Paco Toronjo

Francisco Antonio Toronjo Arreciado (Alosno, June 13, 1928 – Huelva, 1998), known as Paco Toronjo, was a Spanish flamenco singer.[1] He learned to sing local traditional folk at his home town Alosno. He stayed at his province until he was 20 years old when he became a professional musician.[2] At the beginning of his musical career he sang with his brother Pepe Torojo as a duet. They were known as "Hermanos Toronjo"(Toronjo Brothers), being the ones that did the first audio recording of "Sevillanas".[3] After his brother's death, he started to develop and record his own style of "fandango", which were very dramatic and based on his own life as the source for lyrics, claiming he sang about the sorrows he lived, he also started them with "Siguiriyas"[4] as a way to increasing the sadness. This style along with his raspy singing voice carried him to be considered by many a part of the top of fandango singers,[5] even he had a local bohemian life at the city of Huelva in the latest years of his life. He appeared in two movies by the Spanish film director Carlos Saura:"Sevillanas"[6] and "Flamenco".[7] He died in 1998, since then several monuments had been built in his province [8][9] and a complete biography had been released.[