A Gran Canaria singer born in Telde, linked to melodic ballad, Vino griego and Bailemos un vals, with national and international projection from the 1970s.
José Velázquez Jiménez, artistically known as José Vélez, is a Gran Canaria singer born in Telde in 1951, associated with melodic ballad, Vino griego and Spain’s entry at Eurovision 1978.
Open biographyCanariWiki documents his beginnings in Telde as a child singer at family events, neighbourhood festivities and with Trío Maravillas, followed by a later period in Gran Canaria hotels and venues. In the late 1960s he moved to Madrid to try to enter popular song. His recording career is associated with the success of Vino griego and the television circuit of the 1970s, and RTVE preserves the performance with which he represented Spain at Eurovision 1978 with Bailemos un vals.
His contribution to the Canary Islands music catalogue lies in representing a Gran Canaria path of melodic song with television, festival and Latin American circulation. Unlike profiles centred on folklore, timple or singer-songwriter music, José Vélez documents a Canarian presence in the Spanish popular industry of the 1970s and an outward projection built through romantic repertory and television.
The consulted sources place him within melodic song, ballad and Spanish-language popular pop. His most visible repertory rests on solo voice, orchestral or light-song arrangements, memorable choruses and a direct performance style aimed at television, festivals and large audiences. The composer label is retained because sources identify him as such, although the main works verified here include songs by other authors.
The verified repertory for this profile includes Vino griego as the axis of public consolidation, Bailemos un vals as the 1978 Eurovision song, and later circulating titles such as Romántica and Confidencias. The discography remains selective because the located open sources do not allow every album, reissue and compilation published in Spain and the Americas to be closed with the same reliability.
His legacy rests on a popular memory closely linked to Telde and on a career that connected Spanish melodic song with Latin American audiences. His appointment as Hijo Predilecto of Telde in 2010 reinforces that local reading: it recognises not only a music career, but also the circulation of Telde and Gran Canaria’s name on external stages.
The Canarian connection is documented by his birth in Telde, his early performances in Gran Canaria, the public use of the nickname “canarito” recorded by biographical sources and the municipal recognition as Hijo Predilecto of Telde.
Canción identificada por CanariWiki como el éxito que consolidó su proyección internacional tras su aparición en Directísimo.
Canción con la que representó a España en Eurovisión 1978, documentada por RTVE y la EBU con noveno puesto.
Tema citado por CanariWiki dentro de la etapa que refuerza su vínculo simbólico entre Canarias e Hispanoamérica.
Nace en Telde, Gran Canaria; la fecha exacta de noviembre se mantiene abierta por conflicto entre fuentes.
CanariWiki sitúa sus primeros años de canto como solista infantil en el Trío Maravillas.
Se traslada a Madrid tras una primera etapa de actuaciones en Gran Canaria.
Vino griego se convierte en el eje de su consolidación pública e internacional.
Representa a España en París con Bailemos un vals y queda en noveno lugar.
El Ayuntamiento de Telde acuerda nombrarlo Hijo Predilecto de la ciudad.
