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to the south of France, formed during the '70s when brothers Nicolas and Andre Reyes, the sons of renowned flamenco artist Jose Reyes, teamed up with their cousins Jacques, Maurice and Tonino Baliardo, whose father is Manitas de Plata. They originally called themselves Los Reyes and started out as a gypsy band traveling about playing weddings, festivals, and in the streets. Because they lived so much like gypsies, the band adopted the name the Gipsy Kings. They became popular with their self-titled debut album released in 1987, which included the Gipsy King songs "Djobi Djoba", "Bamboleo " and the romantic ballad "Un Amor". The song "Volare" on their second album Mosaique was a rumba version of Domenico Modugno's Italian hit "Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu". The Gipsy Kings were enormously popular in France and throughout Europe along with the Middle East. In 1989, Gipsy Kings was released in the United States and it spent 40 weeks on the charts, one of very few Spanish language albums to do so.
The Gipsy King's 1993 album "Love and Liberte" won the Latin Grammy Award for "Best Pop Album of the Year," and contained the enduring song "Montana," an emotional account of gypsies chased from their birthplace by prejudice and persecution. Since that time, the Gypsy Kings have continued to record and perform to sold out audiences the world over. The '95 compilation "The Best of the Gipsy Kings" went platinum, staying on the charts more than one year—all this despite the fact that the group sing in their own language, mixing French, Spanish and gypsy dialects. They are one of the best selling foreign language bands in the United States and they are so popular in Europe that imposter bands have attempted to capitalize on their name. Their distinctive musical style, which also includes rock and Arabic sounds like the Algerian rai, blends their exotic way of nomadic, gypsy life and their image, not just with regards to their way of dressing, but also to their presence on the stage--three of them play their guitars the right way round, and three of them play it the opposite way round—a unique style suited to their unique music.