Donato & Estéfano

The sound that Donato & Estéfano created together drew on two distinct influences. On the one hand, Donato Poveda, a native of Havana, Cuba, showed an aptitude for music from a very young age, learning to play the guitar and sing at the age of eight. Despite his father’s initial reservations, his talent led him to the national conservatory. Interestingly, at the military school where he also studied, he formed his own rock and roll band, influenced by Miami radio stations. However, it was Cuban music—specifically the Nueva Trova Cubana—that opened doors for him to tour Spain, Belgium, and Mexico. Later, in 1989, he moved to Venezuela, where he signed with Sony Music, and then to Miami, where he began composing for renowned artists. It was there that he met Estéfano, whose real name is Fabio Alfonso Salgado, a Colombian musician born in Manizales and raised in Cali. Ever since he was a child, Estéfano had dreamed of owning a guitar and was drawn to pop music—the kind that invites you to live life to the fullest and dance. By the age of twelve, he was already participating as a backup singer on recordings, and at fifteen, he began composing his own songs.

Estéfano’s career path took him to Bogotá at age sixteen, where he composed music for commercials and wrote the entire soundtrack for a telenovela. After recording his first album and touring Colombia, he felt the need to seek a broader stage for his calling. He moved to Miami, and after a stint with several record labels, his compositions caught the attention of Emilio Estefan Jr., who included some of his songs on Gloria Estefan’s album *Mi Tierra* (winner of a Grammy Award in 1993) and on Jon Secada’s first Spanish-language album (which also won a Grammy Award in 1995). This cemented his reputation as a young and highly sought-after songwriter of the decade, collaborating with a long list of artists throughout Latin America, Spain, and the United States. It was against this backdrop of musical exchange in Miami that he and Donato met and began creating music together.