on August 3, 1973 male bravo I would have turned 29 and he would celebrate it in a full summer tour, which would reinforce it as a whole. Someone spanish singers More popular of the whole world. Perhaps that day the Valencian musician would have blown out the candles on a cake when, at the end of one of the many concerts he had begun planning the previous spring, he told his musicians to take the opportunity to be with their girlfriends and wives. because after that, you might not be able to spend as much time with them as you used to.”
That same year, Nino planned to present her own work. fifth diskwho he is already an idol and to whom he recorded some amazing songs like ‘América, America’ dedicated to the continent he planned to travel to in 1974. performances by several European countries English and German versions of their biggest hits will be premiered; and even in Japan, where she was invited to sing as a guest star at the Yamaha Music Festival in Tokyo, the East’s Eurovision.
In 1973, Nino planned her fifth album and performed in Europe, America and even Japan.
Between commitment and determination, and between trips, maybe Nino might have time to listen to demos of young Valencian artists he wants to further their careers through his own Brani record label and complete the design of that retrofuturistic disco he wants to set up. A room located in Valencia whose decoration was inspired by the stories of his favorite writer Jules Verne.
Yes, 1973 would have been a wonderful summer, artistically and personally. Luis Manuel Ferri Llopis, or Manolito as some of his close friends call him. The second daughter of his wife Marie, perhaps in November, would become the younger sister of little María Amparo. He may even have taken a break to enjoy his family in his brand new apartment on Bachiller de València street, which he bought in early 1972, where songs like ‘Libre’, ‘Noelia’ or ‘A’ were playing. kiss and a flower’ pop music idol.
At 12:15 pm, one of the Humo members called Suco: “I’m in Madrid. Nino is dead.”
last kisses
None of this happened because BMW 2,800 driven by Nino Bravo on April 16, 1973with his friend Pepe Juesas as co-pilot and two young musicians, Miguel Ciaurriz and Fernando Romero, in the backseat, Left the N-III motorway at the summit of Villarrubio, in the province of Cuenca. It was not even a hundred kilometers away from the singer’s departure to Madrid, where he planned to start working as the producer of Humo’s debut album, which consisted of two children accompanying him on his last journey.
As the Valencian artist biographer Darío Ledesma recalls in his book Nino Bravo: voice and heart, four passengers of the BMW left Valencia at 7:30 am on that Monday in April 50 years ago. Little María Amparo was sleeping in her crib when Nino kissed her goodbye. from the cheek. He promised his wife, Marie, that he would call her when he got to Madrid.
death in ambulance
At 9.15 am the singer and her friends stopped at the Hotel Sol in Motilla to have breakfast and resumed their walk shortly thereafter. At 10:30 am, Nino’s BMW probably left the road when he arrived in Villarrubio. an error from your driver. Miguel and Fernando barely got a few scrapes and managed to get out of the car on their own. Severely injured, Pepe had to be knocked down from the front of the crashed vehicle as the blows to his back and neck left him semi-paralyzed.
However the worst part was taken by Nino. After being rescued from inside the vehicle by other drivers who witnessed the accident, he was transported to the Monjas de la Caridad de Tarancón clinic in a private vehicle. There, they did not have the necessary medical equipment to participate in the treatment. serious injuries that the artist suffered and for this he was taken by ambulance to Ciudad Sanitaria Francisco Franco in Madrid.
Next to him, by the ambulance Fuentidueña del Tajo, was Fernando, the singer of Humo, who died in Nino’s arms around 12 noon. When he arrived at the hospital, doctors could only confirm death From the ‘free’ translator. According to Ledesma, the last words Nino managed to say to Fernando before he died were: “Call Suco, call Suco.”
Many fans spent the night at the cemetery to attend the funeral. More than 10,000 people attended
the news has come
An hour earlier, that Monday at 11 a.m. in Valencia, Vicente Moya ‘Suco’, the former leader of Suco and the Scorpions and Nino’s man for everything at the time, suddenly woke up for his mother Agustín García, president of the Artist’s fan club, had phoned him and asked him to come to Brani’s office immediately. Fernando had just called to report that Nino had had an accident on the way to Madrid. At 12:15 PM, when the Humo member contacted the singer’s office again, a chill took over Suco’s body.
—Suco… I’m Fernando… I’m in Madrid… Nino… Nino… he’s dead!
Suco was responsible To convey the sad news to his family as a child. Ledesma says in his biography that he did this through the artist’s brother-in-law, Manu Martínez. “I had to go to Nino’s house with Nino’s mother, Consuelo, where my sister, Marie, who was two months pregnant, was located. When they saw me walk in the door… I guess just seeing my face… each of them imagined what the scenario was like. sad and difficult for the whole family”, Manu still remembered years later.
global impact
At 1:00 pm, Nino Bravo’s death was already known to his family and friends in Valencia, and It didn’t take long for it to reach radio stations. Before all of Spain – and then America – a rumor (“Nino injured”, “A famous Spanish singer died…”) and finally the worst news.
“I remember coming home from a gala and Jesús Mariñas was on the phone,” said singer Cristina, partner of Nino Bravo on the Spanish Television show ‘Passport to Dublin’. suitcases.’ Nino Bravo was killed‘”.
At 3 pm, thousands of viewers watched the news from Televisión Española and were shocked by the startling announcement from presenter Pedro Macía: “Valencian singer Nino Bravo died in a car accident near Tarancón this morning. Madrid will make some recordings”. On the same Holy Monday in 1973, 13 more people, like the Valencian singer, left their lives on the roads of Spain.
The last journey
At 22:00, a plane from Valencia, on which Manu and Suco were traveling, landed in Barajas. Nino Bravo’s brother-in-law and his representative went directly to the Forensic Anatomical Institute to examine the body. In Valencia, says Ledesma, her family cried uncontrollably. The singer’s father, Senor Manolo, desperately raised his hands to his head and asked what a father had done to get the worst possible punishment: burying his own son. “If she weren’t so Catholic, my mother wouldn’t have been able to stand. Consuelo Ferri, the deceased’s sister, later recalled “what she went through”.
The next day, on April 17, the funeral van with Nino Bravo’s body left Madrid in the direction of Valencia General Cemetery. After the van, the members of the duo Manu, Suco and Humo returned in another vehicle, which they still remember years later. signs of love delivered to them in the towns where the funeral procession passed.
A kiss and a flower
Already in Valencia, More than two thousand people waited with him. municipal cemetery to get the singer for the last time. Police had to cordon off the access corridor to the chapel to facilitate passage of the coffin and avoid crowds. Many of his fans spent the night there to attend the idol’s grand funeral, which was estimated to be attended by more than 10,000 people, who died the next day.
The history of the newspaper Levante-EMV, belonging to the Prensa Ibérica group, wrote, “After the mass, when the doors of the chapel were opened to remove the coffin, the public again returned to materially carry the body of Nino Bravo.” published the next day. “The police – he continued – saw themselves in a few minutes. failing to control the large crowd They had gathered at the cemetery. Armed Police forces had to intervene to prevent misfortune and to transport the body.
At 11:00 on April 18, the coffin with the body was deposited in niche 80 of the right 7th section of the Valencia Municipal Cemetery. As Dario Ledesma said earlier, Marie got as close to the coffin as she could and kissed it several times.. Consuelo, Nino’s wife and sister, also testified. a flower on the coffin lid before a cemetery worker permanently closes the niche. The body of Luis Manuel Ferri Llopis was there and the legend of Nino Bravo was born there.