Biography
With hit singles such as "Yes Sir, I Can Boogie", "Sorry, I'm A Lady", "Darling", "The Devil Sent You To Lorado" and more than 25 million records sold, BACCARA were one of the world's most popular duo in the late 70's.
The original line-up consisted of two beautiful Spanish ladies, Mayte Mateos who was born on February 7th, 1951 in Logroño (La Rioja/Spain) and María Mendiola who was born on April 4th, 1952 in Madrid.
In 1972, Mayte, who graduated as a teacher from the "Royal Spanish Academy for Arts, Drama and Dance", was selected to join the Alberto Portillo Ballet of TVE, Spain's national television. This is where she first met María.
Both girls left the ballet in 1976 and formed a duo named Venus. Their first television appearance as a duo was in the Spanish show "Palmarés". Their dancing act was slightly inspired by the Kessler Sisters from Germany. Venus signed a deal with a theatre located in Zaragoza, Spain. The owner reckoned their performances were way too elegant for his theatre and their contract ended after one week.
María had contacts in the Canary Islands and both girls were engaged to perform at the "Tres Islas" hotel on the Spanish island of Fuerteventura. Very soon, their energetic and lively show had become the absolute highlight of the evening. "But we also performed classic flamenco pieces", lead singer Mayte remembers, "since 90% of the guests were from Germany and they loved flamenco music."
And so did Leon Deane (record manager at RCA Germany), Patrick Krevitz (DJ) and Fred Dieckmann (who later became BACCARA's manager) who were on holiday in the same hotel. They were so fascinated by the show they saw on January 17th, 1977 at 11pm that they spontaneously invited Mayte and Maria to come to Germany.
Mayte & María arrived in Hamburg in the middle of March 1977 for the first recording sessions with German composer and producer Rolf Soja.
The bosses at RCA Hamburg were so impressed by their talent and their voices that only six days later their first single, "Yes Sir, I Can Boogie", was recorded.
"It took us quite some time to find the right name. We had no idea how things would turn out. For all of us, it was a gamble, like Baccara! It's only later on that we made the connection with the most beautiful and most expensive rose."
"Yes Sir, I Can Boogie" was released as a single in May 1977. It was written by composer & producer Rolf Soja & lyricist Frank Dostal. In June 1977, it took the German Top 50 by storm, topping the chart for eight weeks. 25.000 copies of the single were sold daily in Germany. The peak was 48.000 copies sold in one day!
On June 2nd, 1977, BACCARA made their TV debut on ZDF's show "Starparade" hosted by Rainer Holbe.
"Yes Sir, I Can Boogie" reached the #1 spot in 18 countries and sold more than 16 million copies worldwide. It was the first single performed by a female duo to reach number one in the UK single chart as well as the first one by a Spanish act. BACCARA got registered in the "Guinness Book of Records" as the female musical duo that had sold the most records to that date.
