This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations .(November 2011) |
Lester Mendez | |
---|---|
Origin | Havana, Cuba |
Occupation(s) | Producer, Songwriter, Composer, Arranger, Audio Engineer |
Instrument(s) | Piano, Keyboards, Synthesizers, modular synthesizers, Drums, Programming (music), Percussion |
Lester Mendez is a multi-platinum, Grammy award-winning record producer, songwriter and composer. His production/writing credits include a multitude of successful hits with Shakira, Jewel, Nelly Furtado, Jessica Simpson, Enrique Iglesias, and others.
Starting out professionally as a session musician and programmer, he worked on a variety of music and genres, including Hip hop, Miami bass, Freestyle music, House music / Deep house, World music, Pop music and Latin pop. Mendez's keyboard, programming, arranging, and remixing credits include artists such as: Jimmy Page, David Coverdale, David Byrne, Spice Girls, Pet Shop Boys, Grace Jones, PM Dawn, Bee Gees, Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin, Babyface, Martika, Chris de Burgh, Johnny Mathis, Will Smith, Collective Soul, Angélique Kidjo, Byron Stingily, Exposé, Paris by Air, Gloria Estefan, Chynna Phillips, Regina Belle, Gerald Alston, Phyllis Hyman, Jaydee, Haddaway, Deep Forest, Lonnie Gordon, Cerrone, Jimmy "Bo" Horne, Murk (band), Funky Green Dogs, Qkumba Zoo, Wubble-U, Nuclear Valdez, Afro-Rican, Lulu, the seminal freestyle band Will To Power (band), and many others.
His early production / songwriting career saw him working with Chris Blackwell's Island Records artists Grace Jones, Angélique Kidjo, Baaba Maal, Dominican-born rapper Mangu (rapper) , and others.
As his career continued to grow as a producer & songwriter, he went on to work with a number of artists, including: Carlos Santana, Jason Mraz, Josh Groban, Dido, Sia, Nelly Furtado, Shakira, Seal, Donna Summer, Anastacia, Ricky Martin, Enrique Iglesias, Sean Paul, Jem, Kerli, Oh land, Ladyhawke, Mike Posner, Sam Sparro, Mr Little Jeans, Adam Lambert, PlayRadioPlay!, Tarkan, Mark Feehily, Skylar Stecker, Rittz, She Is We and others. Most recently, he founded a project called Gemini Rising, in which he writes and produces all the music. Fellow collaborators on the project are Fiora (musician) and Tensnake. He also produced and co-wrote all 10 songs on the debut album by Claude Fontaine, a project he co-developed and co-conceived with Claude. The album was released on Innovative Leisure Records in the spring of 2019.
Award | Year | Category | Work | Result | Ref(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Grammy Awards | 2006 | Best Latin Rock or Alternative Album | Fijación Oral, Vol. 1 | Won | [1] |
Latin Grammy Awards | 2006 | Album of the Year | Fijación Oral, Vol. 1 | Won | [2] |
Best Female Pop Vocal Album | Won | ||||
Record of the Year | "La Tortura" | Won |
Artist | Song | Album | Producer | Co-Writer |
---|---|---|---|---|
Claude Fontaine | Lover's Vow | La Mer | × | × |
Claude Fontaine | Laissez-Moi L'aimer | La Mer | × | × |
Claude Fontaine | Love The Way You Love | La Mer | × | × |
Claude Fontaine | Vaqueiro | La Mer | × | × |
Niko Rubio | Feliz Por Conocerte | Mar y Tierra EP | × | |
Niko Rubio | 30 Mil Pies | Mar y Tierra EP | × | × |
Niko Rubio | Sirena (feat. Cuco) | Mar y Tierra EP | × | × |
Niko Rubio | Besito | Mar y Tierra EP | × | × |
Loyal Lobos | Una Bitch | Single | Co-Producer | |
