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🇩🇴 Dominican Republic · 1983–present

Juan Luis Guerra

Juan Luis Guerra Seijas (Santo Domingo, June 7, 1957) is a singer-songwriter, arranger, musician, music producer and Dominican businessman. With over 40 years of career, he has sold more than 30 million albums​​ and won numerous awards, including 31 Latin Grammy Awards, three Grammy Awards and eleven Latin Billboard Awards; he was honored as BMI Icon at the 13th edition of the BMI Latin Awards, named Latin Composer of the Year 1995 by BMI, and compositions by Guerra have won 24 Latin BMI Awards.​His commercial career began with the albums Soplando (1984), Mudanza y acarreo (1985) and Mientras más lo pienso... tú (1987).

He and his band were nominated to attend the OTI Song Festival and represent the Dominican Republic.His next album, Ojalá que llueva café (1989), brought him international recognition. In this album, he blends merengue with soft melodies and very fast background tracks, becoming an immediate hit in many Latin American countries with the song of the same name as the first single. Later, the music video was filmed, and Juan Luis Guerra and his band 4.40 began to travel. The song was revived in 1996 and in 2008 with the versions by the Mexican band Café Tacuba and the Spanish singer Rosario Flores.​On December 11, 1990, he released his next album, Bachata rosa, which became a major commercial success and gave Guerra his first Grammy.

2 Albums
18 Songs
230K Listeners/mo

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2 album|s · 1989 — 1990

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Biography

The album surpassed five million copies sold and solidified Guerra as a prominent figure during his tour through Latin America, the United States and Europe. This album contains memorable love songs such as «Burbujas de amor», «Bachata rosa», «Rosalía», «Como abeja al panal», «A pedir su mano», «Carta de amor», and «Estrellitas y duendes».​On December 15, 1992, he released his most socially committed album, Areíto (which is a Taína word), and his first hit, «El costo de la vida» (number one on the Hot Latin Tracks, where Guerra was the first tropical music artist to achieve this feat), whose video has a clear message about the hegemonies and capitalist economic impositions.

Other songs included in this album protest against the poor conditions in many Latin American countries, speak about the celebration of the «discovery» of America and the double morality of the countries of the First World.​In the album Fogaraté (1994), Guerra moved away from songs with critical and social content. This album is especially focused on the more rural and less known musical genres within Dominican music, such as for example the perico ripiao.His album Ni es lo mismo ni es igual (1998) achieved great critical success, winning three Latin Grammy Awards in the year 2000 for best merengue performance, best tropical song and best arrangement.

His hits include «Mi PC», «Palomita blanca» and «El Niágara en bicicleta». In 2007, he was the biggest winner with 6 Latin Grammy Awards. He won 3 Latin Grammy Awards in 2010, including 'A son de Guerra' as album of the year.​ In 2012, he won a Latin Grammy as Producer of the Year.​ He was also the biggest winner at the Latin Grammy Awards in 2015, with three gramophones.​Juan Luis Guerra has been one of the most internationally recognized Latin artists in recent decades. His style of mixing merengue and bolero, and the fusion of Afro-pop/jazz has earned him considerable success throughout Latin America. Guerra is generally associated with the popular Dominican music called bachata, and although this association is partly true, Guerra really uses the basic concepts of the bachata rhythm but with a more melodic bolero touch.​ He does not limit himself to a single music style, but incorporates various musical rhythms that include merengue, bolero, bachata, ballad, salsa, mambo, rock and roll and even gospel.

The song «Ojalá que llueva café» is one of his most acclaimed pieces. Guerra also did a remix of the song «La llave de mi corazón» with Taboo of the Black Eyed Peas, as a clear example of his genre fusion.​

Details

Nacimiento
7 jun 1957
País
🇩🇴 Dominican Republic
Género
Bachata

Awards and honors

  • Grammy
  • Latin Grammy

Record labels

*KAREN Records (1983–2000) *Venemusic (2004) *Capitol Latin (2007–present)

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