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Luis Aguile composed about 400 songs and recorded twice that number in a career that also encompassed the Spanish operetta style known as “zarzuela.’’ (Carlos Alvarez/Getty Images ) |
Luis Aguile, prolific singer, songwriter from Argentina
MADRID - Luis Aguile, an Argentine singer-songwriter whose career blossomed after he moved to Spain, died in a Madrid hospital Saturday, his manager said. He was 73.
Best known for the worldwide hit “Cuando Sali de Cuba’’ (“When I Left Cuba’’), the baritone had stomach cancer. He was being treated at Sanchinarro Hospital in a northern suburb of Madrid, where he died, said manager Victor Saboya.
Born Luis Maria Aguilera Picca on Feb. 24, 1936, in Buenos Aires, Mr. Aguile moved to Spain in 1963 just in time to benefit from the birth of popular music television programs that suited his lighthearted, polished style perfectly.
The singer-songwriter composed about 400 songs and recorded twice that number in a career that also encompassed the Spanish operetta style known as “zarzuela.’’
Mr. Aguile had been working on two major projects before his death, Saboya said. The first, a zarzuela titled “Viva Madrid, Grandes Exitos de Broadway’’ (“Long Live Madrid, Big Broadway Hits’’), was approaching completion, and the other, an homage to “Martin Fierro,’’ an epic work by Argentine poet Jose Hernandez, had long been Mr. Aguile’s cherished personal ambition.
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