Vidal Colmenares was born on February 14, 1952 in Caño de Indio, a neighborhood in Barinas

Barinas (state)

Barinas State is one of the 23 states into which Venezuela is divided. The state capital is Barinas. Current President Hugo Chávez was born in this state...

, deep inside the llanos

Llanos

The Llanos is a vast tropical grassland plain situated to the east of the Andes in Colombia and Venezuela, in northwestern South America. It is an ecoregion of the Flooded grasslands and savannas Biome....

.

When he was 15 years old, started to sing parrandas llaneras in his home town. He recorded his first album at age 25, including two pasajes llaneros: his Mujer ambiciosa (Ambitious woman) and Amor Indolente (Indolent love), lyrics written by him and music made by Sergio Aranguren, a harpist who accompanied him. He became known thanks to La voz de Apure, a broadcasting station from San Fernando de Apure

San Fernando de Apure

San Fernando de Apure is a city in Apure State in Venezuela. The population of the municipality area is 175,056 . The 18th century exports included heron feathers and animal hides....

, where there was a show sponsored by Almacenes El Topacio, and conducted by Freddy Ibañez in 1977.

He obtained the second place in the San Martin Festival in Colombia

Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

, with a new golpe (including his lyrics); and was the winner of a local festival in Papelón, a town in Portuguesa

Portuguesa (state)

Portuguesa State is one of the 23 states of Venezuela.The state capital is Guanare, founded in 1591.Portuguesa State covers a total surface area of 15,200 km² and, in 2007, had an estimated population of 873,400.-Municipalities:...

, Venezuela

Venezuela

Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...

, with other of his compositions, in 1994. He was elected as president of the Festival Internacional de Música llanera El Silbón in 1998, and as permanent member of the organizing board of the foundation that manages the festival, has been Director of Culture of the Municipality of Guanarito, Portuguesa state

Portuguesa (state)

Portuguesa State is one of the 23 states of Venezuela.The state capital is Guanare, founded in 1591.Portuguesa State covers a total surface area of 15,200 km² and, in 2007, had an estimated population of 873,400.-Municipalities:...

. He is living Patrimony of Guanarito (thanks to a decree from the Municipality), the town where he lives.

He stars as Florentino in the play of Venezuelan poet Alberto Arvelo Torrealba

Alberto Arvelo Torrealba

Alberto Arvelo Torrealba , was a Venezuelan lawyer, educator and folklorical poet. Author of .Torrealba was born in Barinas. But in his youth, he moved to Caracas where he studied high school, and attended the Central University of Venezuela...

: La Leyenda de Florentino y el Diablo (The legend of Florentino and the Devil). He has travel around the country, and visited Colombia

Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

 and Cuba

Cuba

The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...

 with this play. Colmenares has been in Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

: Seville Expo '92

Seville Expo '92

The Universal Exposition of Seville took place from Monday, April 20 to Monday, October 12, 1992 on La Isla de La Cartuja , Seville, Spain. The theme for the Expo was "The Age of Discovery" and over 100 countries were represented...

, Tenerife

Tenerife

Tenerife is the largest and most populous island of the seven Canary Islands, it is also the most populated island of Spain, with a land area of 2,034.38 km² and 906,854 inhabitants, 43% of the total population of the Canary Islands. About five million tourists visit Tenerife each year, the...

, Madrid

Madrid

Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

, Barcelona

Barcelona

Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...

 and Vigo

Vigo

Vigo is a city and municipality in north-west Spain, in Galicia, situated on the ria of the same name on the Atlantic Ocean.-Population:...

. He has been in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, Champaign, Illinois

Champaign, Illinois

Champaign is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, in the United States. The city is located south of Chicago, west of Indianapolis, Indiana, and 178 miles northeast of St. Louis, Missouri. Though surrounded by farm communities, Champaign is notable for sharing the campus of the University of...

, Saint Vincent

Saint Vincent (island)

Saint Vincent is a volcanic island in the Caribbean. It is the largest island of the chain called Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. It is located in the Caribbean Sea, between Saint Lucia and Grenada. It is composed of partially submerged volcanic mountains...

, Curaçao

Curaçao

Curaçao is an island in the southern Caribbean Sea, off the Venezuelan coast. The Country of Curaçao , which includes the main island plus the small, uninhabited island of Klein Curaçao , is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands...

, Aruba

Aruba

Aruba is a 33 km-long island of the Lesser Antilles in the southern Caribbean Sea, located 27 km north of the coast of Venezuela and 130 km east of Guajira Peninsula...

, Port of Spain

Port of Spain

Port of Spain, also written as Port-of-Spain, is the capital of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago and the country's third-largest municipality, after San Fernando and Chaguanas. The city has a municipal population of 49,031 , a metropolitan population of 128,026 and a transient daily population...

, and French Guyana; in the Cultural Festival of the Unesco in Quito

Quito

San Francisco de Quito, most often called Quito , is the capital city of Ecuador in northwestern South America. It is located in north-central Ecuador in the Guayllabamba river basin, on the eastern slopes of Pichincha, an active stratovolcano in the Andes mountains...

 (Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...

), and Medellín

Medellín

Medellín , officially the Municipio de Medellín or Municipality of Medellín, is the second largest city in Colombia. It is in the Aburrá Valley, one of the more northerly of the Andes in South America. It has a population of 2.3 million...

 (Colombia

Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

).

Discography

• 1980: Acompañando al arpa (With Pedro Catro. Producer: Rafael Salazar)
• 1988: A Capanaparo (Producer: José María Marín)
• 1990: La otra música del llano (With Los Cabestreros. Producer: CONAC)
• 1997: La Leyenda de Florentino y el Diablo (With Los Cabestreros. Producer: Portuguesa State Government)
• 2006: Otro llano (Producer: Bob Abreu/Cacao Música)

See also

• Venezuela
  Venezuela
  Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
  
  
• Venezuelan music