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Azucar Moreno

Azúcar Moreno is a Spanish pop duo consisting of sisters Antonia "Toñi" and Encarnación "Encarna" Salazar. Formed in 1984, they have sold over 12 million albums worldwide, combining their Romani heritage and flamenco vocals with dance genres like disco, funk, and house. They achieved international success after performing "Bandido" at the 1990 Eurovision Song Contest. The sisters took a break in 2008 when Encarna was diagnosed with breast cancer but reunited in 2013.

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301 views3 pages

Azucar Moreno

Azúcar Moreno is a Spanish pop duo consisting of sisters Antonia "Toñi" and Encarnación "Encarna" Salazar. Formed in 1984, they have sold over 12 million albums worldwide, combining their Romani heritage and flamenco vocals with dance genres like disco, funk, and house. They achieved international success after performing "Bandido" at the 1990 Eurovision Song Contest. The sisters took a break in 2008 when Encarna was diagnosed with breast cancer but reunited in 2013.

Uploaded by

hugomath
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Azcar Moreno

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Azcar Moreno
Genres Latin pop, pop, Latin music, flamenco
Years active (19842008) (2013- )
Labels
EMI, Capitol, CBS Records, Sony Music, Epic Records
Website www.azucarmorenomusic.com
Antonia (Toi) Salazar
Encarnacin (Encarna) Salazar
Azcar Moreno (Spanish pronunciation: [aukar moeno]; Spanish for "brown sugar") is a romani
Spanish music duo consisted of sisters Antonia "Toi" and Encarnacin "Encarna" Salazar. The duo has
sold more than 3 million albums and singles since 1984 domestically, and became famous in Europe,
the United States and Latin America in the 1990s, with approximately 12 million albums sold
worldwide.
Members

Contents
1 Biography
2 Discography
2.1 Albums
2.2 Singles
3 References
4 Sources and external links

Biography
Composed by sisters Antonia "Toi" (14 March 1963) and Encarnacin "Encarna" Salazar (10 January
1961), the singing duo comes from Badajoz. They are part of a large family of performers: their
grandfather was a musician, their father a singer and songwriter, their brothers the members of band
Los Chunguitos and their uncle is famous singer Porrina de Badajoz. The Azcar Moreno sisters began
their singing careers as back-up vocalists to their brothers, but in 1982, they were discovered and
signed by record label EMI Spain, resulting in two albums with moderate commercial success released
in 1984 and 1986. In 1988 they signed with CBS-Epic and relaunched their music with a bolder
production style and matching sexier image and released the album Carne De Melocotn. They became

