Tongo (entertainer)

Abelardo Gutiérrez Alanya (born 24 September 1957), known by his nickname "Tongo", is a Peruvian singer-songwriter and actor. He began his music career in 1980 as a singer of Peruvian cumbia, a type of popular music. Tongo was largely unknown outside of his musical niche (traditionally of the lower class) until his song "La pituca", whose theme focuses on social status and inequality, attained national notability at the start of the twenty-first century. In 2010, Peruvian newspaper El Comercio listed Tongo as one of the most popular artists in Peruvian show business.^[1]

An important part of Tongo's success has been his amiable relationship with the Peruvian mainstream media and willingness to use his popularity towards commercial advertisements and political campaigns. His tumultuous friendship with Emmy Award-winning writer and journalist Jaime Bayly proved particularly crucial for Tongo's rise to fame, as he became a regular guest in Bayly's television program in Peru. In the realm of politics, aside from promoting Bayly's election to the presidency with the song "Jaime para presidente",^[2] Tongo unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2005 and caused controversy (and a strain in his friendship with Bayly) when he participated in Lourdes Flores Nano's 2010 campaign for the mayorship of Lima.^[3]

Tongo's national stardom reached its peak in 2008, when he released a purposely goofy English version of "La pituca". The song, notorious for its orthographical errors and erroneous verse translations, surpassed the popularity of the original and even became a YouTube hit.^[4] Since then, he has continued to entice the public with intentionally comedic cover versions of mainstream songs, including "Ai Se Eu Te Pego", Justin Bieber's "Baby", and Psy's "Gangnam Style".

Musical career

2010–present

In 2011, after a few years without recording any new major hits, Tongo made a cover version for The Beatles' song "Let it Be". Under the title of "Lady bi", the song was Tongo's first cover version of a song in English.^[5] That same year he performed it at Peru's Teleton. Nonetheless, Tongo's major success for 2011 was his cover version of the popular Justin Bieber song "Baby". The cover became an instant internet sensation, and aided in Tongo's return to major popular music venues in Peru.^[6][7] In October of that year, Latin Grammy-award winning singer-songwriter Gian Marco Zignago in a light-hearted Facebook message congratulated the singer for his new hit cover (Spanish: "Ayyyy! Tongo, Tongo, Tongo! tú eres el único en este planeta que puede hacer este tipo de cosas! jajajajaja! un éxito!! jajajajaja!").^[8] Both songs followed the trend of "La pituca (en Ingles)" in that they deliberately used verbally incorrect English.

Personal life

In 2010, Jaime Bayly announced that he would make Tongo the godfather of his third child. The singer reacted positively to the announcement and, proclaiming himself an oracle, predicted the child would be a male and future player of Sporting Cristal.^[9]

In 2011, Tongo dedicated a song to the Pisco Sour amidst celebrations for the cocktail's national holiday. The singer declared, "Pisco is ours and the Pisco Sour as well. This Saturday, we must defend and celebrate as it should be done. Nonetheless, everything with moderation: if you celebrate, do not drive" ("El pisco es nuestro y el pisco sour también. Debemos de defender y festejar como se debe este sábado. Ojo, pero todo con moderación: si celebra, no maneje").^[10]

References