Armando Manzanero, Legendary Mexican Singer/Songwriter, Dies at 85 After COVID Diagnosis

Manzanero received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014

armando manzanero
Photo: Getty Images

Armando Manzanero, the legendary Mexican singer and composer, died Monday. He was 85.

The Sociedad de Autores y Compositores de México (The Society of Authors and Composers of Mexico), for which Manzanero served as president, made the announcement via Twitter. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador also noted Manzanero’s death during his daily news conference, describing him as “a great composer and the country’s best.”

The Associated Press reported that Manzanero was hospitalized with COVID-19 in December, but his publicist said he died of complications from a kidney problem.

Manzanero was born on Dec. 7, 1935 in Mexico’s Yucatan state, which he proudly represented.

Over his seven-decade career, he composed and performed hundreds of songs, notably ballads. A translated version of his 1968 song “Somos Novios” became the 1970s hit “It’s Impossible” for Perry Como. Manzanero’s original recording was inducted into the Latin Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001.

Manzanero himself won the Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010 and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014 (others in his class were The Beatles, The Isley Brothers and Kraftwerk).

Read tributes to Manzanero below.

More to come…

 

 

 

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