Felipe Staiti, guitarist and founding member of the Argentine rock band Enanitos Verdes, passed away on the evening of April 13, 2026, at Hospital Italiano in Mendoza, Argentina, following a massive hemorrhage. He was 64.
Hospital sources confirmed the digestive hemorrhage involved internal ulcers. Staiti had been placed under observation after returning from California with a fever just days earlier.
Remarkably, he had performed at La Santa in Santa Ana, California, on April 11 — only two days before his death. The band still had 20 additional tour dates scheduled for 2026, including upcoming shows in Hawthorne and Carson, California.
The band confirmed Staiti’s death on social media Tuesday, calling it an irreparable loss and asking fans for privacy during a period of mourning. The family has chosen not to hold a wake or public ceremony, the statement read. “His music, his dedication, and his story remain forever with us and with all those who accompanied him throughout these years.”
Staiti’s death represents the loss of the last active founding member of Enanitos Verdes. Marciano Cantero, the band’s original frontman and bassist, died in September 2022. Daniel Piccolo, the third original member who played drums, had long since stepped away from touring. None of the three musicians who founded the group in November 1979 remain in the lineup.
Born Aug. 29, 1961, in Mendoza, Staiti entered the Instituto Cuyano de Cultura Musical at age nine, where he composed his first piece, “Canoa.” Influenced by bands like Deep Purple as a teenager, he formed his first project, Esencia Natural, before his partnership with Cantero and Piccolo created Enanitos Verdes.
The group gained national recognition in 1984, when they were 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, they had become one of the defining acts of rock en español.
Their 1994 album “Big Bang” produced “Lamento Boliviano,” which became 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.
Staiti wrote “Mejor No Hablemos de Amor,” one of the standout tracks on “Big Bang.” Over four decades, the group released 14 studio albums and scored entries on Billboard’s Top Latin Albums and Hot Latin Songs charts.
After Cantero’s death, 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.”
His last major festival appearance came at Vive Latino 2026 on March 14 at Estadio GNP Seguros in Mexico City. Staiti performed a 10-song set alongside bassist Guillermo Vadalá and drummer Jota Morelli, opening with “Guitarras Blancas” and running through 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. Later reports indicate shows occurred through March 21 in Costa Rica, performed while Staiti had intermittent fever.
Staiti’s health had deteriorated significantly over the past two years. He contracted a bacterial infection in Mexico in late 2024, which combined with his celiac disease triggered severe dehydration resulting in a monthlong hospital stay. This led to severe weight loss affecting his vocal muscles and resulted in cancellation of several South American performances.
At the time of his death, Staiti was planning a joint tour with Spanish band Hombres G for June-July 2026. Beyond Enanitos Verdes, he led side projects including the Felipe Staiti Trio, where he explored a more instrumental and experimental sound. In 2025, the band toured alongside Spanish rock group Hombres G.
Enanitos Verdes has not yet announced whether the group will continue. 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.”
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.
