The lyrics of the merengue “Vagabundo”, which singer Charlie Amarante pasted in the 80s, could perhaps reflect the last years of his life, immersed in the vice of alcohol and looking homeless, in his hometown of Moca, province of Espaillat.
“Let me live my life. I’m not mean to anyone. That I’m a drunkard, that I’m lost, that I’m a womanizer and a bandit. I live my world, I’m a bum. Nobody cares about my life or the road that I follow ”, Charlie sang in the merengue“ Vagabundo ”.
Charlie Amarante, affectionately known as’ Chelo ‘, was the lead singer of the Luis Ovalles orchestra and recorded songs such as:’ Palo bonito ‘,’ Se fue la luz ‘,’ La Fosforera ‘,’ The boat sinks’, ‘La ley of the funnel ”and“ The Drifter ”.
The singer died on Sunday night as a result of the complications of excessive alcohol consumption over the years.
+ Dear person
Charlie was a person very loved by his friends. Luis Ovalles even confessed to journalists from LISTÍN DIARIO that he was like a brother a son to him, and that his death filled him with great sadness.
“Charlie was a brother of mine, he was part of my family and lived in my house for a while, even though he lived in Moca. He recorded all the songs with me that were relevant, I preferred him for his loyalty and quality, he was the lead vocalist, he was always with me ”, said Ovalles.
“Chelo” received the support and medical care needed to help him overcome his addiction, but without much progress. He didn’t want to cooperate.
A few years ago, he was placed in professional hands by his cousin Carlos Amarante Baret, who guided him through a detoxification process and then used him as security for a school in Santo Domingo when he was Minister of Education (he served on July 20, 2013 to August 16, 2016).
+ Failed Attempts
“Alcohol could never control it, no one could. We admitted him to a health center, I was looking for a psychiatrist to treat him. Luis Montalvo visited him and even he couldn’t. Then he went to Moca, where we renovated his house, but he kept drinking, ‘said Luis Ovalles.
In December 2019, various media outlets in the country denounced that Charlie was living in a situation of neglect. However, relatives denied that he lived in abandonment, but the singer himself refused to visit the hairdresser and wear appropriate clothes, just on a whim, but not because his family did not pay attention to him.
“What I like is the drink and when brandy appears, I drink it”, the merenguero expressed a year ago in an interview for the YouTube channel “The classics of Joan Abreu.”
Then he added, “All I have is a hangover and it goes away with two drinks.”
In that conversation he also said that all he wanted from life was to be allowed to drink in peace.
+ From his career
Charlie Amarante started playing the tumbadora in the group Los Juveniles in 1969, led by Luis Ovalles.
Some time later she became a singer and the great voice of her compueblano music group. Few percussionists have made that transition into merengue.
The first song to be recorded was “Palo bonito”. When Luis Ovalles heard him sing that merengue, he let him record it because he liked it more than the original, and from then on he recorded all of the group’s hits.
From 1968 to 1991, the Luis Ovalles orchestra recorded 117 songs on 13 albums and had its heyday in the 1970s and 1980s, with Charlie Amarante as conguero and singer.
Other vocalists who were part of that group were Henry Castro, San José, René Caminero, Leo Palacio and Johnny Calar.
The Ovalles orchestra was worth all the awards of its time, including “El Dorado”, “El Gordo de la Semana and Premios Casandra.
+ Your route
In the mid-1990s, when Ovalles disbanded the group, Charlie went in other directions. On one of those routes, he decided to live in Puerto Plata, where he worked as a singer.
He then moved to Moca, where he took refuge in alcohol. His family, children, friends, and neighbors fought to help him, but all efforts were in vain.
As he said in an interview, he didn’t drink alcohol because he was depressed or because of a woman’s love: “I drink because I like cognac.”
From an impeccable image when he was in the orchestra with Luis Ovalles, the performer of “La fosforera” became an unrecognizable, confused person, living without a horizon in which death found him.
Few meringue players have cybernetically said goodbye to him yesterday, as is common now. Sergio Vargas, one of the few, discussed it on his Instagram: “Today a voice from our meringue, Charlie Amarante, is fading … Today he left in the arms of the Lord. My condolences to the family “.
Words. Yesterday Luis Ovalles praised Charlie Amarante’s vocal qualities and emphasized that he was his best singer and said that if he had a quality meringue in his hands, he would have entrusted it to him.