"Amigos Para Siempre (Friends for Life)", also called "Amics per sempre" in Catalan, is an official theme song of the 1992 Summer Olympics held in Barcelona, Spain. The music was composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber. The lyrics, written by Don Black, are in English, except for the title phrase which is repeated in English, Spanish and Catalan.
"Amigos Para Siempre" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Single by José Carreras and Sarah Brightman | ||||
Released | 29 June 1992 [1] | |||
Recorded | 1992 | |||
Genre | Pop | |||
Length | 4:36 | |||
Label | Polydor, Really Useful | |||
Songwriter(s) | Andrew Lloyd Webber, Don Black | |||
Producer(s) | Andrew Lloyd Webber, Nigel Wright | |||
Sarah Brightman singles chronology | ||||
|
British soprano Sarah Brightman and Spanish tenor José Carreras performed the song during the closing ceremony of the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games. [2] The duet was also released worldwide as a single to coincide with the Games, peaking at number 11 on the UK Singles Chart and reaching number one in Australia for six weeks. It was one of two musical themes for the event. The other, simply titled "Barcelona", was sung by Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballé, and reached number two in the UK. Both appear on the compilation album Barcelona Gold , released to coincide with the Games.
A remixed version of the original, with less vocal reverb and modified balancing, was included on the compilation album Andrew Lloyd Webber: Now and Forever (2001).
Larry Flick from Billboard described the song as a "Spanish-pop ballad" and noted its "stately performances" by Carreras and Brightman, and the "dramatic orchestral arrangement". He also added that the Spanish-language version has lyrics co-penned by Cuban-American singer and songwriter Gloria Estefan. [3]
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
|
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Australia (ARIA) [14] | Platinum | 70,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
In Spain, the most famous rendition of this song was made by Spanish group Los Manolos with rumba arrangements and Spanish lyrics, except for the chorus. It reached number 3 in the Spanish charts. [16] In September 1992, it was covered by Effie and Norman Gunston and reached the top 30 in Australia at the time. [17]
In one of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Group's concerts in Beijing, China, a Chinese version of this song was performed with approximately half of the lyrics in Mandarin and half in English. In this version, Amigos Para Siempre was replaced by "永远的朋友", which is "Friends Forever" in Chinese. A fully Cantonese version "友愛長存"(literally "eternal friendship") was sung by George Lam.
This song was also used for the Shanghai 2007 Special Olympic Games, performed again by José Carreras and a Chinese soprano.
On Sunday, 17 August 2008 at the Don Black 70th birthday tribute concert Lyrics by Don Black, Amigos Para Siempre was performed by Jonathan Ansell and Hayley Westenra. The evening took place at the London Palladium featuring performances of Black's songs by a selection of guest artists, hosted by Michael Parkinson and was recorded by BBC Radio 2 Friday Night is Music Night and broadcast on Friday, 22 August 2008. [18]
It was the favourite song of Juan Antonio Samaranch, president of the International Olympic Committee from 1980 to 2001, and was played at his funeral in Barcelona in April 2010. [19]
In 2014, Katherine Jenkins and the Viennese tenor LASZLO [20] (Also known as Laszlo Maleczky) covered the song on the album "Katherine Jenkins" that was only released in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
In 2016, Marina Prior and Mark Vincent covered the song on their album Together .
In 2017, G4 covered the song on their latest album "Love Songs".
In 2020, La Poem covered the song on their first mini-album "Scene#1" and performed it at the opening of the 35th Golden Disc Awards. [21]
Josep Maria Carreras Coll, better known as José Carreras, is a Spanish operatic tenor who is particularly known for his performances in the operas of Donizetti, Verdi and Puccini.
Sarah Brightman is an English classical crossover soprano singer, actress, and dancer.
Crossover is a term applied to musical works or performers who appeal to different types of audience. This can be seen, for example, when a song appears on two or more of the record charts which track differing musical styles or genres. If the second chart combines genres, such as a "Hot 100" list, the work is not a crossover.
"Cara Mia" is a popular song published in 1954 that became a UK number 1, and US number 10 hit and Gold record for English singer David Whitfield in 1954, and a number 4 hit for the American rock group Jay and the Americans in 1965. The title means "my beloved" in Italian.
María Laura Corradini Falomir popularly known as Chenoa, is an Argentine-Spanish music artist who rose to fame as a contestant on reality television singing competition Operación Triunfo. Her music style could be described as pop. Most of her music is in Spanish, although a few tracks on some albums were recorded in English. She has sold more than 1,000,000 records since 2002.
Efthimia Francesca Stephanidis, better known as just "Effie", is an outrageous comedic character played by Australian actress Mary Coustas. Coustas depicts a stereotypical second-generation Greek Australian.
