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The gypsy flamenco band “The Gipsy Kings” is touring North American cities for the next two weeks, and as The World’s Adeline Sire explains, the band’s added a unique song to its repertoire.
The Gipsy Kings burst onto the world stage in the late 1980s with hits like Bamboleo…
The group is from the South of France. And they’re of Spanish Romani heritage. Their style of music is rumba flamenca, often mixed in with popular beats. They’ve had a busy career and they are loved in the United States where they tour about twice a year.
But they haven’t released a new studio album in over three years. So it’s a little puzzling that their latest work is heard in an animation movie. Disney-Pixar’s’ “Toy Story 3.”
I’ll get to their song in a minute but here’s what’s happening in the third installment of the Toy Story series.
The boy, Andy, is all grown-up, and on his way to college. So he’s getting rid of his childhood toys. Most of them end up temporarily in a day-care where it’s kind of rough going for them. In one scene, Buzz Lightyear, the spaceman toy, is accidentally switched over to Spanish mode by his bewildered buddies.
Now, you may remember the original Toy Story theme song “you’ve got a friend in me,” by Randy Newman…
Well, since Buzz Lightyear is switched to Spanish in this film the theme song is too.
“You’ve got a friend in me” becomes “Hay un amigo en mi,” a full-blown rumba-flamenco tune, courtesy of the Gipsy Kings.
Tom MacDougall is Toy Story’s music supervisor. He says, for scene in which Buzz Lightyear starts to dance, they needed a band with an iconic sound that would identify flamenco, and Spain, immediately in American moviegoers’ minds.
And no band could do that better than the Gipsy Kings.
Tom MacDougall: “For that moment we needed people to know immediately what’s happening you hear those first chords on the guitar and even when I see the film now with audiences they get right away so for that minute or so of the footage the song identifies what’s going to happen and you just enjoy the ride.”
Gipsy Kings’ band member Andre Reyes says they were immensely pleased to get the song request from Disney-Pixar.
He says they worked to make it their own. Reyes says “we gave it a Gipsy Kings makeover, with the style of singing of Nicolas, the lead singer, and the traditional Flamenco rhythm.” He says the song may give the band a special connection to American audiences during this tour.
And if they get requests, Reyes says they’ll definitely play their version of the “Toy Story” song.
We hope this tour is unique because of this song, he says. It will be good for the film, and good for us.
For The World, I’m Adeline Sire
Sat, July 5 La Baie, QC Palais Municipal de La Baie
Wed, July 7 Ottawa, ON The Lebreton Flats Park
Fri, July 9 Morrison, CO Red Rocks Amphitheater
Sat, July 10 Saratoga, CA The Mountain Winery
Sun, July 11 San Francisco, CA Nob Hill Masonic Center
Mon, July 12 Napa, CA The Uptown Theater
Wed, July 14 San Diego, CA Humphreys Concerts by the Bay
Thu, July 15 Temecula, CA Pechanga Resort & Casino
Fri, July 16 Las Vegas, NV The Beach @ Mandalay Bay
July 17 & 18 Los Angeles, CA The Greek Theatre
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