Juan Luis Guerra
Juan Luis Guerra (born June 7, 1957 in Santo Domingo ) is a singer, guitarist and composer from the Dominican Republic . He is probably the best-known representative of the merengue , but also played an important role in the bachata .
Biography and Discography
Juan Luis Guerra was born in Santo Domingo and spent his youth there. After studying philosophy and literature at the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo for a year , he switched to the Conservatorio Nacional de Música , where he completed a four-year course. Guerra was a great admirer of the Cuban Nueva Trova during this period . The main representatives of this genre were Pablo Milanés and Silvio Rodríguez .
After studying at the Conservatory in Santo Domingo, Guerra went to the Berklee College of Music in Boston to study composition and arrangement.
After returning to the Dominican Republic, he released his first album, Soplando (1984), which he recorded with a group of local musicians. This group later became known as “Los 4:40” (pronounced: cuatro-cuarenta), where 440 stands for the frequency of the concert pitch A of 440 Hz.
Two more albums followed: Mudanza y acarreo , Mientras mas lo pienso… tú . While there was little international recognition, the band gained some fame in their own country, so that they were chosen as representatives of the Dominican Republic for the prestigious OTI festival.
Their next album came out in 1988 and brought them first international fame. Ojalá que llueva café ("Hopefully it's raining coffee") made it into the hit charts in many Latin American countries. A video was made for Ojalá que llueva café and Juan Luis Guerra and his 4:40 band went on tour (the song's huge hit was revived in 1996 with a cover version of Café Tacuba ). In the same year, singer Maridalia Hernández left and Juan Luis Guerra became the sole lead singer.
In 1991 they released their next album: Bachata Rosa . This was Guerra's greatest success up to then and gave him his first Grammy .
With the album Areito (1992), Guerra became a rather controversial figure in the Dominican Republic. With his songs he protested against the poor conditions in which many Dominicans have to live their lives, but some critics found this strange, as Guerra never had to deal with his own poverty in his life. Perhaps influenced by this, the next album Fogaraté (1995) did without protest songs.
His album Ni es lo mismo ni es igual (1998) is a work that has received critical acclaim. He won three Grammys in 2000 . By 1998, Juan Luis Guerra had sold over 15 million records worldwide. In 2004 the album Para ti was released, which testifies to Guerra's turn to evangelicalism . With Para ti, Juan Luis Guerra won two Billboard awards in 2005. Once for the best tropical album and once for the best gospel album in Spanish. Likewise, Juan Luis Guerra received two Grammys for the album Para ti in November 2005, once for the best gospel album in Spanish and once for the best tropical song for Las avispas. In 2005, Juan Luis Guerra received the Latino de Honor award from the Spanish Academy of Arts .
In 2005 Juan Luis Guerra went on tour. He gave six concerts at Madison Square Garden and Miami Arena that were sold out. Then it went on in Europe: Juan Luis Guerra also gave six concerts in Spain; he also gave a concert in Italy in Milan, one in Holland at the Ahoy Sport Palace and one in Denmark.
In December 2005, Juan Luis Guerra gave a concert in the Olympic Stadium in Santo Domingo in front of over 50,000 fans.
In February 2006, Juan Luis Guerra was invited to open the Rolling Stones concert in Puerto Rico . Juan Luis Guerra is the first Latin American artist to perform with the Rolling Stones. He sang ten of his greatest hits.
On March 20, 2007, his next record was released with the title La llave de mi corazón . The album landed at number 1 on the Billboard Latin Albums and the song La llave de mi corazón was number 1 on the Hot Latin Charts for 4 weeks. The album achieved platinum status in Argentina and gold status in Spain.
Style and meaning
At the latest with Bachata Rosa , Juan Luis Guerra advanced to an internationally celebrated star and the father of merengue . Numerous titles such as Guavaberry, A pedir su Mano, Los mangos, Rosalía, Vale la pena, El beso de la ciguatera, Woman del Callao, Farolito, La bilirrubina, Fogaraté and others testify to his lasting success. The merengue was also the place where Guerra was able to incorporate socially critical tones into his texts, such as B. in El costo de la vida (" cost of living ") or Visa para un sueño ("visa for a dream", about emigration ). Acompáñeme civil achieved cult status - it is about the everyday police corruption in the Dominican Republic. Some of Guerra's merengue songs, however, also show the genre-typical humor ( Mi PC , El primo ).
In addition to the merengue, Juan Luis Guerra has made a name for himself primarily with his bachatas : Bachata Rosa and Burbujas de amor are among his most famous pieces. For Frío frío , Guerra was inspired by a ballad by Federico García Lorca and Como abeja al panal plays with different bachata rhythms ( Solamente una vez is the title of a well-known bolero ).
In the field of salsa , Juan Luis Guerra has stood out above all with Carta de amor and Quisiera .
Others
Juan Luis Guerra is an uncle of Amelia Vega , who was elected Miss Universe in 2003 and whose mother Patricia Polanco had also already been elected Beauty Queen ( Miss Dominican Republic World , 1980).
Discography (selection)
Albums
| year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChartsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
 IT
|
|||
| 1995 | Grandes éxitos |
IT91  × 3
(2 weeks)IT |
Chart entry in Es only in 2006
|
| 2007 | La llave de mi corazón |
IT12  (71 weeks)IT |
|
| 2010 | Burbujas de amor - 30 grandes canciones románticas de Juan Luis Guerra |
IT18 (39 weeks) IT |
|
| A son de Guerra |
IT1 (40 weeks) IT |
||
| Ójala que llueva café (Edición espicial 20 aniversario) |
IT55 (5 weeks) IT |
||
| 2011 | ¡Que suba la bilirrubina! (Las grandes canciones para bailar) |
IT41 (15 weeks) IT |
|
| Antología |
IT79 (8 weeks) IT |
||
| 2012 | Colección cristiana |
IT41 (10 weeks) IT |
|
| 2012 - Quisiera ser un pez ... - Los grandes éxitos |
IT42 (15 weeks) IT |
||
| 2014 | Todo tiene su hora |
IT16 (44 weeks) IT |
|
| 2019 | Literal |
IT17 (10 weeks) IT |
Singles
| year | Title album |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChartsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
|
IT
|
|||
| 2010 | Cuando me enamoro |
IT6th (50 weeks)IT |
Enrique Iglesias feat. Juan Luis Guerra
|
| 2014 | Tus besos Todo tiene su hora |
IT44 (3 weeks) IT |
|
| 2015 | Suena la pelota |
IT73 (1 week) IT |
with Alejandro Sanz
|
Awards for music sales
|
|
|
Note: Awards in countries from the chart tables or chart boxes can be found in these.
| Country / Region |
gold |
platinum
|
Sales | swell |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Awards for music sales (country / region, awards, sales, sources) |
||||
 Argentina (CAPIF)
|
gold1
|
3 × platinum3
|
140,000 | capif.org.ar AR2 AR3 |
 Brazil (PMB)
|
gold1
|
- | 100,000 | pro-musicabr.org.br |
 Mexico (AMPROFON)
|
gold1
|
- | 30,000 | amprofon.com.mx |
|
Spain (Promusicae)
|
2 × gold2
|
19 × platinum19th
|
1,930,000 | elportaldemusica.es ES2 ES3 ES4 |
 United States (RIAA)
|
gold1
|
8 × platinum8th
|
510,000 | riaa.com |
| All in all |
6 × gold6th
|
30 × platinum30th
|
||
Web links
swell
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Guerra, Juan Luis |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Dominican singer, guitarist and composer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 7, 1957 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Santo Domingo , Dominican Republic |