KIKO VENENO (SPAIN)

Kiko Veneno plays an Alhambra model 10 Premier guitar with Fishman Elipse electrification. José María López Sanfeliu , better known as Kiko Veneno, is a Spanish musician. Of Catalan descent through his mother and Castilian through his father, he was born in 1952 in Figueras, but by the age of three he had been living in Cádiz, and in his teens he moved to Seville, where he has lived ever since.

In his early youth, he was influenced by the underground through music. He began traveling around Europe, where he attended concerts by artists who influenced him, such as Frank Zappa and Bob Dylan. Later, in the early 1970s, he traveled to the United States, where he embraced the counterculture and hippie movement. In 1973, in San Francisco (USA), he met a gypsy from Morón who rediscovered flamenco for him. When he returned to Spain, he was labeled a "hippo" and frequented the (few) people on the margins of Sevillian society: gypsies, artists, marginalized people, and subversives .

In 1975, she met Raimundo Amador and his brother Rafael , and together they formed the group Veneno . Their first album, "Veneno," recorded in 1977, was not very successful at the time. However, it is now considered a pioneering and fundamental album in Spanish music, especially in its fusion of other types of music with flamenco. In 1979, she collaborated on the album La Leyenda del Tiempo by Camarón de la Isla.

The young Venenos' contribution to the final result of this album was vital. Kiko is best known as the author of "Volando voy," although he also participated in other tracks on the album: "Mi niña se fue a la mar," "Viejo mundo," and "Homenaje a Federico." During the 1980s, he composed songs for Martirio and collaborated on several projects with the television program La bola de cristal (TVE) as a composer and singer. However, he was unable to make a living from music and balanced his artistic endeavors with other jobs.

Already in the 90s he began his commercial success with the publication of the albums Échate un cantecito (1992) and Está muy bien eso del cariño (1995), both produced by Joe Dworniak. Since then, successive albums, and tours throughout Spain, Europe, Latin America, even playing in 2007 at the legendary The Knitting Factory in New York, thanks to his colleague Jonathan Richman, who invited him to share his show, which opened doors to other performances in the United States. Throughout his long career he has shared the stage with artists such as Jonathan Richman, Jackson Browne Julieta Venegas, Jorge Drexler, Martín Buscaglia, Kevin Johansen, el Niño de Elche, Raimundo Amador, Lolo Ortega, Antonio Smash, Vera Fauna or C. Tangana among others.

In 2010, he received the Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts , an honorary title awarded by the Spanish government to outstanding figures in the art world. In 2012, he was awarded the fourth National Prize for Contemporary Music, preceded by Joan Manuel Serrat, Amaral, and Santiago Auserón. The jury members emphasized "his decisive contribution over more than three and a half decades to the integration of international and Hispanic musical traditions, spreading rhythm, enriching the popular song format with ingenuity and poetic quality." In addition, in 2019, he composed some themes for the soundtrack of Entre dos Aguas, a film by Isaki Lacuesta , which won the Golden Shell at the San Sebastián Film Festival. The film will be nominated for its music and other awards at both the Catalan Gaudí Awards and the Andalusian ASECAN Awards.

In 2020, the MIN Awards, from the National Association of Independent Record Labels, named Sombrero Roto the "Album of the Year" and awarded Kiko the " Mario Pacheco Honorary Award " in recognition of his entire career. In March 2020, already in full confinement due to COVID measures, Kiko started " Radio Virus ", an attempt to help and inspire people. The motto is that "Music is medicine", and spontaneous creations and reflections follow one another. Some of these songs, such as " Duele ", will end up being part of the new album Hambre. In the same spirit of helping, he releases "Hay gente" as a tribute to the doctors and health workers who are the first line of defense against the epidemic. All profits will go to Doctors Without Borders.

The "A Country to Listen to" tour kicks off 2022 with a series of concerts with Ariel Rot in a unique format: following the lead role of the TV show (in whose first program Kiko Veneno himself participated), they collaborate in each location with local musicians and other artists. Each concert is unique, and the repertoire varies.

To learn more about Kiko Veneno you can follow him on: www.kikoveneno.es Instagram @kikoveneno.music Facebook Kiko Veneno Youtube @KikoVenenoOficial Spotify Kiko Veneno