Mayte Mateos
Spanish singer (born 1951)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
María Teresa "Mayte" Mateos Guillén[1] (born 7 February 1951), also known as Mayte Matée in the late 1980s,[1] is a Spanish singer, teacher, actress, dancer, and painter.[1] Along with the late María Mendiola, she is known as one half of the Spanish musical duo Baccara, which achieved international success in 1977, with their debut single "Yes Sir, I Can Boogie".
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7 February 1951
- Singer
- songwriter
- dancer
Early life
Mateos was born in Logroño,[1] which was then part of Old Castile. She pursued a career in the Performing arts industry. Later on, she worked for the Spanish Television ballet company for four years, where she met María Mendiola.[2]
Career
Early career
In 1976, Mendiola proposed to Mateos the formation of a separate musical duo that involved singing and dancing, under the name "Venus".[2] It was inspired by the popular Kessler Twins and with Paco Bermúdez as their representative.[3] The pair thus left the ballet company and made their first television appearance with this stage name, on Enrique Martí Maqueda's program Palmarés.[4]
The pair were engaged at a nightclub in the Aragon city of Zaragoza, which was a failed attempt to perform at the Cancela venue, when their contract was cancelled by the club manager, who thought that they were "too elegant" for the style of the show.[2] They then relocated to the Canary Islands in search of work. Whilst there, they found that there was an audience for the performance of traditional Spanish music and dance, in a form that was adapted to suit international tastes.
Baccara (1977–1981)
In January 1977, Mendiola asked her husband, who was at the time managing the Tres Islas hotel in Fuerteventura, to perform there. Their performance was seen by Leon Deane, manager of the German subsidiary of record company RCA and other executives from the record label, who were staying at the hotel.[5] The duo was invited to Hamburg by Deane, to do a voice test. After the test recording in the studio, they signed a record deal with RCA.[5] The duo was then renamed from "Venus" to "Baccara" after the type of dark-red roses. Their signature appearance was created by Deane, for all of their performances, Mateos would dress in black, whereas Mendiola would dress in white.[5]
In 1977, the writer Frank Dostal and Rolf Soja penned their debut single (and other Baccara songs) "Yes Sir, I Can Boogie", achieved international success. It also became popular across Europe, which resulted in it becoming their sole number one single in the United Kingdom, spending an entire week at the top of the UK singles chart in October 1977. The song has produced 16 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling singles of all time.[1][6] It was also featured in the 1977 edition of the Guinness Book of Records as the female musical duo with the highest number of sales with a single.[7] They were the first female duo to reach number one in the UK, and the first Spanish act to do so, followed by Julio Iglesias four years later.
