David Bisbal

Hailing from Spain, David Bisbal has built a reputation as a Grammy-winning pop vocalist, composer, and performer whose textured, deeply expressive tenor draws equally from flamenco, jota, and zarzuela roots alongside rock and dance influences. Every studio album since his 2002 debut, Corazón Latino, has reached the summit of the Spanish charts. The 2004 follow-up Bulería moved more than a million units inside Spain and earned diamond status throughout Latin America. His American breakthrough arrived with 2009’s Sin Mirar Atrás, which topped the Latin Rhythms Albums chart and achieved double-platinum certification. The 2013 live audiovisual project Acustico: Una Noche en el Teatro Real climbed into the Top Five of the Latin Pop Albums chart and captured a Latin Grammy, while the studio set Tú y Yo also reached that ranking; its 2015 companion, the platinum-certified Tú y Yo en Vivo, further extended his run. Hijos del Mar followed and received platinum honors in Spain. The seventeen-track 2020 release En Tus Planes, itself platinum, featured collaborative turns with Alejandro Fernandez, Carrie Underwood, and Sebastián Yatra. In March and April 2022 Bisbal staged twenty concerts at Madrid’s UMusic Hotel Teatro Albéniz, later distilled into the thirty-three-song collection Concierto Almería 20 Aniversario issued the next year.

David Bisbal Ferre entered the world on June 5, 1979, in Almería, Spain. His father, José Bisbal, combined the roles of professional boxer and amateur flamenco musician. After attending IES Al-Andalus, the teenager left school at fifteen and took a laboring job at a local nursery, yet his lifelong devotion to music remained undiminished. He had already begun writing songs by age ten and gradually shed his early reticence to perform with area musicians in varied venues. In 1997 a producer from Orchestra Expressions, impressed after hearing him with a local group, offered him the lead-vocal position. Three years later Bisbal moved to Barcelona for the 2001 audition that led to Operación Triunfo, where he finished second behind Rosa López among the sixteen contestants. The top three earned a chance to represent Spain at the Eurovision Song Contest in Tallinn, Estonia; Bisbal again placed behind López and served as her backing vocalist. The exposure transformed him into a national television figure. Signing with Universal’s Vale Music imprint, he issued his first solo album, Corazón Latino, in 2002. Largely produced and written by Latin-pop mainstay Kike Santander, whose prior successes included hits for Gloria Estefan and Alejandro Fernández, the record not only led the Spanish chart but surpassed two million copies worldwide on the strength of three number-one singles—“Ave María,” “Lloraré las Penas,” and “Dígale”—and registered modest U.S. traction, especially for the latter track. Among the ensuing award nominations, Bisbal secured the 2003 Latin Grammy for Best New Artist.

Bulería, released in 2004, duplicated that commercial dominance, again topping the Spanish albums chart while generating the hits “Bulería,” “Oye el Boom,” “Camina y Ven,” and “Cómo Olvidar.” Santander returned as primary producer, encouraging a broader stylistic palette weighted toward flamenco. A 2005 live album, Todo por Ustedes, and the 2006 greatest-hits package David Bisbal preceded the rock-leaning Premonición, another chart-topper driven by “Quien Me Iba a Decir,” “Silencio,” and “Torre de Babel.” The 2007 deluxe edition Premonición Live added the bilingual “Hate That I Love You (Odio Que Te Amo),” a duet version of Rihanna’s global single. Sin Mirar Atrás appeared in 2009 with Bisbal himself credited for much of the songwriting, marking the first absence of Santander’s involvement; the album still dominated Spanish charts, its deluxe edition including the Pixie Lott duet “Sufrirás.” Subsequent live documents arrived in 2011 with Acústico: Una Noche en el Teatro Real and in 2013 as Live at the Royal Albert Hall. The 2014 studio album Tú y Yo spent five weeks at number one in Spain, propelled by the chart-topping single “Diez Mil Maneras.” In 2016 Hijos del Mar, whose lead track “Antes Que No” addressed the child-refugee crisis with proceeds directed to UNICEF Spain, again topped domestic charts, earned platinum certification, reached number four on the U.S. Latin Albums chart, and dominated streaming rankings. After three years of touring and philanthropic work interspersed with singles such as “Perdon” with Greeicy and “Si Tú La Quieres” with Aitana, Bisbal returned in early 2020 with the seventeen-track En Tus Planes. Additional duets included “A Partir de Hoy” with Sebastián Yatra, “Abriré La Puerta” with Alejandro Fernandez, “Bésame” with Juan Magan, and the bilingual “Tears of Gold” with Carrie Underwood; the project led streaming charts and received platinum status in Spain. Marking twenty years as a professional artist, 2021 brought the three-disc, fifty-nine-track retrospective 20 Años Contigo from Universal Music Spain. The twenty sold-out 2022 performances at UMusic Hotel Teatro Albéniz supplied the material for the multi-disc, thirty-three-track Concierto Almería 20 Aniversario released in June 2023.