"I've been waiting for this for forty years! My sons made my artistic dreams come true: it was the boys who pushed me, and to sing in French. My sons are my producers, they have become my bosses!", s he amused.

The flagship title "Papa" by Bigflo and Oli placed the spotlight on this 62-year-old Argentinian on November 9, 2017: his "chicos" sing their creation to him, as a 58th birthday present.

According to the concerts of his sons, Fabian Ordoñez then climbs on the biggest French stages for the time to put a verse in Spanish on this song with three voices.

Singing in front of tens of thousands of spectators... a dream for this globe-trotting and uprooted musician, long on the sidelines of success.

"People came to tell me + But you have a beautiful voice, you should continue + and I thought in silence + Damn, I've been singing for forty years +", he says with his Argentinian accent mixed with Toulouse intonations.

two albums

His first album "El Padre" was released at the end of 2019. A series of concerts followed, until the covid health crisis which froze everything.

He is currently working on the second, which has "more creations than covers", he told AFP.

Like the Colombian Yuri Buenaventura in the 1990s, Fabian Ordoñez likes to revisit French successes.

A "Javanaise" by Serge Gainsbourg in salsa, the "Toulouse" by Claude Nougaro in a flamenco version.

Argentinian musician and singer Fabian Ordonez (c), father of rappers Bigflo and Oli, in concert in Toulouse, December 8, 2021 Valentine CHAPUIS AFP / Archives

He adds Latin classics and his own texts.

In "Hola Hermano", he confides his nostalgia to his brother who remained in the country, "the sleepless nights" of anguish on his arrival in Europe, the hard journey of the migrant.

Born in the small town of Realico, of which his father was mayor, he left the family farm on the vast plains of the pampas at the age of 18.

In 1978, while Argentina was living under the rule of the military dictatorship, he dreamed of Europe and took a ticket to Barcelona.

At first he led a bohemian life, with an Argentinian group.

His specialty, in addition to the guitar, are the bolas, lassos with leather balls used to catch cattle, and which in his homeland gives rhythm to folklore shows.

Night Bird

The South American exile has always lived with a guitar in his hand, as the family photos show, and he has brought his sons Olivio and Florent in his wake.

Settled in Toulouse in 1988 after a few years in Marseilles, he married two years later with the one who would become the mother of his children, Patricia, of Algerian origin.

Then he set up the Barrio Latino, a salsa bar which at the time was a benchmark in the Southwest.

Argentinian musician and singer Fabian Ordonez, father of rappers Bigflo and Oli, in concert in Toulouse, December 8, 2021 Valentine CHAPUIS AFP / Archives

The small stage welcomes the Cuban Compay Segundo of the Buena Vista Social Club, before its heyday.

Bigflo and Oli seize the instruments there, have fun singing when they are not 10 years old.

Since that time, the Argentinian with a frail silhouette, wearing a Che Guevara beret to hide his "not very abundant" hair, has lived like a night owl.

He gets up "around noon", works "until very late", but interrupts all activity to watch a match of the Argentine football team, Boca Juniors or Olympique de Marseille, with his cat Gato on his knees.

"As he had a night job, he took care of the children during the day, cooked them food, took them to the conservatory", recalls Alejandro Riquelme, Chilean guitarist and friend of thirty, who accompanies him on all the stages. , from the small rooms in Toulouse where they perform on a voluntary basis, to the immense La Défense Arena.

If the boys tuned into Skyrock radio as soon as they got into the car, they were immersed in Latin music all their childhood.

And the link remains very strong between the rappers and Fabian Ordoñez.

"It will always be my father and I remain his kid. And when I have one, I will tell him about mine".

He is from "those who say + I love you + without even speaking", confide Bigflo and Oli in their song "Dad".

© 2022 AFP