Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso, known as Celia Cruz, was a naturalized Cuban-American singer and one of the most popular Latin artists of the 20th century. Cruz rose to fame in Cuba during the 1950s as a singer of guarachas, earning the nickname "La Guarachera de Cuba". In the following decades, she became known internationally as the "Queen of Salsa" due to her contributions to Latin music.
Bartolomé Maximiliano Moré Gutiérrez, better known as Benny Moré, was a Cuban singer, bandleader and songwriter. Due to his fluid tenor voice and his great expressivity, he was known variously as El Bárbaro del Ritmo and El Sonero Mayor. Moré was a master of the soneo – the art of vocal improvisation in son cubano – and many of his tunes developed this way. He often took part in controversias with other singers like Cheo Marquetti and Joseíto Fernández. Apart from son cubano, Moré was a popular singer of guarachas, cha cha cha, mambo, son montuno, and boleros.
La Sonora Matancera is a Cuban band that played Latin American urban popular dance music. Founded in 1924 and led for more than five decades by guitarist, vocalist, composer, and producer Rogelio Martínez, musicologists consider it an icon of this type of music. Notable singers to have sung and recorded with the band include Bienvenido Granda, Daniel Santos, Myrta Silva, Miguelito Valdés, Leo Marini, Celia Cruz, Nelson Pinedo, Vicentico Valdés, Estanislao "Laíto" Sureda, Alberto Beltrán, Carlos Argentino, and Celio González.
Daniel Santos was a Puerto Rican singer and composer of boleros, and an overall performer of multiple Caribbean music genres, including guaracha, plena and rumba. Over the course of his career he adopted several names created by the public and became known as "El Jefe" and "El Inquieto Anacobero".
Ismael Miranda, also known as El Niño Bonito de la Salsa is a Puerto Rican singer and songwriter.
The guaracha is a genre of music that originated in Cuba, of rapid tempo and comic or picaresque lyrics. The word had been used in this sense at least since the late 18th and early 19th century. Guarachas were played and sung in musical theatres and in working-class dance salons. They became an integral part of bufo comic theatre in the mid-19th century. During the later 19th and the early 20th century the guaracha was a favourite musical form in the brothels of Havana. The guaracha survives today in the repertoires of some trova musicians, conjuntos and Cuban-style big bands.
Raulín Marte Rodríguez is a bachata artist, one of the first major bachata artists to have international success and popularize this style of music in the Dominican Republic.
Luis Segura, is a popular traditional Dominican singer who refers to himself as 'The Father of Bachata'. He is considered one of the best interpreters of traditional bachata with hits like "Pena por ti", "Dicen", and "No me celes tanto". Segura's first recordings were in the 1960s but it wasn't until his release of "Pena por ti" in the early 1970s that Segura hit stardom.
Luis Marquetti was a Cuban songwriter and composer. He was born in the town of Alquízar.
"Dos gardenias" is a bolero written in 1945 by Cuban composer and pianist Isolina Carrillo. Widely considered a standard of the Latin music repertoire, the song became a hit for Daniel Santos in 1948, due to his recording with La Sonora Matancera with an arrangement by Pérez Prado. Years later the composition would achieve international fame beyond the Spanish-speaking world thanks to Ibrahim Ferrer's 1996 recording with the Buena Vista Social Club collective.
Reinaldo Hierrezuelo La O, known professionally as Rey Caney, was a Cuban singer, guitarist, and tresero. Born in Santiago de Cuba as the youngest of 11 siblings, he led Cuarteto Patría for some time; this famous group is now led by Eliades Ochoa. In the middle 1950s, he took over Compay Segundo's place in the duo Los Compadres, as "Duo Los Compadres" they recorded for several record labels including Panart and Seeco, with the latter he also recorded as Rey Caney in New York City in 1960. The other partner being his elder brother Lorenzo Hierrezuelo. He and his brother sang together for thirty years. He also sang and played with many other groups, and finally came back to Santiago de Cuba to lead the Vieja Trova Santiaguera, one of the top groups in Cuba's second city. He also worked with his sister Caridad Hierrezuelo, a singer of guaracha style.
Blanca Rosa Gil is a famous Cuban Latin Bolero singer known as 'The Singing Dolly'.
Ritmos del Caribe is a Mexican musical film directed by Juan José Ortega. It was released in 1950 and starring Amalia Aguilar and Rafael Baledón.
Enrique González Castillo, nicknamed La Pulga, was a Cuban singer-songwriter from Santiago de Cuba. His two most famous works are the boleros "Injusta duda" and "Lupina", which have been recorded by artists such as Arsenio Rodríguez and Compay Segundo, respectively. The latter was written for danzonete singer Pablo Quevedo in 1934. His repertoire included boleros, canciones, guarachas and guajiras written by himself. The height of his career took place in the 1930s and '40s in Havana, where he was the guitarist for Benny Moré before he joined Conjunto Matamoros to tour Mexico. In addition, he was part of several other vocal groups, collaborating with famous guarachero Ñico Saquito.
Napoleón Nelson Pinedo Fedullo was a singer from Barranquilla, Colombia. In 1954, Pinedo began a five-year career with the Sonora Matancera, a Cuban ensemble, which at the time had widespread fame in Latin America. He incorporated various Colombian songs into the band's repertoire— many of which were adapted to Cuban rhythms such as the Bolero.
Francisco Fellove Valdés, also known as El Gran Fellove, was a Cuban songwriter and singer. A prolific composer of the feeling generation, he is well known for his particular style of scat singing known as chua chua. He is the author of the famous guaracha-pregón "Mango mangüé", recorded by Machito and Celia Cruz among others. He was the cousin of conga drummer Carlos "Patato" Valdés.
Alberto Amancio Beltrán was a Dominican singer, known as "El Negrito del Batey", after his first signature tune. He mainly sang in the genres of bolero, son montuno, mambo, merengue, and guaracha. After recording in the Dominican Republic with René Hernandez' orchestra, he moved to New York City in 1961 to work with La Sonora Matancera.
Enrique Raúl Planas Fernández was a popular Cuban singer and songwriter. He performed and recorded with many bands and musicians, including Carlos Barbería y su Orquesta Kubavana, Sonora Matancera, Celia Cruz, Conjunto Rumbavana, Conjunto Chappottín, Charanga Rubalcaba, Rubén González, and the Afro-Cuban All Stars.
Humberto Rodríguez Silva was a Cuban songwriter and judge. He composed many popular afros and guarachas such as "La negra Cacha", "Se me rompió el bongó" and "A caridad le da santo", as well as boleros such as "Pecador". He also wrote numerous soundtracks for Cuban and American films, such as When Women Rule.
This article includes an overview of the major events and trends in Latin music in the 1980s, namely in Ibero-America. This includes recordings, festivals, award ceremonies, births and deaths of Latin music artists, and the advancement and adjournment of the genre from 1980 to 1989.
