Enrique el Mellizo

Together with Silverio Franconetti and Antonio Chacón, he is considered to be one of the most important figures in the development of flamenco.

He inherited his father's profession, and performed only occasionally in the cafés cantante in Cádiz, refusing to become a professional.

According to tradition, he created that malagueña style after a love disappointment in which he fell into one of his periods of solitary wandering.

According to the opinion of critics, it was Enrique el Mellizo who first sang the malagueña as a cante libre, that is, without a definite metre or rhythmic regular pattern.

Other contributions that are attributed to him (mostly based on oral tradition and unproved) are the following: ÁLVAREZ CABALLERO, Ángel "Enrique el Mellizo, un gigante" in El cante flamenco, Alianza Editorial, Madrid, 1998 MARTIN SALAZAR, Jorge: Los cantes flamencos, Diputación provincial de Granada