| Amigos Para Siempre | |
| Cover: | Amigosparasiempre.jpg |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | José Carreras and Sarah Brightman |
| Released: | [1] |
| Recorded: | 1992 |
| Genre: | Pop |
| Length: | 4:36 |
| Label: | |
| Studio: |
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| Composer: | Andrew Lloyd Webber |
| Lyricist: | Don Black |
| Producer: |
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| Chronology: | Sarah Brightman |
| Prev Title: | Something to Believe In |
| Prev Year: | 1990 |
| Next Title: | Captain Nemo |
| Next Year: | 1993 |
"Spanish; Castilian: Amigos Para Siempre|i=no (Friends for Life)", also called "Catalan; Valencian: Amics per sempre|i=no" in Catalan, is a song recorded by British soprano Sarah Brightman and Spanish tenor José Carreras, with music composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics written by Don Black. It was one of the two official theme songs of the 1992 Summer Olympics held in Barcelona, Spain.
The music of "Amigos Para Siempre (Friends for Life)" was composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber. The lyrics, written by Don Black, are in English, except for the title phrase which is repeated in English, Spanish, and Catalan. It was recorded by British soprano Sarah Brightman and Spanish tenor José Carreras. They also recorded its Spanish version with lyrics written by Black along with Gloria Estefan. The song was one of the two official theme songs of the 1992 Summer Olympics held in Barcelona, Spain, with the other being "Barcelona" recorded by Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballé.
A choir performed the song in English, Spanish, and Catalan during the opening ceremony of the Games while an Olympic flag was unfolded over the athletes who occupied the entire stadium field. Brightman and Carreras performed the song in English during the closing ceremony.[2] The duet was also released worldwide as a single to coincide with the Games, peaking at number 11 on the UK Singles Chart and reaching number one in Australia for six weeks. "Barcelona" reached number two in the UK. Both songs appear on the compilation album Barcelona Gold, released to coincide with the Games.
A remixed version of the original, with less vocal reverb and modified balancing, was included on the compilation album (2001).
Larry Flick from Billboard described the song as a "Spanish-pop ballad" and noted its "stately performances" by Carreras and Brightman, and the "dramatic orchestral arrangement". He also added that the Spanish-language version has lyrics co-penned by Cuban-American singer and songwriter Gloria Estefan.[3]
| Chart (1992) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Europe (Eurochart Hot 100)[4] | 33 |
| Portugal (AFP)[5] | 3 |
| Chart (1992) | Position | |
|---|---|---|
| Australia (ARIA)[6] | 5 | |
| UK Singles (OCC)[7] | 87 |
"Amigos Para Siempre" was the favourite song of Juan Antonio Samaranch, president of the International Olympic Committee from 1980 to 2001, and was played at his funeral in Barcelona in April 2010.[8]
In Spain, the most famous rendition of this song was made by Spanish group with rumba arrangements and Spanish lyrics, except for the chorus. It reached number 3 in the Spanish charts.[9] In September 1992, it was covered by Effie and Norman Gunston and reached the top 30 in Australia at the time.[10]
In one of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Group's concerts in Beijing, China, a Chinese version of this song was performed with approximately half of the lyrics in Mandarin and half in English. In this version, "Amigos Para Siempre" was replaced by "永远的朋友", which is "Friends Forever" in Chinese. A fully Cantonese version "友愛長存" (literally "eternal friendship") was sung by George Lam.
This song was also used for the Shanghai 2007 Special Olympic Games, performed again by José Carreras and a Chinese soprano.
On Sunday, 17 August 2008 at the Don Black 70th birthday tribute concert Lyrics by Don Black, Amigos Para Siempre was performed by Jonathan Ansell and Hayley Westenra. The evening took place at the London Palladium featuring performances of Black's songs by a selection of guest artists, hosted by Michael Parkinson and was recorded by Friday Night is Music Night and broadcast on BBC Radio 2 on 22 August 2008.[11]
In 2014, Katherine Jenkins and Viennese tenor [12] covered the song on the album Katherine Jenkins that was only released in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
In 2016, Marina Prior and Mark Vincent covered the song on their album Together.
In 2017, G4 covered the song on their latest album Love Songs.
In 2020, La Poem covered the song on their first mini-album Scene#1 and performed it at the opening of the 35th Golden Disc Awards.[13]