Released February 15, 1994 (CD) Length 4:33 | Genre Candombe Label Sony Music | |
Recorded August 1993 in A&M Studios, Los Angeles, California Writer(s) Vicentico (Gabriel Julio Fernandez Capello) | ||
"Matador" (Spanish for "Killer", it means "bullfighter" in Spain) is a song written and sung by Gabriel Julio Fernandez Capello (aka Vicentico), the lead singer of Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, a rock band from Argentina. It was first released in their 1993 album Vasos Vacíos and it is considered their signature song since the song topped the charts all across Latin America.
Alongside "Mal Bicho", "Manuel Santillan, El León" and "Desapariciones" (a cover of Rubén Blades' song), El Matador is one of the Cadillacs song about the oppression and forced disappearances during the years of military dictatorship across Latin America, particularly National Reorganization Process in Argentina. The song narrates the story of a revolutionary ("El Matador") hunted down by law enforcement from the revolutionary's POV. The song also references Víctor Jara, a Chilean folksinger and supporter of the Allende government who was kidnapped, tortured and assassinated shortly after the Chilean coup of 1973 by military officials loyal to the dictator Augusto Pinochet.
In popular culture
This song is played when Nicaraguan boxer Ricardo "El Matador" Mayorga walks to the ring.
"El Matador" was the intro song for #1 tennis player in the world Rafael Nadal in the 2010 US Open Night Sessions.
This song is part of the soundtrack of the movie The Matador. This song is used in the movie Grosse Pointe Blank and is on the soundtrack as well.