Raul Malo passed away a few weeks ago at age 60 after a long battle with cancer. He is one of many musicians we lost in 2025. His work as a singer, songwriter, and guitarist with The Mavericks and his solo work spanned many musical genres, including country, Latin, pop, and the American songbook. He covered just about everything in his shows.
He had a classic Miami accent. Like many in Miami, his family had exchanged life in Cuba for Miami-Dade County. While growing up, his family listened to all kinds of popular, Latin, country, and classic American music. After beginning his musical career in South Florida, he eventually gravitated toward the capital of country music, Nashville, Tennessee.
The Mavericks had many country hits, including “Here Comes the Rain.”
For those of you who didn’t make it out dancing for New Year’s Eve, here is “Dance the Night Away.” Feel free to dance in your kitchen.
And not everyone enters the new year without a teardrop, “It Only Hurts When I Cry.”
And looking back to 2025 and forward to 2026, here is “For the Good Times.”
And if you have regrets on New Year’s, “What a Crying Shame.”
Here he is singing a song from the American Songbook during the quarantine, “Moonglow.”
His modeling hashtag for this classic was “Der Bingle,” and his version.
Here is a cover of the Roy Orbison classic, “Crying.”
And if you are taking a holiday cruise, here is a little Latin flavor,” Sabor a Mi.”
In a jam-packed Royal Albert Hall, here is a fun triple play. His song “I Don’t Care,” “Swinging Safari,” and a fine version of the folk classic “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.”
And if you have been unlucky in love last year, “There Goes My Heart.”
What can you say when Nashville meets Havana in Miami, but maybe, “Quizás Quizás Quizás.”
Ah, lost love: “Think of Me (When You Are Lonely).”
Looking back at the old year who can’t say, “Life Has Its Little Ups and Downs”?Indeed it does.
In a fun interview with Country singer Clint Black, Malo was asked if he got to heaven, what song, and what performer he would like to play him. Without missing a beat, he answered: Louis Armstrong, singing “La Vie En Rose.”
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Here is Raul doing his version of “La Vie En Rose.”
Well, after his two-year battle with debilitating cancer, a purgatory on earth for sure, perhaps here is what he has or will hear from the great Satchmo. Maybe they even mugged it up a little and did a duet, unless Bing joined in for a trio. RIP, Raul Malo.
And if you are up for more, here are The Mavericks in a tiny desk concert, in 2022. Here are “Back In Your Arms Again”, “Mujer,” and “Come Unto Me.”
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