10 Years on, the Legend of Flamenco Icon Paco de Lucia Lives On

Spanish guitar legend Paco de Lucia, whose talent revolutionised flamenco and brought it to the world stage, died on February 25, 2014. RAFA RIVAS / AFP/File
Spanish guitar legend Paco de Lucia, whose talent revolutionised flamenco and brought it to the world stage, died on February 25, 2014. RAFA RIVAS / AFP/File
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10 Years on, the Legend of Flamenco Icon Paco de Lucia Lives On

Spanish guitar legend Paco de Lucia, whose talent revolutionised flamenco and brought it to the world stage, died on February 25, 2014. RAFA RIVAS / AFP/File
Spanish guitar legend Paco de Lucia, whose talent revolutionised flamenco and brought it to the world stage, died on February 25, 2014. RAFA RIVAS / AFP/File

Spanish guitar legend Paco de Lucia, who died 10 years ago on Sunday, couldn't read music but his talent revolutionized flamenco, causing its popularity to spread around the world.
Wherever he played, he filled theaters and concert halls around the world, from London to New York, Paris and Moscow, San Francisco and Tokyo, shattering the image of flamenco as something complex and only of interest to a fringe audience.
"Flamenco was always marginalized in Spain because it was the music of gypsies, of Andalusians, of poor and working-class people," he once said, referring to the southern Andalusia region where was born and raised.
But his virtuosity brought the dramatic rhythms and passion of flamenco to the most prestigious music halls and this week, the main tribute event was held in New York's Carnegie Hall, bringing together the world's best flamenco artists with others like Panamanian salsa legend Ruben Blades.
The secret of de Lucia's success was his capacity "to make beautiful melodies and then dress these up with the best harmonies," guitarist Jose Carlos Gomez told AFP in the southern port town of Algeciras.
"That's why Paco is so popular both with music connoisseurs and ordinary people."
He died of a heart attack on February 25, 2014 at the age of 66 while he was "playing with his children on the beach" at Playa del Carmen in the Mexican Caribbean where he had a house, reflecting his love of the sea, swimming and fishing.
Such were the passions he had growing up in Algeciras where he was born in 1947, spending his childhood in places like El Rinconcillo beach where AFP met Gomez, a close friend of the family, whose own latest album "Las Huellas de Dios" ("God's Fingerprints") is a tribute to his idol.
It was here that de Lucia used to frequent a beachfront bar called Casa Bernardo where he would drink beer and eat fried fish, which inspired him to write a rumba by the same name.
' Born to play guitar'
Born Francisco Sanchez Gomez to a Portuguese mother and a Spanish father, he was known as Paco -- the short form of Francisco -- "de Lucia" meaning "of Lucia", his mother.
Growing up in a gypsy neighborhood, it was his father, also a guitarist, who introduced him to music and encouraged him to practice for hours.
When he was eight, his father put a guitar in his hands and told him: "I can't send you to school, I can't teach you a career, the only thing I can give you is this guitar," he once said in an interview. The same thing happened to his brothers, Ramon and Pepe, who also went on to have careers in flamenco.
De Lucia took to it so well that it was as if he had "been born to play the guitar," says Gomez, saying he was such a natural that he could concentrate on experimenting and composing more than others.
By the time he was 12, he was earning at flamenco "tablaos" -- the intimate bars that are home to the authentic form of the tragic gypsy lament and dancing. Despite having no formal training, he moved to Madrid at 15 and by 18 had released his first album.
He was the first flamenco artist to obtain a chart topper with his instrumental rumba "Entre dos aguas" which was released in 1973 and saw him bringing flamenco closer to jazz with a sextet including wind instruments and an electric bass, in a major break with tradition.
Also revolutionary was his introduction of a cajon, a Peruvian box drum instead of two or three palmeros (rhythmic clappers) which made flamenco "more acoustic" and "more intimate in terms of staging", explains top percussionist Paquito Gonzalez who recorded an album with him.
'Orphaned by his death'
When de Lucia played in Madrid's Teatro Real in 1975, it stoked controversy for being the first flamenco performance in the Spanish capital's prestigious opera house, but also because he played with crossed legs rather than the traditional posture with the guitar resting on one leg, steeply angled upwards.
He was like "one of those explorers with a machete in hand who went into the Amazon and began cutting down branches and making a path," guitarist Jose Quevedo 'Bolita' told AFP at Pena La Buena Gente, a club in Jerez de la Frontera that draws flamenco fans, of which there are many across Andalusia.
And it was after one drunken night in Jerez that de Lucia and the singer Camaron de la Isla decided to work together, going on to produce several legendary albums.
When Paco de Lucía "became a global star, almost without realizing it, he created what is now the flamenco industry", says Quevedo.
"It was a total turning point which brought about the 'professionalization' of flamenco, creating a more rewarding life for many artists", he said.
And when he died, "the flamenco world felt very orphaned", says dancer Monika Bellido who runs a flamenco academy in Algeciras.
"The whole world loved Paco."