"Quiéreme mucho" is a criolla-bolero composed in 1911 by Gonzalo Roig with lyrics by Ramón Gollury and Agustín Rodríguez. The song was inspired by Roig's wife, Blanca Becerra, and premiered in Havana in 1911 without much success. In 1917, it was included in the sainete El servicio militar obligatorio and performed by Becerra and Rafael Llorens to critical acclaim. Roig published and sold the rights to the song in 1921, and the first recording was made in the United States by singer Tito Schipa in 1923. The English version, "Yours", was published in 1931 in the United States. It featured lyrics in English written by Albert Gamse and Jack Sherr. Both versions have been extensively recorded and arranged by different musicians, becoming Latin music standards.
"The Music of the Night" is a major song from the 1986 musical The Phantom of the Opera. The music was written by Andrew Lloyd Webber, with lyrics by Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe. Initially made famous by Michael Crawford, the actor who originated the role of the Phantom both in the West End and on Broadway, "The Music of the Night" has appeared on many cast recordings of the musical, sold millions of copies worldwide, and has been translated into many languages.
The Premiere Collection Encore is a 1992 compilation album by Andrew Lloyd Webber. The album acted as a follow-up to The Premiere Collection: The Best of Andrew Lloyd Webber. In the four intervening years, the original London production of Aspects of Love and Lloyd Webber's new production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat had both opened; therefore a number of tracks were included from those shows.
"Con te partirò" is an Italian song written by Francesco Sartori (music) and Lucio Quarantotto (lyrics). It was first performed by Andrea Bocelli at the 1995 Sanremo Music Festival and recorded on his album of the same year, Bocelli. The single was first released as an A-side single with "Vivere" in 1995, topping the charts, first in France, where it became one of the best-selling singles of all-time, and then in Belgium, breaking the all-time record sales there.
"You Belong to My Heart" is the name of an English-language version of the Mexican Bolero song "Solamente una vez". This song was composed by Mexican songwriter Agustín Lara and originally performed by singer Ana María González and tenor José Mojica in the 1941 film Melodías de América.
Symphony is the ninth studio album from English soprano singer Sarah Brightman. This classical crossover album is a contrast to her previous collaboration with producer Frank Peterson, 2003's Harem; using a gothic influence instead of a Middle Eastern feel.
Sarah Brightman Sings the Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber is a 1992 full-length album released in conjunction with Sarah Brightman's world tour The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber. The album contains most of the songs performed regularly on that tour and features all-new recordings, with the exception of "Pie Jesu", "All I Ask of You", "The Phantom of the Opera", "Anything but Lonely", and "Amigos Para Siempre ". The album was re-released in Japan with a different cover and peaked #242 in the Oricon charts.
"Barcelona" is a single released by Queen vocalist Freddie Mercury and operatic soprano Montserrat Caballé. A part of their collaborative album Barcelona, it also appeared on Queen's Greatest Hits III.
"Vivo per lei" is a 1995 song recorded by Italian artist Andrea Bocelli as duet with Giorgia Todrani for his album Bocelli. The song was also released as a duet with other female artists, including Marta Sánchez in Spanish and Latin American countries; Hélène Ségara in francophone countries; Judy Weiss in German-speaking countries; Sandy in Brazilian Portuguese; and Bonnie Tyler in English under the title "Live for Love", though due to record company disputes their version was never released.
Para Siempre is the 79th studio album released by Mexican singer Vicente Fernández on September 18, 2007, by Sony BMG Norte. Written and produced by Joan Sebastian, and co-produced by Jesús Rincón, the album was met with instant success. It has sold two million units worldwide, and is one of the best-selling albums by Fernández. It spawned four hit singles: "Estos Celos", "La Derrota", "Un Millón de Primaveras", and the title track, the latter of which was used as the main theme to the telenovela Fuego En La Sangre, which brought the wider exposure to the album and helped it to stay on charts for over two years. It was named the best-selling Regional Mexican Album of the decade by Billboard magazine.
Friends for Life may refer to:
The opening ceremony of the 1992 Summer Olympics took place on the evening of Saturday 25 July 1992 at Estadi Olímpic de Montjuïc, Barcelona, Spain, during which the Games were formally opened by King Juan Carlos I. As mandated by the Olympic Charter, the proceedings combined the formal and ceremonial opening of this international sporting event, including welcoming speeches, hoisting of the flags and the parade of athletes, with an artistic spectacle to showcase the host nation's culture and history.
Amigos Para Siempre is a live album from Australian vocal group The Ten Tenors with the RTVE Symphony Orchestra. The album was recorded live in Madrid, Spain in August 2009 and released as a CD/DVD set across Europe and Australia.