His response is very humble, like him, but the truth is that that day, when Alci Acosta began to sing with Catalina García, from Monsieur Periné, the audience erupted in applause. It was not all: he accompanied him in his songs with verses or choruses. I mean, he wasn’t a stranger. He may not be the favorite of the attendees, but his songs were in the sound memory of the large number of young people who are the main clients of the Estéreo Pícnic.
“People accepted me very well, without exaggerating there were 7,000 to 8,000 people. That filled me with great pride. We did so supremely well with my boleros that my worry and fear quickly passed”.
His list of successes is long. Includes, among others, ‘Gypsy Hate’, ‘Two Roses’, ‘The Last Kiss’, ‘The Broken Cup’ and ‘Sing Sing Jail’. The latter was even heard in the Peruvian film ‘Pantaleon and the visitors’.
For a little over a year, the maestro Alci Acosta, who will be 85 years old this 2023, announced his retirement. And on his farewell tour he arrives in Bogotá. He will perform on July 8 at Cielito Lindo, in the west of the city.
“My employers and I have planned to say goodbye slowly, not with as much intensity as before, because right now my physical condition unfortunately does not allow it,” he says. He adds that he previously averaged eight monthly concerts, “today there are three, maximum four”.
This tour not only includes Colombia, “also Europe, the United States, Ecuador, where I am very loved, and San Salvador, but logically in our beloved country there will be several cities that I will visit. In addition to Bogotá, Medellín, Barranquilla, Cali, Villavicencio… They are big shows that cannot be done so often, so they will have an interval of a month and a half, ”he says.
Although he has been active in music since 1957, his solo career began in 1965, when he recorded ‘Odio gitano’. He later did duets with Julio Jaramillo and Olimpo Cárdenas, and became the referents of the so-called bolero of spite.
Very quickly it became known in Venezuela, Peru, Chile and Ecuador. And over the years he made the big leap to Europe, “which was my great desire. France was the first country I visited and it went extremely well. From there we traveled to Spain, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and England. I can’t complain about that.”
Acosta traveled a lot, had multiple performances and sacrificed many things: “For that and unfortunately, I neglected my three children a bit when they were little. Practically my late wife, Ruth Agudelo, was mom and dad because I would come home two, three days and I would fulfill my commitments”.
Of his children, Checo followed in his footsteps, but not his musical genre. “Since he was a child he leaned towards the ballad, and I did not suggest that he sing my own. At the time he discovered his talent for tropical music and it has given him very good results. There was no need for him to do the same as me.”.
Moose with Acosta on top.
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“I will spend it here, quietly in my house, next to my great-grandson who lives with me, my granddaughter who takes care of me a lot, a lady who is the housewife. From time to time I will go out there to do some special things, but more than anything I will be with my people, in my home. What I could not do with my children because I was working, I want to do with my grandchildren and great-grandchildren”.
Today, looking back, he says: “I am grateful to my career, to the people who, for 58 years, have followed me and continue to appreciate me, applauding, attending my presentations.”
And speaking of his favorite artists, he says that he was always faithful to “la Sonora Matancera and to all the singers who passed through there, especially those who sang boleros, such as Daniel Santos, Leo Marini, Bienvenido Granda, Celio González, our countryman Nelson Pinedo, Alberto Beltran.
However, on the subject of bolero, he is a follower of the Venezuelan singer Felipe Pirela. “I’ve admired him since I could remember and I still do,” he says.
Alci Acosta, his particular and educated voice and his piano are in the Latin American songbook that will never be forgotten. He can stop singing, but his boleros are part of the memory.