With the Box Office Down, James Gunn Predicts Summer of ‘Superman’ to the Rescue 

Actor David Corenswet, promoting the movie "Superman", poses during a Warner Bros presentation at CinemaCon, the official convention of Cinema United, in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, April 1, 2025. (Reuters)
Actor David Corenswet, promoting the movie "Superman", poses during a Warner Bros presentation at CinemaCon, the official convention of Cinema United, in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, April 1, 2025. (Reuters)
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With the Box Office Down, James Gunn Predicts Summer of ‘Superman’ to the Rescue 

Actor David Corenswet, promoting the movie "Superman", poses during a Warner Bros presentation at CinemaCon, the official convention of Cinema United, in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, April 1, 2025. (Reuters)
Actor David Corenswet, promoting the movie "Superman", poses during a Warner Bros presentation at CinemaCon, the official convention of Cinema United, in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, April 1, 2025. (Reuters)

The 2025 box office has been hit with a deficit. Can the James Gunn-dubbed “summer of ‘Superman’” save it?

Warner Bros. showed off a diverse and starry slate of its upcoming films on Tuesday — but the night was carried on the shoulders of Clark Kent.

“I really do believe in this movie. And I do believe that there is a lack of human kindness, or at least a degradation of human kindness,” Gunn said. “This is a movie that celebrates kindness and human love.”

At the annual CinemaCon convention and trade show in Las Vegas, Gunn — the director and writer of the first film in the new iteration of the connected DC Universe — also brought out its stars, who gushed over their experience making the film.

“It’s a great honor to play a role that exists so clearly in the public consciousness, to the point where everyone I think, even if you haven’t seen a film or read a comic, you sort of know what the Superman symbol means and you know what it stands for,” said David Corenswet, adding that he hopes to “illuminate something new about the character, or even just bring the beloved character to a new audience.”

Corenswet was joined onstage by Rachel Brosnahan, who plays Lois Lane, and Nicholas Hoult, who plays Lex Luther.

“James makes a family out of every set,” Brosnahan said. “The set is full of people who want to be there, who love making these movies. And it’s such a joy to come to work every day. As many of you have probably heard from other people, it’s not always like that.”

Gunn was announced to direct the film in 2023 shortly after he and Peter Safran became co-chairmen and co-CEOs of DC Studios.

“We appreciate and share your passion for this art form,” Safran told a room full of theater owners. “It’s the fulcrum of our ambitious DC Studios slate and it’s what inspired James to shoot all over the world and push filmmaking technology to its limits, to propel moviegoers out of their homes into your theaters.”

The film will be released theatrically in July amid a summer of superhero titles, including “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” and “Thunderbolts(asterisk).”

In addition to “Superman,” Warner Bros. teased some of its April releases on the convention’s main stage, like Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” and “A Minecraft Movie,” but they also looked further down the road for 2025.

In a nod to cinephiles, the studio kicked off its presentation by bringing out the stars of Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another,” including Leonardo DiCaprio and Regina Hall. The film is set to hit theaters in September.

“I’ve been wanting to work with Paul for over, gosh, almost 20 years now. He’s one of the most unique talents of our time,” DiCaprio said. “With this film, he’s tapped into something politically and culturally that is brewing beneath our psyche. But at the same time, it’s an incredibly epic movie and has such scope and scale.”

Director Joseph Kosinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer also treated the audience to an extended sneak peak of “F1,” Brad Pitt’s Formula One racing drama premiering in June.

In addition to Hollywood studios and stars boasting their theatrical menus which they believe will lure audiences to cinemas, the annual convention is also a time to discuss current industry debates, like how long movies should stay in theaters and the extent to which studios should get into production with streaming companies.