one of the first Spanish acts to combine their Romani heritage and traditional cantaora vocal style with
urban dance rhythms like disco, rhythm and blues, funk and techno. One of their first hit singles was a
house music remix of the track "Aunque Me Falte El Aire", released in 1988. A full-length remix album
Mix In Spain was released in 1989 and the follow-up single "Debajo Del Olivo" also became a minor
club hit in Continental Europe.
Azcar Moreno had their commercial breakthrough in Continental Europe and Latin America after
singing their song "Bandido", written and produced by prolific Spanish dance producer Raul Orellana,
at the Eurovision Song Contest 1990. Unfortunately, the start of their performance was marred by
sound problems at the arena in Zagreb. "Bandido" went out as entry number one of twenty-two
participating countries. The contest was broadcast live to an audience of approximately 500 million
viewers - but due to a tape technician not starting the pre-recorded backing track in time both the
singers, their band and the live orchestra missed their cues. This resulted in the sisters finally having to
walk off stage, make a second entrance and start the song and their dance routine all over. In his book
The Eurovision Song Contest - The Official History, British Eurovision historian John Kennedy
O'Connor in turn describes the incident as "every artist's worst nightmare".[1] Despite this very
unfortunate debacle "Bandido" finished an honourable fifth and the song and its accompanying album,
also including follow-up single "Devrame Otra Vez", became the starting point of the duo's
international career. During the following years, Encarna and Toi Salazar had the opportunity to work
with top producers Emilio Estefan and Estfano, recording in both the United Kingdom and the United
States, achieving a Billboard Music Award for Best Latin Group and becoming one of the top-selling
artists in the Hispanic pop scene. 1991's Mambo became their commercial break-through in Japan and
the title track of their 1994 album El Amor was featured in Luis Llosa's movie The Specialist.
On their following albums Azcar Moreno widened their repertoire as they combined original material
sung in their typical flamenco vocal style with traditional folk songs like the Chilean "Yo Vendos Unos
Ojos Negros", the Italian "O Sole Mio" and the Hebrew "Hava Nagila", influences from other Latin and
Caribbean genres like rhumba, mambo, bolero, merengue, reggaeton, salsa and dancehall, as well as
Spanish language versions of rock and pop classics like the Rolling Stones' "Paint It, Black", Jackie
Wilson's "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher" and The Animals' "Don't Let Me Be
Misunderstood".
As of 2006, Azcar Moreno had released some 40 singles, 13 studio albums as well as a large number
of hits compilations. Their greatest hit to date was "Solo Se Vive Una Vez" (translated as "You only live
once"), which topped the charts in Spain as well as a number of countries in South and Central
America. In the 2000s (decade) the track was included on the first Spanish language versions of
karaoke video game SingStar. Azcar Moreno are one of the best selling acts in the history of Spanish
popular music, with combined sales of approximately 2 million albums in their native Spain alone and
it also makes them one of the most commercially successful acts alongside Sweden's ABBA and
Canada's Cline Dion to have their international breakthrough via the Eurovision Song Contest. The
Salazar sisters have been the target of much gossip and some of their songs have been slightly
controversial in their homeland. Many of their fans see some of their songs as having feminist content,

and the duo has been prominently featured on the covers of Spanish tabloid magazines since the early
1990s. The sisters also have a strong gay following in Spain, their 2000 album Amn included a torch
ballad especially dedicated to their loyal LGBT fans, "Amigo Mo", and later they also recorded high
camp songs like "Divina De La Muerte" and "Sobrevivir", the latter a flamenco version of Gloria
Gaynor's gay anthem "I Will Survive".
In 2006, Azcar Moreno returned to EMI after 18 years with CBS-Sony and were considered one of the
top artists to represent Spain again in the Eurovision Song Contest. Ultimately RTVE's choice fell upon
Las Ketchup, feeling the sisters' tribute to legendary Spanish singer, dancer, and actress Lola Flores,
"Bailando con Lola" ("Dancing with Lola"), was too flamenco-flavoured. Nevertheless, as Toi and
Encarna sing in the opening song "20 Aos" on the Bailando Con Lola album: It's been 20 years /
Nothing else / 20 years of singing / And we've still got so much to give ...
On November 28, 2007 Toi Salazr announced to the Spanish media that the duo "would withdraw
from the music scene until further notice" due to her sister Encarna having been diagnosed with breast
cancer and was to go undergo chemotherapy and then needed time for recuperation.[2]
In September 2008 it was announced that Encarna Salazar had made a full recovery and had been given
a clean bill of health but also that there were no immediate plans for the two sisters to continue their
musical careers as a duo due to personal differences.[3]
In October 2013 the duo reunited in the TV show Tu Cara Me Suena after 5 years being apart as
Azcar Moreno and as sisters. In the show their brothers Los Chunguitos where participating that
season (Antonia from Azucar Moreno had participated in the show's first season in 2011) and Antonia
and Encarna were invited as judges to see Los Chunguitos impersonate them singing "Bandido".
Antonia appeared first and then Encarna appeared as a surprise inside a huge box. Both sisters had a
lovely reunion where they hugged and announced the return of Azucar Moreno for 2014 and that both
fixed their differences.[4]
At the beginning of 2014 they announced a Spain tour for 2014 along with a new album and single in
the works for the same year.[5][6]

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