a successful tour of Spain, after thirteen years of not appearing in her native country.

In October 2001, Rocío Dúrcal recorded the song Dama, dama that was composed by the late Spanish singer-songwriter Cecilia, for the album Mujer published by BMG Music Spain as part of a campaign to raise funds for an organization against breast cancer. However, the artist underwent surgery and was forced to cancel a tour of Latin America and the United States.

After a year and a half of absence, Dúrcal reappeared on stage on September 19, 2002 with a concert at the National Auditorium in Mexico, with the same show that he offered in Spain in the summer of 2001, which was recorded in a Double album that was released on CD and later on DVD on October 22, 2002 entitled En concierto... Inolvidable, which would be nominated for a Latin Grammy Award. Likewise, Dúrcal undertook the tour of America that had been left pending a year ago, due to his illness.

In 2003, the artist got another Latin Grammy nomination with her album Caramelito, produced by the Colombian Kike Santander. In May 2004, she returned to Spain to record what would be her last album Alma Ranchera and which was also nominated for the Latin Grammy Award, without winning. In this regard, Dúrcal mentioned on one occasion that one day she was going to be given the Grammy Award "even if it was out of boredom", since the records for which her name was proposed obtained great sales.

Personal life

In 1965, during the filming of More beautiful than any one, Rocío Dúrcal met the group Los Brincos, who were in charge of composing some songs for this film, establishing a special friendship with two of its members, Juan Pardo and Antonio Morales Junior (1943-2014), who shortly after would separate from the group and form the duo Juan y Junior. After years of friendship, Rocío fell in love with the latter in 1969 and after nine months of courtship, they got married in the El Escorial monastery.

Eleven months later, their first daughter named Carmen María Guadalupe is born. She rejects contracts to take care of her daughter, but resumes her film career and participates in theatrical productions. In 1972, Antonio Morales began a series of television shows singing a duet with his wife both in Spain and in Latin America, thus forming the ephemeral Unisex duo. Morales decides after the birth of his second son in April 1974 (Antonio Fernando) to give up his career to dedicate himself to his children. Dúrcal continued his cinematographic career but he moved away for five years from the recording medium. In 1979 her third daughter Shaila de los Ángeles Morales was born, who has taken up a singing career under the stage name of Shaila Dúrcal.

In February 1975, she was arrested along with other actors, such as Tina Sainz, and fined 200,000 pesetas, for being part of a picket that encouraged the strike that the artists were carrying out in Madrid.

Illness and death

Pork Cripta. It is located in the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City.

In 2001, after recording her album Entre tangos y mariachis, she was diagnosed with uterine cancer. Dúrcal canceled his tours while he underwent medical treatments. In 2003, from Spain, he collaborated with the Mexican singer Julio Preciado by making a duet for the song "Si nos dejan", included in his album Que me sigue la tambora . Before recording her last album in 2004, during a medical examination it was discovered that the cancer had spread to her lungs. The artist underwent chemotherapy treatment again. However, she fulfilled the commitment to record the album Alma Ranchera , as a tribute to the music of this genre, but due to her treatment, there was no tour to promote it.

He passed away on March 25, 2006 at the age of sixty-one, at his home in Torrelodones, 25 km from the city of Madrid. His last days were spent in the company of his family. His body was transferred to the La Paz cemetery, in Alcobendas, where admirers and friends went. One of the most emotional demonstrations was when the Mariachi Real de Jalisco, resident in Spain, fired Dúrcal with the song Las Golondrinas performed at the La Paz Cemetery Park. The next day, his body was cremated, at the wish of his family. Later his ashes were distributed between Spain and Mexico, with half of them being taken to his house in Torrelodones and the other to a crypt inside the Basilica of Guadalupe.

Legacy

On January 1, 2023, Rolling Stone magazine placed her on their list of "The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time", ranking her at number 139.

Honors

You're in honor of Dúrcal. It is located in the municipality of Dúrcal, Spain.

• 1969: Title of "Hija Adoptiva" of the village of Durcal, in the province of Granada (Spain).
• 1972: Title of Honorary Citizen of Puerto Rico.
• 1985: The themes "Eternal Love" and "Costumbres" are declared part of Mexico's World Heritage Site.
• 1986: Declaration as Honorable Citizen of the City of Tucson (United States).
• 1987: The song "La guirnalda" is declared part of Mexico's World Heritage Site, mainly in the city of Puerto Vallarta.
• 1987: Title of Madrina, recognition given by the Tourist Office of the city of Puerto Vallarta (Mexico) for his song "La guirnalda".
• 1996: Otorgamiento de la Estrella de la Plaza Galerías, de la Ciudad de México.
• 1999: Mexico National Lottery Ticket printed with its image.
• 2000: Star of 8th Street, Miami, United States.
• 2000: Distinguished guest, to which the keys of Dade County (United States) were awarded.
• 2002: Named Madrina de Honor de las Estudintinas a nivel internacional, en la ciudad de Murcia (Spain).
• 2005: Special Tribute of the Mexican Music Prize ERES at the Zócalo of Mexico City.
• 2007: Establishment of the "Medalla Rocío Dúrcal" as a recognition of the International Association of Mariachis.
• 2008: Inauguration of the school "Rocío Dúrcal" in Madrid (Spain).
• 2009: Title of Adoptive Daughter of Torrelodones.
• 2009: Inaugurated from the bronze statue in its honor, in the city of Dúrcal.
• 2011: "See you again." The shooting and broadcasting of a television work on his life in Spain.
• 2011: Inauguration of the International Day of Dúrcal Rocío on 11 November
• 2012: Exhibition of memories, photographs and discs in the city of Durcal (province of Granada).
• 2016: Book in honor of the artistic career of Rocío Dúrcal "Los Pecados de la Dúrcal".

Record tribute

Glorieta who bears the name of Durcal as a tribute in his memory. It is located in the confluence of Francos Rodríguez, Madrid, Spain.

In 2009, Sony Music made the album Duetos as a tribute to the artist, taking the tracks of her voice from her most successful songs, to unite them as a duet with current artists. One of the songs recorded was a technical coupling that was made with his voice and that of Javier Solís in the song Sombras, taking advantage of the work for the album Javier Solís: hits with a trio, recorded in 2003 by the Argentine record producer Julián Navarro, by isolating Solís' voice and adding an accompaniment with a group of boleros and a trio of voices.

Miniseries about his life

On December 27 and 28, 2011, the Spanish television channel Telecinco broadcast two episodes on the life of Rocío Dúrcal, under the title Rocío Dúrcal, see you again. At the moment, the actress who would play the singer would be her own daughter Carmen Morales, however due to discrepancies in the script, she rejected the offer. Later, the actress who would give life to Rocío Dúrcal in fiction would be Norma Ruiz. The cast would be completed by Josep Linuesa playing Antonio Morales, Ana Rujas in the role of Shaila Dúrcal, Sandra Blázquez in the role of Carmen Morales, Adrián Viador playing Antonio Morales de las Heras and Luisa Martín and Helio Pedregal playing Rocío's parents. Durcal. The miniseries is set at the beginning, in 1965 with the filming of More beautiful than any where she met who would be her husband, until her death in 2006.

Discography

Original

The original discography of Rocío Dúrcal is presented below. Some of these recordings, for obvious reasons, are out of the catalog and her songs can be found in some digital compilations.

It is estimated that Rocío Dúrcal has sold more than 40 million records worldwide, as of November 2005, being the Spanish singer with the highest sales abroad.

Filmography

TV Shows

Movies

Theater

Awards and nominations