Manuel Zabala

The young composer MANUEL ZABALA was born in Maracaibo, Venezuela in 1975. He graduated as a Petroleum Engineer from the Santiago Mariño University in 1999, but has had a musical inclination since very young. He learned to play piano, guitar and the "cuatro" a Venezuelan guitar-type instrument with four strings.

At age 14 Manuel composed his first song "De Arriba A Abajo" which was recorded by the Unity Band in 1989 and reached #16 on the National charts. But it wasn’t until 1998, when he met Omar Enrique who recorded his songs "Vuelve" and "Solo" which reached the No. 1 position, that he became well known in the musical field, and joined the stable of peermusic composers.

The songs of this young Venezuelan composer are being recorded by Venezuelan musical stars such as "El Principe Del Merengue" (The Merengue Prince) Omar Enrique, who was nominated to a Latin Grammy in 2004 as Best Tropical Album of the Year for his CD "Necesito De Tí" (I Need You).

Many other acts recorded material by Manuel, such as Simón, winner of the "Fame and Applause" TV program who included "Déjate Querer" and "Se Me Olvidó" in his first CD "Historias Sin Sentido". The Vallenato-Pop group "Tecupae" included his composition "Estoy Aquí" in their great album "III Semanas IV Días", produced by the group Voz Veis. Willy Rizo attained international fame with Manuel’s "Si Tu Te Vas" which placed high on HTV. Other acts to record material by Manuel are Alomako, La Gran Ganda, Orquesta La Unica (Unity Band), Rumba Ya, Rumberos, and Michel y Su Grupo Bomba.

At present Manuel Zabala is working on new recordings by the Grammy winner Wilfrido Vargas, Omar Enrique, the new merengue queen Lila, the group Tártara, and the group "Las Nuevas Chicas Del Can", among other important projects.