Loyal Lobos | Pienso En Ti | Single | Co-Producer | |
Loyal Lobos | Si Tu No Esta Aqui | Single | Co-Producer | |
Haley Reinhart | Off The Ground | Off The Ground - Single | × | |
Tensnake | Nightshift (feat. Fiora) | L.A. | Co-Producer | × |
Coco Morier | After Hours | After Hours - Single | × | × |
Gemini Rising | Best Case Life | Best Case Life | × | × |
Speed Of Sound | × | × | ||
Sunrise Boulevard | × | × | ||
Just Because | × | × | ||
After The Rain | × | × | ||
Orbit | × | × | ||
Morph | × | × | ||
Stars Come To An End | × | × | ||
Close Enough To Breathe | × | × | ||
The Future | × | × | ||
Tangy | × | × | ||
Nightsky | × | × | ||
Let It Go By | × | × | ||
Claude Fontaine | Cry For Another | Claude Fontaine | × | × |
Hot Tears | × | × | ||
Little Sister | × | × | ||
Love Street | × | × | ||
Play By Play | × | × | ||
Pretending He Was You | × | × | ||
I'll Play The Fool | × | × | ||
Strings Of Your Guitar | × | × | ||
Footprints In The Sand | × | × | ||
Our Last Goodbye | × | × | ||
Josh Groban | Musica Del Corazon | Bridges | × | × |
Delhia De France | Waterfalls | Moirai EP | Co-Producer | × |
Tensnake | Hello? | Hello - Single | Co-Producer | × |
Gemini Rising | Best Case Life | Gemini Rising-EP | × | × |
Sunrise Boulevard | × | × | ||
Stellaris | × | × | ||
Better Days | × | × | ||
Svala | Paper | Eurovision Song Contest 2017 | × | × |
Skylar Stecker | Everlasting | This is me | × | × |
Kerli | Feral Hearts | Deepest Roots | × | × |
Walking on Air | Love is Dead | × | × | |
Hurt Me | × | × | ||
She is We | Blue | War | × | × |
Marcus Feehily | Find My Way | Fire | × | × |
Coco Morier | No Pressure | Dreamer | × | × |
Dreamer | × | × | ||
World on Fire | × | × | ||
No Stranger(To Love) | × | × | ||
Walking In Our Sleep | × | × | ||
All Cats Are Grey | × | × | ||
Blood Moon | × | × | ||
Dido | Stoned | Life For Rent | × | |
Just Say Yes | Girl Who Got Away | × | ||
Santana | Saideira feat. Samuel Rosa | Corazón | × | |
La Flaca feat. Juanes | × | |||
Mal Bicho feat. Los Fabulosos Cadillacs | × | |||
Iron Lion Zion feat. Ziggy Marley & ChocQuibTown | × | |||
Una Noche en Nápoles feat. Lila Downs, Niña Pastori & Soledad | × | |||
Margarita feat. Romeo Santos | × | |||
Feel It Coming Back feat. Diego Torres | × | |||
Amor Correspondido feat. Diego Torres | × | |||
Cry Baby Cry feat. Joss Stone & Sean Paul | All That I Am | × | × | |
Brown Skin Girl feat. Bo Bice | × | |||
I Am Somebody feat. Will.I.AM | × | |||
Amore (Sexo) feat. Macy Gray | Shaman | × | × | |
Satellite feat. Marc Anthony | × | × | ||
Why Don't You & I feat. Chad Kroeger | × | |||
You Are My Kind feat. Seal | × | |||
Shakira | Antes De Las Seis | Sale El Sol | × | × |
Lo Que Más | × | |||
Illegal feat. Carlos Santana | Oral Fixation, Vol.2 | × | × | |
Don't Bother | × | |||
How Do You Do | × | |||
Dreams For Plans | × | |||
Your Embrace | × | |||
Costume For A Clown | × | |||
Timor | × | |||
La Tortura feat Alejandro Sanz | Fijación Oral, Vol.1 | × | ||
La Pared | × | × | ||
No feat Gustavo Cerati | × | × | ||
Obtener Un Si | × | × | ||
Escondite Inglés | × | |||
Las de la Intuición | × | |||
Dia De Enero | × | |||
Lo Imprescindible | × | × | ||
Underneath Your Clothes | Laundry Service | × | × | |
Objection (Tango) | × | × | ||
Rules | × | × | ||
Ready For The Good Times | × | × | ||
The One | × | |||
Fool | × | |||
Te Dejo Madrid | × | |||
Octavo Día | Dónde Están los Ladrones? | × | × | |
