Mario Giovanni Zandomeneghi was born in
Roncade, Veneto,
Treviso province, Italy and, in the 1920s, immigrated with his family to
São Paulo. The Zandomeneghi family settled in Santa Adélia, in the region of
Catanduva, in the interior of São Paulo, where Mario Zan had as his main supporter his cousin and accordionist Hilário Fossalussa, from the city of
Olímpia, also in São Paulo . Mario Zan started playing
accordion at the age of thirteen and was considered one of the best
accordionists in Brazil, having become famous for his compositions (more than a thousand recorded), many of them being the most popular songs from São Paulo's
festas juninas, such as
Quadrilha Completa,
Balão Bonito,
Noites de Junho and
Pula a Fogueira. Mario Zan was also the author of the commemorative hymns of the 400 years and 450 years of
city of São Paulo. Zan also composed dubs, being by him the famous Dobrado Silvino Rodrigues. The "King of Baião"
Luís Gonzaga once said that Mario Zan was the true "Accordion King". Two of his songs crossed Brazilian borders:
Nova Flor (written in partnership with Palmeira and recorded in English as
Love me like a Stranger, in Spanish as
Los hombres no deben llorar, in German as
Fremde oder Freunde) and the Anthem of the Fourth Centenary of São Paulo, written in partnership with JA Alves. ==Death==