Vinicio Franco was seen having one of his last performances, in front of a large audience, in 2015, when Gilberto Santa Rosa was accompanied by two merengue glories, he (Vinicio) and Joseíto Mateo, during the celebration of his birth name 53 at the Nuryn Sanlley Amphitheater.
That night, Vinicio “Mambo” Franco, as he was known in musical slang at the time at the age of 82, kept his grace and elegance when he performed the meringue, he always pointed with his long finger, which became one of its characteristics when you sing.
Covid-19 on Saturday extinguished the life of one of our great merengue performers, a rhythm in which he earned the nickname “Mambo”, due to the contagiousness of his vocalization. The artist had been hospitalized at the Ramón de Lara military hospital in the capital for a week.
Vinicio Franco dies in the middle of Christmas, when his voice returned to the radio, since he recorded the album “Merengues Navideños” which contains “Good night arrived”, “Aguinaldo a la Sarandela” “Merry Christmas”, “Merry Christmas” ” , “Antares de Navidad” and “Alegría navideña”, among others.
His childhood
Vinicio Antonio Franco Rodríguez was born in Puerto Plata on September 14, 1933. He grew up grieving that he did not know his mother, Carmela García.
His father was a master builder, being regularly appointed by dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo to be part of the important construction team such as La Toma de San Cristóbal and Heriberto Peter Hospital.
Vinicio, two years old, his father, who had already started another family in Santiago, was torn from his mother and raised in Santiago, along with his stepmother and father.
“I never saw my mother, I didn’t know her because when my father took me with him, he was only two years old,” he confessed to Ramón Pastrano in an interview on the television program “Formal Informal” . He only saw her in a photo provided by a relative.
In music
As a child, his father gave him a guitar, despite the fact that he never agreed with his decision to be a singer or musician.
When he was 15, he came to the capital to work with his father on the construction of Doctor Heriberto Peter Hospital.
In the capital he began to visit bars, where he offered to help fashionable singers.
So from time to time they allowed him to sing and paid him with alcohol, which they then exchanged for money.
One day, the singer of the floor orchestra at the Yubirí bar got drunk, could not sing, and Vinicio was asked to replace him that night and so the music began.
“One day, the barber Petán (José Arismendy Trujillo, the dictator’s brother) came to the bar to see me singing and suggested I go visit Petán at La Voz Dominicana,” he said.
The next day Vinicio was tested by Radhamés Reyes Alfau (Petán’s adviser) and was hired to study singing and theater, with a salary of 125 pesos.
When Joseíto Mateo left the Super Orquesta San José (Petán Orchestra), conducted by Pope Molina, Vinicio Franco joined as a singer in the early 1950s, earning a salary of 200 pesos.
Trajectory
Merenguero had a career of 66 years. Antonio Morel recorded his first meringue in the orchestra: “Apagame la vela”, written by Bienvenido Brens and “Los algodones” and “Oye nena”.
“Siña Juanica”, a meringue by Félix López with Armando Beltré and Rico López, was another success of his.
Vinicio trained the soloist of Professor Rafael Solano’s orchestra because he said he had been with Solano for 46 years. He traveled to different countries with Solano “In the Solano orchestra I recorded the meringue” El caderú “, with that merengue I started using my finger because my father told me that you are half caderú … I liked that my father told me so, ”he said.
In his meringue, Vinicio was heard shouting at the oxen: “Ceja give me appetite”, “Come with bolefuego …”
The artist recorded over 460 meringues in his career years, nuanced by glorious years in his voice with first-rate orchestras in the middle of the twentieth century.
Vinicio Franco recorded a 66-year career, in which he was a contemporary of Francis Santana, Joseíto Mateo, Luis Vásquez and Frank Cruz.
Other well-known songs are “Gallito pinto”, “Alevántate”, “La pela de Juana”, “Dolores”, “A lo dark”, “Dreaming”, “El pichoncito”, “El pin”, “Siña Juanica”, ” Message ”,“ My owner ”,“ Firewood ”,“ La yuca ”,“ La maricutana ”.
Along with Johnny Ventura, he participated in the recording of the song “Ah, yo no saber, no”, written by Johnny Ventura and Mundito Espinal.
Vinicio Franco is survived by his wife Florencia Rosario and six children.
REACTION
Johnny Ventura.
“The history of merengue loses one of its best cultists, unfortunately, a refined singer, with an almost perfect, long-lasting tuning. I lost one of the meringue singers in history. My partner for the rest, I am the godfather of his first daughter and I deeply regret his death “, veteran Johnny Ventura declared for LISTÍN DIARIO with great regret.