Ciega, Sordomuda | × | |||
Tú | × | |||
Moscas En La Casa | × | |||
Que Vuelvas | × | |||
Sean Paul | Cry Baby Cry feat. Joss Stone & Sean Paul | The Trinity | × | × |
Nelly Furtado | Más | Mi Plan | × | × |
Como Lluvia feat. Juan Luis Guerra | × | × | ||
Silencio feat. Josh Groban | × | × | ||
Vacación | × | × | ||
Te Busqué feat. Juanes | Loose | × | × | |
Undercover | × | × | ||
What I Wanted | × | × | ||
For Sure | × | × | ||
Nelly Furtado | Stars | The Best of Nelly Furtado | × | × |
Enrique Iglesias | Sad Eyes | Enrique | × | |
Enrique Iglesias | "Quizás" (Enrique Iglesias song) | Quizás | × | × |
Para Qué la Vida | × | × | ||
Mentiroso | × | |||
Josh Groban | Un Alma Mas feat Arturo Sandoval | All That Echoes | × | × |
E Ti Prometerro feat Laura Pausini | × | × | ||
False Alarms | × | |||
Voce Existe Em Mi | Illuminations | × | ||
Sam Sparro | Return To Paradise | Return To Paradise | × | × |
Adam Lambert | Broken English | Trespassing | × | × |
Shady feat Nile Rodgers & Sam Sparro | × | × | ||
Donna Summer | Be Myself Again | Crayons | × | × |
PlayRadioPlay! | Loco Motion | Texas | × | |
Madi | × | |||
Pirate & Princess | × | |||
See U Soon | × | |||
Tooth Decay | × | |||
Attendance | × | |||
Texas | × | |||
Jason Mraz | Mr.Curiosity | Mr. A–Z | × | |
Madi Diaz | Ghost Rider | Phantom | × | × |
Jewel | Forever and a Day (Always) | Lullaby | × | |
Jewel | Drive To You | Goodbye Alice In Wonderland | × | |
Stand | 0304 | × | × | |
Run 2 U | × | × | ||
Intuition | × | × | ||
Leave The Lights On | × | × | ||
2 Find You | × | × | ||
Fragile Heart | × | |||
Doin' Fine | × | × | ||
2 Become 1 | × | |||
Haunted | × | × | ||
Sweet Temptation | × | |||
Yes U Can | × | |||
U & Me=Love | × | × | ||
America | × | × | ||
Becoming | × | × | ||
Rittz | Switch Lanes feat Mike Posner | The Life and Times of Jonny Valiant | × | × |
Oh land | Helicopter | Oh land | × | × |
Ladyhawke | Human | Anxiety | × | |
Mr Little Jeans | Back To You | Pocketknife | × | × |
Far From Home | × | × | ||
Katie Noonan | Sweet One feat. Sia | Emperor's Box | × | |
Lamya | Black Mona Lisa - Single Mix | Learning from Falling | × | |
Anastacia | You'll Be Fine | Heavy Rotation | × | × |
Naughty | × | × | ||
Same Song | × | |||
All Fall Down | × | |||
The Way I See It | × | |||
Wyclef Jean | Three Nights In Rio feat. Carlos Santana | The Preacher's Son | × | |
Mýa | Do You Only Want To Dance | Dirty Dancing : Havana Nights | × | × |
Jem | It's Amazing | Down To Earth | × | × |
I Want You To | × | × | ||
I Always Knew | × | × | ||
On Top OF The World | × | × | ||
Once in Every Lifetime | Eragon | × | × | |
Jeffree Star | Get Physical | Beauty Killer | × | × |
Gorgeous | × | × | ||
Kiss it Better | Single | × | × | |
Jessica Simpson | A Public Affair | A Public Affair | × | × |
The Lover In Me | × | |||
Let Him Fly | × | |||
Paulina Rubio | Algo De Ti | Gran City Pop | × | |
A Contra Luz | × | |||
Escaleras De Arena | × | |||
Angelique Kidjo | Fifa | Fifa | × | |
Akwaba | × | |||
Baaba Maal | Yele ( Hamady Bogle) | Single | × |
The 44th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 27, 2002, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. The main recipient was Alicia Keys, winning five Grammys, including Best New Artist and Song of the Year for "Fallin'". U2 won four awards including Record of the Year and Best Rock Album, while opening the show with a performance of "Walk On".
