The musician Manuel de la Calva dies, a member of the dynamic duo, at 88 | Culture

The musician and singer Manuel de la Calva, a member of the dynamic duo, has died on Tuesday at age 88 at the Anderson Hospital in Madrid, as reported by his partner Ramón Arcusa through a message in the group’s X account and has confirmed the EFE agency.

“Manolo de la Calva, my friend of the soul, more than brother, a hundred adventures and a thousand songs, has left us today,” Arcusa said in the message, in which he adds: “Do not cry for him, he would not like. It was the soul of a duo, always cheerful, optimistic, positive. Sing with him in this farewell. Thank you so much, friend. You are already eternal. Myrna, Vicky and Daniel … one more than strong hug. ”

Manuel de la Calva met Ramón Arcusa in the Elizalde aviation engines company where both had come to work. Being teenagers, they joined to emulate the idols of their time and, thus, in the last days of 1958, they appeared on the radio in public, baptized as The Dynamic Boysthat the presenter of the Castellanized program as a dynamic duo.

In this way, an artistic career marked by innumerable successes, which gave color to a Spain still in black and white and that would soon make the leap to the other side of the Atlantic. In the early 60s, they also participated as protagonists in four feature films.

The group is the author of successes as popular as ‘Fifteen years has my love’, ‘I would like to be’, ‘Forgive me’, ‘Mari Carmen’, ‘Those black eyes’ or ‘summer love’. In 2014, the duo received the Latin Grammy to musical excellence, in recognition of its trajectory, which joined other awards such as the gold medal for merit at work (2010) or the Medal of Honor of SGAE (2024).

Parallel to his career in the dynamic duo, Manuel de la Calva was also a composer, arranger or producer for other artists (such as Julio Iglesias, Camilo Sesto, Nino Bravo or Massiel), and came to register more than 560 titles in SGAE, entity of which he was a partner since October 1960.