Pitingo

Pitingo is a charismatic singer from Spain whose musical style is a fusion of the high-wrought copla style of flamenco vocals with the smooth musical tropes of soul/R&B. His second album, Soulería (2008), a Spanish-language collection of well-known cover songs, propelled him to Top Ten success in his homeland. Based in Madrid, Pitingo was born Antonio Álvarez Vélez in Ayamonte, Huelva, in 1981. He made his full-length solo album debut in 2006 with Pitingo con Habichuelas (2006) in association with Universal Music Spain. The album is a collaboration between Pitingo and the Habichuela family of musicians, the most well known of whom is Juan Habichuela, a celebrated guitarist from Granada. On Pitingo's second album, Soulería (2008), he collaborated once again with Habichuela as well as another celebrated guitarist, Juan Carmona. A top ten success, the album was a Spanish-language collection of well-known cover songs including Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly" and Julio Iglesias' "Gwendolyn." He pulled off the same trick with the 2010 follow-up, Olé & Amén -- half the album was covers of soul classics by the likes of Donna Summer and Stevie Wonder, and the other half straight-up flamenco. His 2011 release Malecón Street featured primarily Cuban-influenced material and saw him further refine his smooth fusion of flamenco and soul-pop, as typified on the promo track "Nosotros". ~ Jason Birchmeier, Rovi