He died alone and poor, but never truly forgotten: he never married, but the one and only Gil Dobrică was eternally in love with music

Gil Dobrică was one of the most prolific and beloved Romanian artists of all time. His unique vocal timbre and pleasing tunes were the perfect combination to send him to the biggest stages in the country.

He was loved by millions of Romanians, and he loved music the most, the art to which he dedicated his entire life.

The artist in love with the music of Ray Charles

Gil Dobrică was born on February 14, 1946, in Călărași, Dolj county, and during his life he managed to become one of the most famous pop-rock performers in our country.

Among other things, the artist’s repertoire included other musical genres, such as soul and rhythm and blues, having in his personal repertoire both original songs and adaptations of songs performed by Ray Charles.

Perhaps the best known song performed by Gil Dobrică is the one called “Hai casa”. In case you didn’t know, this is a cover of an original song by John Denver, called “Take me home, country roads”, with lyrics translated and adapted into Romanian by the local artist.

Born into a modest family with many children, Gil Dobrică goes to Craiova at the age of 14 to attend trade school to become a lathe operator.

It didn’t take him long to discover his love of music, so he began to travel the country with the Cenaclul Flacăra and the Serbările Scânteii Tineretului.

He sang the songs of the greatest artists in the world, such as Aretha Franklin, Little Richard, Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, or The Rolling Stones, but his great love has always been Ray Charles, whom Gil Dobrică finally managed to meet in 1996, at the Cerbul de Aur.

“The best day of my life!”, Dobrică would later confess about the moment he met his lifelong idol.

In the last years of his life, the artist collaborated with the band Nightlosers, making a memorable appearance in the song “Love is like a lynx”.

Gil Dobrică married music, his true love

In case you didn’t know, the accomplished artist Gil Dobrică died alone in great pain.

He was never married, explaining at one point why he chose this path in life. We can obviously speculate that Dobrică loved music most in his life, having no time for anything else.

He died at the age of 61 in 2007 after a long and difficult suffering. According to his last statements, the last years of his life were not exactly happy, since almost no one contacted him for his artistic services.

Moreover, a life spent on stage, but especially in bars and at events where he performed, took its toll, making his health significantly worse.

In 1989, Gil Dobrică was diagnosed with gout. This infamous news sent the artist into a shadow, and he decided to live his suffering in silence, away from the eyes of the curious. Later, he also fell ill with pneumonia.

But perhaps one of his greatest sorrows was that he had no pension, and as the performances of yesteryear were not repeated, the singer’s material situation was not exactly the happiest.

As mentioned above, Gil Dobrică was never married, which is why he had no descendants. In conclusion, no one to ask about his health in the last part of his life.

“Wives want children and how would I raise children? Carrying them from tour to tour? In my line of work, marriages are made and broken up haphazardly,” he said at one point when asked about the choices he has made in life.