Segundo Romance

Segundo Romance

In 1934, Argentina’s Carlos Gardel released “El Día Que Me Quieras,” a heartfelt tango co-written by Alfredo Le Pera—which in turn was inspired by the 1919 poem of the same name by Mexico’s Amado Nervo—in which love heals wounds, dresses roses in intense colors, and makes the stars jealous. Sixty years later, in 1994, Luis Miguel presented his version of “El Día Que Me Quieras” as the first single from his 10th studio album, Segundo Romance. He was 24 years old and already among the most important singers in Latin America, and he showed it with this record of 11 classics, mainly boleros, which took on new life in his voice. Luis Miguel's incursion into boleros—a genre that he deeply enjoyed despite it not appearing much in his catalog—began with 1991's Romance. Segundo Romance was produced by Juan Carlos Calderón, Kiko Cibrian, and Armando Manzanero. Luis Miguel traveled through six decades to recreate cuts such as José Alfredo Jiménez’s “La Media Vuelta,” “Delirio” by Cuban singer César Portillo de la Luz, and “Historia de un Amor” by Panama's Carlos Eleta Almarán. Skillful arrangements of strings and wind instruments, together with the voice of El Sol de México, drive Segundo Romance, which dialogues with Latin standards to demonstrate its strength from a contemporary angle, with love as a thematic and creative force. Planned in Villa Mykonos in Acapulco—while Luis Miguel was mourning the death of his manager Hugo López, who prompted him to immerse himself in this adventure—and recorded at the Record Plant studios in Los Angeles, Segundo Romance won the Grammy for Best Latin Pop Album and went platinum around the world. It’s also a tribute to those great practitioners of the bolero from whom Luis Miguel received the torch to scale new heights at the end of the 20th century.

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