Armando Manzanero

Armando Manzanero Canché (7 December 1934 – 28 December 2020) was a Mexican musician, singer, composer, and music producer, widely considered the premier Mexican romantic composer of the postwar era and one of the most successful composers of Latin America. He received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in the United States in 2014. He was the president of the Mexican Society of Authors and Composers (Sociedad de Autores y Compositores de México). Early life Manzanero was born in Mérida, Yucatán on 7 December 1934. His father was singer and composer Santiago Manzanero and his mother Juanita Canché Baqueiro played the jarana jarocha. At the age of eight he was introduced to the world of music at the Escuela de Bellas Artes (School of Fine Arts), later furthering his musical studies in Mexico City. The following year he began his professional career as a pianist. In 1957 he was signed as musical director by the Mexican branch of CBS International and as Musical Promoter for EMI, becoming the next year the pianist of Latin American artists such as Pedro Vargas, Lucho Gatica and Raphael. In 1970, his song “Somos Novios” was reissued with new lyrics by Sid Wayne, composer for Elvis Pre