Die Tommy Rey, legend of cumbia and the voice of the Chilean party

Leo Soto, one of the founders of Tommy Rey's Sonora, announced the term of the cumbia band...

Chilean singer Patricio Fernando Zúñiga Jorquera, known by his stage name Tommy Rey, died this Wednesday at 80 years of a heart attack in Reñaca, a coastal city in the Valparaíso region. The news was spread by Tommy Rey’s Sonora, the cumbia band he led since 1982. “We want to report with much pain that our dear Tommy has just died,” the group has pointed out in a message published on their social networks.

The cumbia lived in difficult moments in the early eighties. A frequent cheerleader of fifths of recreation, hotels, radio auditoriums, just sounded from time to time on the confined night of the capital. After the coup d’état of 1973, the subsequent curfew limited the activity of the musicians. So it happened to Tommy Rey. Patricio Zúñiga was then the singer of the laureate Sonora Palacios, an institution of the local cumbia, which contributed …

The popular music group of cumbia, Los Super Caracoles, confirmed the death of one of its members and founding leader known as El Gran Jefe Pena Blanca, who died for unknown causes until now. «Snail band. In the name of all our families with great pain we inform them that our elder brother El Gran Jefe Pena Blanca just died a few minutes ago. Later we will inform them where it will be veiled. God bless him, God keep him. Rest in peace», they wro…

The idiosyncrasy of a country is built in its streets, stories, customs and, above all, in its music. There are voices that not only interpret songs, but intertwine with the daily life of a people, becoming symbols of identity, echoes of a collective memory. Patricio Zúñiga could be a common man, an amateur singer who liked to perform at family celebrations in Doñihue and at the harvest parties, but the future had another destiny prepared for hi…

The beloved and popular singer Patricio Zúñiga, the best in the cumbias that cheered and cheered the Chilean families, died. From his group, “La Sonora Palacios”, he expressed himself: “A news that leaves us amazed, with the hairs of tip and a feeling of deep sadness. Today the voice of the Chilean cumbia, a companion of innumerable adventures, good, bad and regular.” Joaquín González. Journalist. “El Siglo”. Santiago. 27/3/2025. “We want to inf…