Pedro Marín

This article is about the Spanish pop singer Pedro Marín. For the Colombian revolutionary Pedro Antonio Marín, see Manuel Marulanda.

Pedro Marín (born 22 November 1961) is a Spanish pop singer, actor and TV performer.

Biography

Pedro Marín is one of the most emblematic Spanish Pop singers. Since his beginnings during the 80´s as the Pop superstar to his mysterious retirement during years and his later comeback as a cult figure in art rock and electronic music during the XXl st Century. Tagged by the American Billboard Magazine as "the first avant-garde Spanish musician in history". Marín débuted on the popular music scene in Spain as a teen idol in the early 1980s with hits such as "Que no" and "Aire." He was the first Spanish artist to work with synthesisers and electronic instruments being a reference to many bands which would come later. Being tagged by Billboard magazine as the first contemporary modern singer in Spanish music. He scored number one hits in Spain, Mexico, Portugal,hits Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Top 5 hits in France and Germany, selling more than 2.5 million records. He then suddenly retired from the music business. During the 1990s, he worked in banking and finance in England and West Africa.

However, beginning in 2005, Marín returned to the public spotlight. He released a new full-length CD, Diamonds, in which he paid tribute to Amanda Lear's disco-era oeuvre with electro cover versions of hits such as "Queen of Chinatown," "Follow Me," "Fashion Pack," and "Enigma," among others.

With the success of Diamonds, Marín recorded a new album in 2007, Pulpo negro, which sold over 60 thousand copies in Spain. Unlike Diamonds, which was recorded in English, Pulpo negro was recorded in Spanish.

In 2009, Marín released one of his most critically acclaimed albums to date, "I will glam," on which he composed all the songs. The album features collaborations with major artists from the Spanish rock ´n´ roll scene, such as Eric Jimenez from Los Planetas. Marín subsequently toured Spain for the first time in many years.

After this successful tour, Marín began work on a new album in Barcelona, produced by Stefano Maccarrone frontman of the avant garde electronic band Mendetz, which would be released in 2012. A first single "Te veo bailar", an advance from this forthcoming album Hombre mecanico ( "The mechanical man" ) has been released in June 2012 achieving more than 25'000 downloads in the first two weeks of its release ( only in Spain ). "Hombre Mecanico" the album is released in Spain in 2013 and in Mexico in 2014.

On June 26 he publishes the video "Que No" a remake of his 1979 classic. A theme "on being and feeling free. Be brave. Having and demanding to have rights. Support each others ... and so many other things that would make [ sic ] this world a better place. " The direction of the piece , by Marin himself ".

In August 2014 The Mexican edition of Hombre Mecánico is released with a tracklist slightly different from the Spanish album. Pedro visits Mexico for the first time since the 80´s for a promotional tour. Live performances are announced for that same year.

Pedro Marín announces from México to CNN Internacional the upcoming release of the first short-film he has directed, Las viudas invisibles ("The invisible widdows") Filmed in India it deals with the problems of the widow collective in that country and culture.

In December 2014 participates in the festival that takes place at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City in front of 110,000 people and is broadcast on the Televisa network on New Year's Eve.

Pedro Marín History.

“I just wanted to be a star – didn’t care if it was in music, cinema, as a painter or as a serial killer,” boldly states ruggedly handsome Spanish dance-pop singer Pedro Marín, reflecting on his quest for fame. He’s been a determined, direct and no-nonsense go-getter from his earliest days and he surely achieved his goal. Marín, a handsome and charismatic young man in the early ’80s, developed a passion for music that led him to become one of Spain’s most popular voices. His fame spread throughout much of Europe and south America. The record sales for his debut album and hits like “Que No” and “Aire” “Dos Enamorados” (1982), “Tu Serás Solo Mia” (1985) )were in the millions, yet by the decade’s end the artist grew weary of the industry and the trappings of his lofty position in the business. At that point, he virtually vanished from sight. He returned to music in the 21st century with a fresh sense of creativity, a powerful new art-rock-dance sound and the relaxed yet confident attitude of someone who knows his way around life’s challenges.

Marín started that type of electronic Synth Pop dance sound in Spain and overall in Latin music. It did not exist before, “I am very proud that my first single ‘Que No’ (b/w ‘Puente de Colores’) was the first disco track sung in Spanish in Latin music history.”

Though Marín had successfully forged a new dance sound in Spain, the prospects for Spanish music in Europe were decidedly less promising. Still, he managed to achieve the unthinkable. The singer’s top ranking, self-titled LP (released in 1980) and follow-up hit, the jubilant and energized “Aire,” successfully moved Marin into the Spanish and European mainstream. Sales exceeded 2.5 million albums in just three years and included high chart positions in his homeland, Germany, Portugal, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. His music was also embraced in France, Chile, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands.

