page_title: Abel Pintos
section_title: Early career and Para cantar he nacido (1984–1998)
hierarchical_section_title: Abel Pintos / Biography / Early career and Para cantar he nacido (1984–1998)
caption_attribution_description: English: Abel Pinto's logo
context_page_description: Abel Pintos, is an Argentinian singer-songwriter. He started his solo career at the age of 13 with his album Para cantar he nacido, supported financially by León Gieco. After the release of four studio albums, he started writing his own songs that marked a departure from his folk style.
  He rose to prominence with La llave, although the CD and DVD Sueño dorado, which marked fifteen years in the music industry, was his best-selling record of 2012. Along with artists such as Soledad Pastorutti and Luciano Pereyra, Pintos has been dubbed as a promising rising star of Argentinian folk music.
  He was awarded the Gold Gardel prize for his CD and DVD Sueño Dorado.
context_section_description: Abel Federico Pintos was born in Buenos Aires Province on May 11, 1984, in the city of Bahía Blanca, but was brought up in Cutra Có, Neuquén Province. He made his first steps into music at the age of 7, when he was chosen to sing at a commemoration event for José de San Martín taking place at his school. In the audience was a representative from the municipal government who, impressed by his voice, invited Pintos to sing at another event commemorating the founding of Ingeniero White, his town in the south of Buenos Aires province. He performed three songs at this event: one by Víctor Heredia, another by León Gieco, and the third by Horacio Guarany. Following this performance he started to gain recognition, and launched his musical career thereafter. His early career was boosted by a string of lucky breaks: first, tango singer Raúl Lavié travelled to Bahía Blanca on a tour called Tango en la Bahía ("Tango by the bay"), where he heard Pintos sing. On that day, Pintos had a demo-tape of his recordings and gave it to Lavié who in turn handed it on to Pity Iñurrigarro, then producer for León Gieco. Iñurrigarro organised a record deal with Sony Music through his producer Abraxas.
  Pintos then went to Buenos Aires, where he was personally introduced to León Gieco, who then supported him and produced his first release. Para cantar he nacido ("I Was Born To Sing") became the title of his first record which he made during the month of March in the ION studios, consisting of 18 covers of popular songs by artists such as Horacio Banegas, Carlos Carabajal, Peteco Carabajal, Raúl Carnota, Atahualpa Yupanqui, César Isella and Bebe Ponti. The album's leading single was the title track of Para canter he nacido, for which he received awards at Argentina's most prestigious folk music festivals. Pintos commented himself that his debut album was replete with expectations, anxiety and "excesses of adrenaline". While retrospectively he sees it as an album that was not recorded hastily, he has since acknowledged that his approach to recording an album has changed since Para cantar he nacido.
   
  At the 38th Cosquín Festival, Pintos was granted the opportunity to perform three times on the festival's main stage. The first occasion was on January 28, where he sang three songs from his first album. The first of these was "Cuando llegue el alba" ("When Dawn Comes") (which he performed as a duet with León Gieco), the second was "El 180", and the final was the lead single of "Para cantar he nacido".  His performance met with positive reception from the crowd, at which point he was invited by the festival's organisers to perform twice more, on January 31 and then February 1. It was on this day that he received the "special mention" from the folk music commission, and the Gold Award of the Cosquín Festival, presented to up-and-coming artists by the Argentinian Society of Authors and Songwriters (SADAIC).
caption: Abel Pintos' official logo
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