Manuel de la Calva, half of the dynamic duo, has died at age 88 at the Anderson Hospital in Madrid. His group partner, Ramón Arcusa, has confirmed it, which has also explained for Efe that the singer and composer suffered a pulmonary fibrosis. Arcusa says that Manuel was “positive, blissful and fighting until recently.”
3 years ago, Manuel de la Calva was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis after collapsing in a concert in Sitges (Barcelona). Arcusa has published an emotional message on social networks dedicated to his “partner of one hundred adventures and thousand songs”, which he also calls “the soul of duo”: “Do not cry for him, he would not like,” he has written in X.
Manuel was half of the dynamic duo, one of the most influential groups in the history of Spanish pop. Since the end of the 50, they reaped successes such as ‘Fifteen years has my love’, ‘Those black eyes’ and ‘summer love’, which also made them precursors of the fan phenomenon of the 60s. However, they will always be remembered for being the authors of ‘La, La, La’, the song with which Massiel won Eurovision in 1968. In the 80 ‘I will resist’, used in ‘Atame’ by Pedro Almodóvar, and revitalized as a resistance hymn during the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020.
Jenesaispop interviewed the dynamic duo in 2016. On that occasion, Arcusa said that the group was one of the first indies: «We had to invent things that did not know each other. We imposed our songs, our arrangements, our vision of the image, fighting a record company that was ankylos.
Manolo de la Calva, my friend of the soul, more than brother, a hundred adventures and a thousand songs has left us today.
Don’t cry for him, he wouldn’t like it. It was the duo’s soul, always cheerful, optimistic, positive. Sing with him in this farewell.
Thank you for so much, friend. Already… pic.twitter.com/c6Sh8rsvfw
– Official dynamic duo (@dd_manoloramon) August 26, 2025
