Gabriel Ríos
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Gabriel Ríos (b. San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1978) is a Puerto Rican musician currently residing in, and working out of, Belgium.
Biography
As a child Ríos was member of his church choir, and in addition to this early exposure to music his father also taught him to play the guitar. After finishing his studies at the Academia del Perpetuo Socorro high school in 1996, he moved to Ghent, Belgium to live with his girlfriend, whom he had met while she was on holiday in Puerto Rico. For a short time he also lived in Los Angeles. In Ghent he joined the art academy, eventually deciding on becoming a professional singer/songwriter although still being interested in painting.
Rios started off in Puerto Rico with the he created called "Los Mimes". He later founded the band The Nothing Bastards, and a few years later the more Latin inspired L. Santo. Alas!. His debut solo album, titled Ghostboy, was released in 2004, followed by his live album En vivo one year later. He has garnered considerable solo success in Belgium, even being chosen "Best Belgian Singer" by readers of the Flemish weekly Humo in 2006. Early 2007, he released his latest album "Angelhead" (named after the 1980s British band).
His music is a mix of different styles: rock, punk, hip hop, and salsa. Since 2006 he's dating Belgian supermodel, Delfine Bafort.
Of Note
His song Broad Daylight was used by the late Dutch film director Theo van Gogh in the film 06/05 (concerning the assassination of Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn). After the assassination of van Gogh, Ríos and his band performed at a last party held in his honor, because they were his favorite band.
In 2006, Ríos and Michael Franti contributed their voices to a project by Flip Kowlier, which involved a cover of the song What's This? from the stop-motion movie The Nightmare Before Christmas by Tim Burton. This single was released as a fund raiser for a benefit action against landmines, organized by the Belgian popular radio station Studio Brussel.
