Felipe Staiti, guitarist and founding member of the iconic Argentine rock band Enanitos Verdes, died Monday evening, April 13, 2026, at Hospital Italiano in Mendoza, Argentina. He was 64. The band announced his passing on social media Tuesday, calling it an irreparable loss and requesting privacy during their mourning period.
Staiti’s death comes less than four years after Marciano Cantero, the band’s original frontman and bassist, died in September 2022. With Staiti gone, none of the three musicians who founded the group in November 1979 remain active in the lineup. Drummer Daniel Piccolo, the third original member, had long since stepped away from touring.
The shock of his death was compounded by its timing. Just 48 hours before, Staiti had performed with Enanitos Verdes at La Santa in Santa Ana, California, on April 11. After returning to Mendoza, he was hospitalized with a fever and placed under observation before dying from a massive hemorrhage on the evening of April 13. The band had 20 additional tour dates scheduled for 2026, including shows in Hawthorne and Carson, California.
Born Aug. 29, 1961, in Mendoza, Staiti showed musical talent early. He entered the Instituto Cuyano de Cultura Musical at age nine, where he composed his first piece, “Canoa.” Influenced by bands like Deep Purple during his teenage years, he formed his first project, Esencia Natural, before partnering with Cantero and Piccolo to create Enanitos Verdes.
National recognition arrived in 1984, when the group was named Grupo Revelación at the Festival de La Falda. That same year, the band expanded to a quintet with the additions of guitarist Sergio Embrioni and keyboardist Tito Dávila, and recorded their debut album. By the mid-1990s, Enanitos Verdes had become one of the defining acts of rock en español.
Staiti’s guitar work became legendary through the 1994 album “Big Bang,” which produced “Lamento Boliviano,” arguably the most recognized Argentine rock track ever recorded. The song — actually a cover of a track by the band Alcohol Etílico — was transformed by Cantero’s voice, Andean panpipe instrumentation, and a guitar solo by Staiti that gave it international reach. According to Apple Music, it is the most-streamed Argentine rock song of all time, and it recently surpassed one billion streams on Spotify.
As a songwriter, Staiti contributed “Mejor No Hablemos de Amor,” one of the standout tracks on “Big Bang.” The group released 14 studio albums over four decades and scored entries on Billboard’s Top Latin Albums and Hot Latin Songs charts.
His final major festival appearance occurred at Vive Latino 2026 on March 14 at Estadio GNP Seguros in Mexico City. Performing alongside bassist Guillermo Vadalá and drummer Jota Morelli, Staiti delivered a 10-song set that opened with “Guitarras Blancas” and included fan favorites like “La Muralla Verde,” “Mi primer día sin ti” and “Amores lejanos.” During several of the most recognizable choruses, the crowd sang loudly enough to fill the spaces once occupied by Cantero’s voice.
Following Cantero’s death, the future of Enanitos Verdes was uncertain. Staiti stepped into the lead vocal role, performing publicly for the first time as the band’s singer at the Bésame Mucho Festival at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles in December 2022.
“I’m an interpreter. I’m not trying to be Marciano or sing like Marciano, which would be impossible,” Staiti once said. “What I do is more an interpretation of the songs.”
Beyond Enanitos Verdes, Staiti led the Felipe Staiti Trio, where he explored a more instrumental and experimental sound. In 2025, the group toured alongside Spanish rock band Hombres G, and had a full slate of dates lined up for 2026.
Whether Enanitos Verdes will continue has not been announced. Organizers of the Rock en Lima festival, where the band was scheduled to perform on June 28, confirmed the act has been removed from the lineup, stating that “the legacy of Enanitos Verdes is impossible to replace.”
The band’s official statement confirmed that Staiti’s family has chosen not to hold a wake or public ceremony. “His music, his dedication, and his story remain forever with us and with all those who accompanied him throughout these years,” the statement read.
Across Latin America, musicians, cultural figures, and fans flooded social media with tributes to Staiti, honoring a career that spanned more than 45 years and helped shape what rock en español became. With his death, one of the genre’s most enduring stories has reached its final chapter.