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'Macarena' duo Los del Río: “Mother Teresa gatecrashed our gig in the Vatican”
11/06/2021
THE POP duo behind the iconic 1993 hit La Macarena have admitted Mother Teresa of Calcutta was a huge fan of theirs – and gatecrashed a live concert they gave for Pope John Paul II.
Los del Río will always be known outside of Spain for their catchy flamenco-pop number that quickly acquired a 'dance' of set actions and finds its way into cheesy discos, holiday camp entertainment nights and wedding receptions 28 years on, but in practice, they have been actively churning out records since 1962 and have 38 studio albums under their belts.
The most recent of these, Dentro de mi Guitarra ('Inside my Guitar'), was actually released this year, the third consecutive annual album – other than a short hiatus between their 2012 Vámonos Que Nos Vamos and their 2017 Río Tropical, the pair from Dos Hermanas (Sevilla province) have produced a new album on average every two to three years since their début collection with Hispavox, Luces de Sevilla ('Sevilla Lights') in 1967.
With a Latin Grammy, the Keys to Miami County, the Big Apple Gold Badge of New York – where the mayor proclaimed Valentine's Day as 'Macarena Day' in 1997 and which is marked there every year – and even the Los del Río roundabout in Sevilla city, lifelong friends Antonio Romero Monge and Rafael Ruiz Perdigones have little left to achieve, and 2022 will see them celebrating their 60-year anniversary in the music business.
Recently, they appeared on the talk show Espejo Público and chatted extensively to their friend, bullfighter Fran Rivera, recounting anecdotes of the time they spent working with huge national artists such as Lola Flores, Chiquito de la Calzada, and the late flamenco legends Rocío Jurado and Rocío Dúrcal, both of whom died from cancer exactly 15 years ago at the age of 61.
And unlikely fans, besides the mayor of New York, included Pope John Paul II and the late Nobel Peace Prize winner Mother Teresa.
The nun from Skopje, Macedonia, died aged 87 in September 1997, a year and a half after La Macarena became the theme song for the Superbowl and for Bill Clinton's electoral campaign, and more than three years after it started to top the various international charts – and she is known for giving her life to charity as a missionary in India, where she eventually took citizenship, but she is not normally associated with gatecrashing live gigs.
Born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu or, in her native language, Albanian, Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, on August 26, 1910, Mother Teresa managed to slip into the official reception for Monge and Perdigones via the 'back door' at the Vatican.
The duo had been summoned to perform live in a charity concert, and were watched from behind the scenes by the famous nun.
She got caught, though: The singers spotted her 'clandestine' presence, and say she was absolutely mortified, thinking she was 'in the way' or had 'disturbed' them.
“There she was, came along all humble, so modest that when she saw us, she was so...well, she tried to leave in a hurry, so we had to run after her to get her to stay,” said Perdigones.
“She thought she'd put her foot in it by sneaking in,” said Monge.
They had written a sevillana, or traditional flamenco couplet, in honour of the Pope when he visited Sevilla, and performed it during the Vatican concert.
John Paul II clearly did not think Mother Teresa had 'put her foot in it', given that he beatified her after her death in September 1997 and made her a saint.
From Dos Hermanas to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 as single goes quadruple-platinum
La Macarena reached number one in the charts in 12 countries – Germany, Spain, Finland, Italy, Latvia, Switzerland, The Netherlands and Belgium, in both the latter's Ultratop lists, the Walloon and the Flanders versions, remaining there for four and six weeks respectively – in France, where it stayed for seven weeks, Austria, where it was number one for five weeks, Australia, where it topped the charts for nine weeks and the USA, where it hogged the prime slot in the Billboard Hot 100 for a staggering 14 weeks.
The song, which had its heyday outside Spain between 1994 and 1996, also reached number one in the European Union's Eurochart Hot 100, entered the top 30 in five other US charts, and made it to number two in the UK, Sweden, New Zealand and Norway, and number three in the Irish IRMA Singles Chart.
It was written and composed by the Los del Río 'boys' themselves, jointly with Carlos Alberto de Yarza of the Bayside Boys who contributed to the 1995 remix, one of 20 versions that have been released between 1993 and 2019.
The single went quadruple-platinum in the USA, with four million sales; triple gold in Germany with three-quarters of a million; diamond in France, with the same figure; platinum in the UK (600,000) and in Austria (50,000); triple-platinum in Australia (210,000), and gold in Switzerland and Sweden (25,000 and 20,000 respectively).
US television channel VH1 declared it the number one record of 'all time' back in 2002, and it is one of only six songs not in the English language to have topped the Billboard charts since the 'modern' era of rock began in 1955.
All this, and it was merely a spontaneous ditty Monge invented on the hoof and started singing to cheer on a dancer.
The pair was giving a concert at a VIP private party in Venezuela for tycoon Gustavo Cisneros in March 1992, and local flamenco instructor Diana Patricia Cubillán Herrera performed a few steps as part of a supporting act between gigs.
Monge and Perdigones were so rapt by her sheer skill that the former, whilst watching, started singing, making up the lyrics and tune as he went along, to encourage her.
