Miguel Ríos (born 7 June 1944) is a Spanish #singer, #composer, #actor. He is one of the #pioneers of #rock and #roll in Spain.

An introspective search for his true identity resulted in some rocky times. In 1967 he recorded “Vuelvo a Granada”, “El río”, “Contra el cristal”, “El cartel”, and “Mira hacia ti”. It was in 1970 that he came to be known as a superstar in Spain. His song “Himno de la alegría” (Hymn of Joy) was an extract of the last movement of the ninth symphony of Beethoven and appeared at the height of what was known as symphonic rock. It was released in both the United States and the United Kingdom as “A Song of Joy” in May 1970 on the A&M Recordslabel, where combined sales in the U.S. and Canada reached the one million mark in July.[1] It reached No. 16 in the UK singles charts in August 1970. It was awarded a gold record by the Recording Industry Association of America.[1]

He sold three million copies worldwide and was number one on some foreign music charts. It reached Number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1970.

The artistic career of Rios came to a sudden stop when he was arrested and jailed for possession of hashish shortly after his Rock y Amor (Rock and Love) concert. In the mid seventies he recorded three progressive rock albums, but they were not commercially successful.

In 1982 Rios released Rock and Rios a live double album recorded during the 5 and 6 March in Madrid at the Pabellón del Real Madrid and published in June of the same year. This album is considered by many music critics and fans as one of the most important works of modern Spanish (Iberian) rock and a turning point for the music industry in Spain.