Oscar Lopez

Who is Oscar Lopez?

Oscar Lopez is a Chilean-Canadian folk and nouveau flamenco guitarist. He has won many awards from the Latino community.

Lopez moved to Canada in 1979 and settled in Calgary, Alberta. He began pursuing music as a career, becoming a popular draw on the Canadian folk festival circuit, and released his debut album, Hola, in 1989. Several of his albums have been nominated for Canada's Juno Awards, and 2000's Armando's Fire was his first Juno win, for Best Instrumental Album. He has recorded on the Narada label. He was also named instrumentalist of the year by the Prairie Music Awards. Classical Soul broke the Latin Charts during the first few weeks.

Although he has continued recording, Lopez had not toured or performed in several years due to a battle with depression. As a result, Spirit of the West recorded a tribute song to Lopez, "Come Back Oscar", on their 2004 album Star Trails. On July 24, Lopez appeared on stage with Spirit of the West at the Calgary Folk Music Festival to perform the song.

In 1997 Lopez began playing with James Keelaghan in a group known as The Compadres. In 1998, he co-produced the album, "Volcán: Tributo a José José", a tribute album dedicated to the iconic Mexican singer Jose Jose. They recorded a self-titled album that year and toured Australia in 2005. In 2007 they recorded another album, ¿Buddy Where You Been? and toured various venues including Hugh's Room in Toronto where they appeared on October 16.