Valderrama

Born to flamenco-folk icon Juanito Valderrama and copla vocalist Dolores Abril, Spanish singer Valderrama carried forward his parents’ artistic lineage while carving independent paths through cinema, television, and writing. Juan Antonio Valderrama Abril entered the world in Madrid in 1972, relocated to Seville at age ten, completed university studies in journalism, and later served as news director at a regional television outlet. Music remained central despite these pursuits; after cutting several demos he secured a Sony contract and assembled his 2002 debut, La Memoria del Agua, enlisting Ana Belén, Joaquín Sabina, Vicente Amigo, and his father among the contributors. Seeking a distinct profile, he issued the pop-focused Alfileres in 2004, took a role in Jose Luis Garcia Sanchez’s film Franky Banderas, founded Kompetencia Records, and applied his reporting background to a book on the 1970s flamenco-rhumba group Los Chichos, written with his wife Rosa Pena in collaboration with RNE journalist Nieves Herrero. Following four years away from recording, he reemerged with the 2008 album Ilusion and the Middle Eastern-inflected Moderna Tradición the next year, while also conceiving and staging the flamenco production Maestros for appearances at festivals across Spain. His fifth release, the traditionally rooted Sonidos Blancos, arrived in 2011.