The Gipsy Kings 25th Anniversary Tour at Florida Theatre

The Gipsy Kings, France’s most successful group of all time, known for bringing their progressive and virtuosic flamenco pop to the mainstream, will perform at the Florida Theatre on Friday, May 16, 2014 at 8pm following the release of Savor Flamenco, their ninth studio album.

Savor Flamenco is the group’s first new recording in seven years and marks twenty-five years since the group first captured the world’s imagination with their self-titled debut album, featuring worldwide hit “Bamboléo.”

The band’s vigorous guitar work and passionate vocals are the trademark of an indigenous musical tradition known as Rumba Gitano. The Rumba – which originated in Africa – traveled from Zaire via the slave trade to Cuba and the New World, then back to Barcelona, where it was adopted by the Gypsies. There are no other examples of a non-English speaking band (the group’s language is the Gypsy dialect of gitane) with such a consistent winning streak in the US, where the group is the biggest-selling French act ever. The platinum compilation The Best of the Gipsy Kings charted for more than a year and their music has been used in numerous motion pictures, including Peter Weir’s “Fearless” and Joel and Ethan Coen’s “The Big Lebowski”.