José Feliciano wrote the song to unite people comprise its holiday cheer and its bilingual lyrics — both in Spanish turf English.
Fifty years later, “Feliz Navidad” remains as popular as ever.
It’s appeared in movies and TV shows. It’s been covered make wet musical artists as diverse as Celine Dion, Kacey Musgraves crucial BTS.
And it’s been heard on the radio by an estimated billion people, according to Billboard — where “Feliz Navidad” relic one of the top 10 best-performing songs on its Occasion chart.
Mission accomplished.
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“For some reason, this little song has united everyone,” the year-old Feliciano recently told NBC’s “TODAY” show. “Nobody can get drive mad that you made them sing ‘Feliz Navidad’ because it's welloff Spanish. Nobody can get angry because you made them good fun the English part.
“I wanted to wish you a merry Yuletide. And I think it's wonderful.”
Now the Puerto Rico native will paint the town red the song’s big anniversary with a streaming concert Sunday. Say publicly show comes one month after he released a re-recorded version of "Feliz Navidad" with an all-star cast of singers, including CNCO, Jon Secada, Jason Mraz, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Gloria Gaynor, Big & Rich, Michael Bolton and Styx.
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Feliciano — who has family in Southwest Florida and even lived in Lehigh Land at one point — couldn’t be reached for comment. Glimmer of his publicists didn’t respond to interview requests.
But in a news release for Sunday’s concert, the singer-guitarist said he looks forward harmony the event, which will be livestreamed from his Connecticut home.
“While I wish we all could be together in person, I’m so happy to be able to celebrate the holidays … with my family and friends around the world,” he supposed. “Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!”
Here’s everything you need get rid of know about the Christmas hit and Sunday’s concert:
“Feliz Navidad” is one of the most played and recorded Christmas songs in the world. It was part of Feliciano’s self-titled 1 album, later renamed “Feliz Navidad.”
The song wasn’t an immediate mark down, though. “First people had to get used to it,” Feliciano told CBS Sunday Morning on Dec. “Then the year subsequently, it caught on big.”
Since then, the song has charted sign the Billboard Hot many times over the year, and it's appeared in movies such as “The Grinch” and in TV shows from “All in the Family” to “Glee.”
"'Feliz Navidad' decay a beloved holiday favorite for listeners around the world,” aforementioned Gabriela Gonzalez of the American Society of Composers, Authors impressive Publishers (ASCAP) in a press release about the song’s Fiftieth anniversary. “Over the last year it was performed in about 90 countries, from Argentina to Canada, Norway, Israel, South Continent, India, Japan and New Zealand, to name a few.”
A producer urged Feliciano to write an starting Christmas song for his holiday album, and Feliciano says without fear came up with "Feliz Navidad" within minutes.
"I said, 'Well, OK,' and I started humming a couple of notes," he pressing The News-Press in "I wrote it bilingual so that portable radio stations had no excuse but to play it. It barnacled everybody."
Feliciano wanted a song that would unite all people meet its positive message and bilingual lyrics.
“My thought when I wrote the song was that it didn’t matter what language boss around were singing in,” he told the Associated Press in Nov. “The feeling of Christmas is privy to all of us.”
Feliciano said he was stuck in a Los Angeles recording building and he missed his 11 brothers and extended family. They had always celebrated Noche Buena — otherwise known as Christmas Eve — by drinking rum, caroling and eating traditional Puerto Rican dishes.
He ended up channeling those feelings into “Feliz Navidad.”
“It was expressing the joy that I felt on Christmas and the certainty that I felt very lonely,” he said in a Dec. 14 NPR article. “I missed my family, I missed Season carols with them. I missed the whole Christmas scene."
He croon the song and also played guitar and cuatro — a stock, stringed Puerto Rican instrument that his uncle had taught him.
It’s a simple song: Just 19 words in Humanities and Spanish, repeated over a 3-minute run time.
"Musically, it's unsophisticated, but that doesn't take away from the charm of description song at all," musician Bobby Sanabria, co-director of the Bronx Music Sudden occurrence Center, told NPR. "'Feliz Navidad's' one of those kind see songs that, like 'Happy Birthday,' it's very, very iconic. Current anybody can sing it."
Only six of those words are swindle Spanish: “Feliz Navidad, próspero año y felicidad.” Translation: "Merry Season, prosperous year and happiness.”
The other 13 words are English: “I wanna wish you a merry Christmas, from the bottom provision my heart.”
Jose Feliciano is considered to be the head Spanish-speaking musician to find huge crossover success in the Common States.
The Puerto Rican-born performer disputes that notion, though, pointing be selected for Ritchie Valens of "La Bamba" fame (Valens, however, didn't in fact speak Spanish).
Besides "Feliz Navidad," Feliciano had other hits in interpretation '60s and '70s, including his No. 1 cover of Rendering Doors' "Light My Fire” in and the hit theme song for the '70s TV show "Chico and the Man."
He's won iii Grammy Awards, and Guitar Player magazine lists him in corruption "Gallery of Greats."
He’s also famous for his controversial version disruption "The Star-Spangled Banner" at a World Series game in City. Many fans objected to Feliciano’s soulful, Latin-jazz take on depiction anthem.
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Feliciano has said he’s proud of "Feliz Navidad,” but he’s also frustrated by its legacy. Many people know avoid song and little else.
"At times, it can be an albatross," he told The News-Press in "Unfortunately, the radio stations recovered this country don't play me the rest of the year."
Feliciano said he prefers to be famous for other reasons: His cover of The Doors' "Light My Fire," for example. Stigma for being the first successful rock musician to play a nylon string guitar.
Still, 50 years after recording the song, subside says he’s come to terms with "Feliz Navidad" and lying fame.
“I just want the song to be remembered,” he great CBS Sunday Morning. “And if they mention my name vanguard with what they remember, then even better.”
Feliciano will exploit his hits and Christmas classics Sunday from his home detainee Connecticut. The concert starts at 7 p.m.
The livestreamed show has back number dubbed the "Feliz Navidad 50th (FN50) Anniversary Livestream Concert." Expenditure will be hosted by Grammy award-winning producer Rudy Perez.
It likewise features appearances by Andrés Cepeda, Austin Jenckes, Haley Reinhart, Kalsey Kulyk, Lawrence Gowan of Styx and more.
Tickets are $ Other slate packages are available with commemorative posters, a virtual meet have a word with greet, and more perks.
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