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I cannot believe that I have not written about the Gipsy Kings yet! If I had to pick a favorite musical group, I think that my all-time favorite would be them. I do not know what it is about their sound; I could just listen to them all day and on repeat. Their music is the only music that I can listen to while I am studying and they are the ones who I put on when I just need something to distract me from my thoughts.

The Gipsy Kings are a Spanish-language group from Arles and Montpellier, France. I am not quite sure how to describe their sound. Formally known as Rumba Catalana, their music is pop-orientated music that has been derived from flamenco music. As some say, their music has been described as the place where “Spanish flamenco and Romani rhapsody meet salsa funk.” They were extremely popular in France and throughout Europe and some of the Middle East.

I used to hear the Gipsy Kings every time my family had dinner parties. They were, and probably still are, my dad’s go-to music artist at dinners and I always loved listening to them. Because in my mind my parents are just so old , I thought that the Gipsy Kings had long been dismembered or stopped performing and producing. However, much to my amazement, I had Google’d them a year or so ago, and found that they are still alive and performing! In fact, their Spanish rendition of “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” is featured at the end of Disney-Pixar’s Toy Story 3. So, if you had not heard them yet, but you had seen the newest and greatest Toy Story movie, then you have actually heard of them!

Their most popular songs include “Djobi Djobi”, “Volare”, and “Bamboleo”. So if you do not have time to check out their albums, I would definitely suggest listening to those songs or checking out their self-titled first album, Gipsy Kings. This album actually was released in the United States back in 1989 and it spent 40 weeks on the charts.

The Gipsy Kings are certainly a band that are worth a listen!