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THE POP duo behind the iconic 1993 hit La Macarena have admitted Mother Teresa of Calcutta was a huge fan of theirs – and gatecrashed a live concert they gave for Pope John Paul II.
Los del Río will always be known outside of Spain for their catchy flamenco-pop number that quickly acquired a 'dance' of set actions and finds its way into cheesy discos, holiday camp entertainment nights and wedding receptions 28 years on, but in practice, they have been actively churning out records since 1962 and have 38 studio albums under their belts.
The most recent of these, Dentro de mi Guitarra ('Inside my Guitar'), was actually released this year, the third consecutive annual album – other than a short hiatus between their 2012 Vámonos Que Nos Vamos and their 2017 Río Tropical, the pair from Dos Hermanas (Sevilla province) have produced a new album on average every two to three years since their début collection with Hispavox, Luces de Sevilla ('Sevilla Lights') in 1967.
With a Latin Grammy, the Keys to Miami County, the Big Apple Gold Badge of New York – where the mayor proclaimed Valentine's Day as 'Macarena Day' in 1997 and which is marked there every year – and even the Los del Río roundabout in Sevilla city, lifelong friends Antonio Romero Monge and Rafael Ruiz Perdigones have little left to achieve, and 2022 will see them celebrating their 60-year anniversary in the music business.
Recently, they appeared on the talk show Espejo Público and chatted extensively to their friend, bullfighter Fran Rivera, recounting anecdotes of the time they spent working with huge national artists such as Lola Flores, Chiquito de la Calzada, and the late flamenco legends Rocío Jurado and Rocío Dúrcal, both of whom died from cancer exactly 15 years ago at the age of 61.
And unlikely fans, besides the mayor of New York, included Pope John Paul II and the late Nobel Peace Prize winner Mother Teresa.
The nun from Skopje, Macedonia, died aged 87 in September 1997, a year and a half after La Macarena became the theme song for the Superbowl and for Bill Clinton's electoral campaign, and more than three years after it started to top the various international charts – and she is known for giving her life to charity as a missionary in India, where she eventually took citizenship, but she is not normally associated with gatecrashing live gigs.
Born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu or, in her native language, Albanian, Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, on August 26, 1910, Mother Teresa managed to slip into the official reception for Monge and Perdigones via the 'back door' at the Vatican.
The duo had been summoned to perform live in a charity concert, and were watched from behind the scenes by the famous nun.
She got caught, though: The singers spotted her 'clandestine' presence, and say she was absolutely mortified, thinking she was 'in the way' or had 'disturbed' them.
“There she was, came along all humble, so modest that when she saw us, she was so...well, she tried to leave in a hurry, so we had to run after her to get her to stay,” said Perdigones.
“She thought she'd put her foot in it by sneaking in,” said Monge.
They had written a sevillana, or traditional flamenco couplet, in honour of the Pope when he visited Sevilla, and performed it during the Vatican concert.
John Paul II clearly did not think Mother Teresa had 'put her foot in it', given that he beatified her after her death in September 1997 and made her a saint.
From Dos Hermanas to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 as single goes quadruple-platinum
La Macarena reached number one in the charts in 12 countries – Germany, Spain, Finland, Italy, Latvia, Switzerland, The Netherlands and Belgium, in both the latter's Ultratop lists, the Walloon and the Flanders versions, remaining there for four and six weeks respectively – in France, where it stayed for seven weeks, Austria, where it was number one for five weeks, Australia, where it topped the charts for nine weeks and the USA, where it hogged the prime slot in the Billboard Hot 100 for a staggering 14 weeks.
The song, which had its heyday outside Spain between 1994 and 1996, also reached number one in the European Union's Eurochart Hot 100, entered the top 30 in five other US charts, and made it to number two in the UK, Sweden, New Zealand and Norway, and number three in the Irish IRMA Singles Chart.
It was written and composed by the Los del Río 'boys' themselves, jointly with Carlos Alberto de Yarza of the Bayside Boys who contributed to the 1995 remix, one of 20 versions that have been released between 1993 and 2019.
The single went quadruple-platinum in the USA, with four million sales; triple gold in Germany with three-quarters of a million; diamond in France, with the same figure; platinum in the UK (600,000) and in Austria (50,000); triple-platinum in Australia (210,000), and gold in Switzerland and Sweden (25,000 and 20,000 respectively).
US television channel VH1 declared it the number one record of 'all time' back in 2002, and it is one of only six songs not in the English language to have topped the Billboard charts since the 'modern' era of rock began in 1955.
All this, and it was merely a spontaneous ditty Monge invented on the hoof and started singing to cheer on a dancer.
The pair was giving a concert at a VIP private party in Venezuela for tycoon Gustavo Cisneros in March 1992, and local flamenco instructor Diana Patricia Cubillán Herrera performed a few steps as part of a supporting act between gigs.
Monge and Perdigones were so rapt by her sheer skill that the former, whilst watching, started singing, making up the lyrics and tune as he went along, to encourage her.