Johnny Rodrigues

João Rodrigues was born in Cape Verde. In the beginning of the 1970s, as Portugal was a colony of Cape Verde for five more years, Rodrigues was not stationed in Angola as the colony was in the Portuguese Colonial war, his family immigrated to the Univers States.. In 1974, he went on vacation to the Netherlands and adopted the English form of the first name and played as a DJ at the discothèque Ma Belle Amie in Scheveningen. Peter Tetteroo, owner of the disco discovered Rodrigues and chose to make a single. Not long after in 1975, he started producing songs including "Hey mal yo" which would be the first single made by a Cape Verdean to reach the Dutch chart and the Flemish charts of neighbouring Belgium, the single was the adaptation of the Portuguese folk dance O Malhão (pre-1990s spelling Ó Malhão). On the Dutch charts it remained for twelve weeks. When his "orchestra" appeared on stage, he stood along on stage. The second nickname is orquesta which is Spanish for orchestra, the Portuguese name is "orquestra". His two remaining singles were not as successful as his first, Hasbaba (1975) reached number 19 but number 24 in the national Hit Parade and "Uma casa portuguesa" (1977), a cover of a single by Amália Rodrigues reached number 31 and remained for just three weeks.

Musical legacy

In 2001, "Hey mal yo" was the 1,998th single in Radio 2's Top 2000 and the 883rd single in 2004.

Singles

Radio 2 Top 2000 annual charts