Manuel Olaizola Olaizola "Uztapide II"

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Biography: He was born on the Uztapide farm, from where he gets his artistic name, in the district of Endoia in Zestoa (Gipuzkoa) in 1909. The fourth of eight children, it was his thirteenth birthday when his parents sent him to Zurbano (Araba) to learn Spanish. Fourteen years later he had tried his hand at most Basque farming and mountain life work - shepherding, lime processing, charcoal burning, woodcutting, and so on ... until he started work in a brewery in the provincial capital. He married in the town of Oiartzun and lived there until his death in 1983. He started singing bertsos in public in 1935 and continued until 1972, when illness forced him into retirement. He was All Euskal Herria champion in 1962, 1965 and 1967 and, in the 1936 and 1960 finals, he came second. During the post-war period, he, Basarri and Lasarte were the leading exponents of bertsolaritza. His clear-cut and reasoned language and gift for adapting his improvised singing to any situation made him one of the most beloved of all the bertsolaris of the last century.

Lehen plaza: Lasturren, Artañola lagun zuelarik. eta hurrena osbararekin Endoian, Azentzioko festetan