History

Fronted by Amaia Montero (1996-2007)

The band was formed under the provisional name Los Sin Nombre (Those Without a Name) in 1996 by four college students from San Sebastián: Xabi San Martín (keyboard), Pablo Benegas (guitar), Álvaro Fuentes (bass guitar) and Haritz Garde (drums). They recorded covers of songs from international rock bands, such as U2, Pearl Jam and Nirvana, usually with San Martín providing lead vocals.

When they switched to composing their own songs, they decided that a female singer would fit better, and so started to look for an appropriate vocalist. They met Amaia Montero at a friend's party, and after listening to her sing "Nothing Compares 2 U" by Sinéad O'Connor, Benegas convinced her to join the group. She subsequently became the lead singer and frontperson of the band until her departure in 2007. After several meetings in local cafés, Montero suggested La Oreja de Van Gogh (Van Gogh's Ear) as the definitive name of the band, inspired by the story of Vincent Van Gogh severing one of his ears.

The band first rose to prominence when it won a local pop-rock music festival in San Sebastian, giving the group the chance to record a 4-song EP. This encouraged the band to send some of their songs to major record companies, with Sony Music-scout Jennifer Ces being the first one interested in the band after listening to only one of the band's songs. She urged them to send her more of their songs to see if they had enough material for an LP. After composing and submitting over 20 tracks in a very short period of time, Ces reacted very positively and signed the band to Epic Records, a subsidiary of Sony. Manolo Moreno, one of Epic's managers at the time, reportedly said after listening to some of the band's material: "This is the new Mecano".

In 1998, La Oreja de Van Gogh released its debut album Dile al sol (Tell the Sun), produced by Alejo Stivel, earning high praise from contemporary critics and performing extremely well in the Spanish Albums Chart. The album sold more than 800,000 copies and was certified 7-time platinum, and the band received an Ondas Award for Best New Act.

The success of the band was further increased with the release of El viaje de Copperpot (Copperpot's Journey, a reference to the character Chester Copperpot from the movie The Goonies) in 2000 and Lo que te conté mientras te hacías la dormida (What I Told You While You Pretended to Be Asleep) in 2003. Both albums were produced by Nigel Walker and managed to sell more than 2 million copies worldwide each, establishing La Oreja de Van Gogh as one of the most popular bands in Spain as well as in Latin America. El viaje de Copperpot was certified diamond in Spain for shipments of over 1,000,000, and singles "La Playa" ("The Beach"), "Puedes Contar Conmigo" ("You Can Count on Me") and "Rosas" ("Roses"), amongst others, were international hits in most Spanish-speaking countries.

In 2006, the band released what would be its fourth and last studio album with Amaia Montero. Guapa (Beautiful) was the best-selling album of 2006 in Spain and won a Latin Grammy for Best Pop Album by a Duo or Group and a 40 Principales Award for Best Spanish Album. Singles "Muñeca de Trapo" ("Rag Doll") and "Dulce Locura" ("Sweet Madness") were also very successful, peaking at number 1 in many charts, including the Mexican Singles Chart and the Argentinian Charts. Late in the same year, the band re-released the album as a new edition called Más Guapa (More Beautiful), which included a second CD with tracks made for but cut from all of the band's albums since 1998, including both unreleased songs and some alternative versions of previously-released tracks. One of the former was released as a single, "En Mi Lado del Sofá" ("On My Side of the Sofa"), which has since become La Oreja de Van Gogh's last single before changing its line-up.

Fronted by Leire Martínez (2007-present)

In 2007, Amaia Montero left the group and Xabi, Pablo, Álvaro and Haritz held an audition looking for a new vocalist. In July 2008 they presented Leire Martínez as the new vocalist and the new song "El Último Vals" as the first single of their new album A las cinco en el Astoria (At Five O'Clock At the Astoria).

In 2009, they released Nuestra casa a la izquierda del tiempo (Our home on the left of time), which consisted of rerecordings of their older songs with Martinez, the new vocalist, plus one traditional song.

Their next studio album proper was Cometas por el cielo (Kites in the sky), released in 2011, with the first single sharing the name of the album.

In 2013, they released a new album called Primera Fila (First Row), a live recording of previous songs as well as some new tracks including the single El Primer Día del Resto de mi Vida (The First Day of the Rest of my Life).

Discography

Main article: La Oreja de Van Gogh discography

Studio albums

• 1998: Dile al sol
• 2000: El viaje de Copperpot
• 2003: Lo que te conté mientras te hacías la dormida
• 2006: Guapa/Más guapa
• 2008: A las cinco en el Astoria
• 2011: Cometas por el cielo

Compilations

• 2003: La Oreja de Van Gogh - Gira 2003
• 2004: París
• 2006: LOVG 1996-2006
• 2008: LOVG - Grandes éxitos
• 2009: Nuestra casa a la izquierda del tiempo

Filmography

• 1999: Dile al sol - VHS
• 2002: El viaje de Copperpot - VHS & DVD
• 2003: Lo que te conté mientras te hacías la dormida, Gira 2003 CD+DVD
• 2010: Un viaje por el Mar Muerto, their first full-length feature film, which was filmed in Israel in collaboration with other artists. Included as a bonus disc in the special edition of Nuestra casa a la izquierda del tiempo.
• 2012: Cometas por el Cielo- En directo desde America: Second CD-DVD filmed in Mexico and in Argentina.

Tours

• 1999-2000: Dile al Sol Tour
• 2001-2002: El Viaje de Copperpot Tour
• 2003: Gira Movistar Activa
• 2003-2005: Lo que te conté mientras te hacías la dormida Tour
• 2006-2007: Guapa Seat Tour
• 2007: Gira LKXA
• 2009: A las cinco en el Astoria Tour
• 2009: Juntos e Inolvidable Tour
• 2009 - 2010: Nuestra casa a la izquierda del tiempo

Songs for other artists

• "Ni Una Sola Palabra" - Paulina Rubio
• "Amores Dormidos" - Edurne
• "Qué Va A Ser" - Fran Perea
• "Adelante" - Naiara

El Primer Dia Sin Ti - Danna Paola

[ Source: Wikipedia ]