With his life radically changed by stardom, Pedro says he had to sacrifice the normal life most teenagers would have experienced. “I never had a regular youthful life. I couldn’t have the life of a normal teenager that, but I´ve had other things in return – music, fame, money, and, most of all, the incredible and unique human experience of living my passion to an extreme. Success in the United States (where Billboard magazine was calling him “the first avant-garde Spanish Musician in history”), the fuss the media and his fans made over his handsome looks or even the drugs that were plentiful during the era were of little importance. “I never let myself get too caught up in thinking about anything. Like the Billboard comment – at the time I didn’t give a shit about the statement. Now I love it,” he laughs.

However, though seemingly at the top of his game in the music business, Pedro was feeling the stress of the very career he was once so determined to have. He suddenly dropped out of sight, abandoning the business completely. “So, I ran away as far as I could. After studying in a university during the late ’80s, I ended up living in Bali in the ’90s.

In 2006, Marín made a decision to return to music, following a long career he had established in finance. Emerging as a highly eclectic electro-synth-dance-pop artist, Pedro’s return to the music scene was first heralded by the LP Diamonds, his interpretation of the songs of legendary singer Amanda Lear. “The Amanda thing was all about me playing in the studio beyond the takes I was recording for Pulpo Negro, my comeback album (of original material),” recalls the artist.

“When I returned in 2006, the music business was very badly damaged already. There was no interest whatsoever to release new material from somebody like me, who had not recorded an album in over 20 years. They would have possibly taken a revisited ’80s hits album, but I hated the idea of doing one and refused. That just seemed a bit absurd to me. No record company wanted to release Pulpo Negro, so I created my own label (Mainman) to release it. I managed to put together my first tour in decades with that album and it sold very well.

Marín’s 2009 I Will Glam album was a modern-day game changer for the singer-songwriter, which garnered hefty critical acclaim. “I wanted to tackle a conceptual album, an exercise in glam rock, which was the genre I first started listening to as a kid and which has followed me throughout life. I called some of the best and most respected rock and roll musicians in the Spanish scene to record it… and they agreed. Being a pop artist, I had reviews from places I would have never dreamed of.

“I do not buy the publicity selling strategies today that you need to be 18 years old to conquer the world. That’s bullshit!” he insists. “You can conquer anything and go after whatever you want to achieve at anytime. Being 50 years old is marvelous – it’s a whirlwind of experience and knowledge. So what’s my secret to handling aging? Fostering mutual respect I guess.

"I’ll just keep on creating, inventing, recording and directing videos like on my last album Hombre Mecánico (2013) ,which is not only a musical experience but also a visual one. I have directed and filmed clips to all of the songs on it, just letting myself go as a German expressionist would…always flowing.”

Discography

Albums

Pedro Marín, 1980
Rebelde, 1981
Grandes éxitos, 1982
Todas sus grabaciones, 1979–1986, 1992
Diamonds, 2006
Pulpo negro, 2007
I Will Glam 2009
Todas sus grabaciones 79/86 2014
Hombre Mecánico 2013
Hombre Mecánico (Mexican Edition) 2014

Singles

"Que no," 1980
"Aire," 1980
"Cantaré," 1981
"Laura," 1981
"Dos enamorados," 1982
"Comprame" 1983 (Released in South America )
"Secretos" 1983(Released in South America )
"Tú serás solo mía," 1985
"Especies en extinción," 1986

Videography

• «Follow Me» (from the album Diamonds).
• «Pulpo negro» (from the album Pulpo negro).
• «El día después» (from the album I Will Glam).
• «El influjo de la luna» ((from the album I Will Glam).
• «Glam Song» (from the album I Will Glam).
• I Will Glam Tour Live.
• «Voy a ser yo» (from the album I Will Glam).
• «Te veo bailar» (from the album Hombre mecánico).
• «Sal».(from the album Hombre mecánico).
• «Yo Sé» (from the album Hombre mecánico).
• «Cómprame» (from the album Hombre mecánico).
• «The Saint» (from the album Hombre mecánico).
• «Tanto tiempo sin ti» (from the album Hombre mecánico).
• «Sal 2.0» (from the album Hombre mecánico).
• «Que No» (from the album Hombre mecánico).
• «Cumbres de éxtasis» (from the album Hombre mecánico).
• «Plastic Monsters» (from the album Hombre mecánico).
• «El Pasajero» (from the album Hombre mecánico edición México).
• «Yo Sé 2.0» (from the album Hombre mecánico).

References

• "Biografía," Official Pedro Marín website. Accessed May 25, 2007.

External links

• Official Pedro Marín website (Spanish)