Enrique Miguel Iglesias Preysler is a Spanish singer and songwriter. He started his recording career in the mid-1990s on the Mexican label Fonovisa and became the bestselling Spanish-language act of the decade. By the turn of the millennium, he made a successful crossover into the mainstream English-language market. He signed a multi-album deal with Universal Music Group for US$68 million with Universal Music Latino to release his Spanish albums and Interscope Records to release English albums. Enrique is the third child of Spanish singer-songwriter Julio Iglesias.
Latin American music has long influenced popular music in the United States. Within the industry, "Latin music" has influenced jazz, rhythm and blues, and country music, even giving rise to unique US styles of music, including salsa, New Mexico, Tejano, and Western. Fusion genres such as Chicano rock, Nuyorican rap, and Chicano rap have emerged from Latin communities within the United States.
Latin pop is a pop music subgenre that is a fusion of US–style music production with Latin music genres from anywhere in Latin America and Spain. Originating with Spanish-speaking musicians, Latin pop may also be made by musicians in Portuguese and the various Romance Creole languages. Latin pop usually combines upbeat Latin music with American pop music. Latin pop is commonly associated with Spanish-language pop, rock, and dance music.
"Te Busqué" is a song recorded by Canadian singer Nelly Furtado for her third studio album Loose (2006). It features guest vocals from Juanes, who co-wrote the song with Furtado and its sole producer Lester Mendez. The song was released as the fifth European single from Loose on July 20, 2007, by Geffen Records and Mosley Music Group.
Brian West is a Canadian record producer, songwriter, and musician. Formerly of the production team Track and Field, he is best known for his work with Nelly Furtado, Maroon 5, Awolnation, K'naan, and Bono. He co-produced Andy Grammer's single Honey, I'm Good with Steve Greenberg and Nolan Sipe. His most recent release, "Salted Wound," sung by Sia, is on the Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack. West has been nominated for an Academy Award, two Grammy Awards and has won seven Juno Awards. West is a guitarist for the Canadian band The Philosopher Kings.
The first annual MTV Video Music Awards Latinoamérica 2002 took place on October 24, 2002, in Miami at the Jackie Gleason Theater.
Mi Plan is the fourth studio album and the first Spanish-language album by Canadian singer-songwriter Nelly Furtado. It was released independently on September 11, 2009 by Furtado’s own record label Nelstar Entertainment with distribution by Universal Music Latino. This marks Furtado’s first independently released album. Recording sessions for the album took place from 2008 to 2009. The album was produced primarily by Furtado with other contributions made by James Bryan, Lester Mendez, Salaam Remi, The Demolition Crew, Julieta Venegas and Brian West. Furtado described the songs on the album to be "simple love songs".
"Más" is a Spanish-language song recorded by Canadian singer-songwriter Nelly Furtado. It was released on December 18, 2009, and the first of four songs to be released during an iTunes promotion counting down the release to her fourth studio album, Mi Plan. The song was written by Nelly Furtado, Lester Mendez and Andrés Recio and produced by Lester Mendez.
The 11th Annual Latin Grammy Awards were held on Thursday, November 11, 2010, at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was the third time the annual event had taken place at this location. The eligibility period for recordings to be nominated was July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010. Nominations were announced on September 8, 2010. On September 14, 2010, it was announced that the Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year honoree would be Plácido Domingo. The big winners of the night were Camila, Juan Luis Guerra and Gustavo Cerati with three awards.
Telehit Awards is a Mexican award that recognizes the greatest music events in Mexico, and broadcast by Telehit channel.
George Noriega is an American Grammy-winning, Emmy-nominated songwriter and record producer. He is the owner of Cutting Cane Productions and Cutting Cane Publishing, based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Geoffrey Royce Rojas, known professionally as Prince Royce, is an American singer. At an early age, Royce took an interest in music, and in his teenage years began experimenting with music and writing poetry. By age nineteen, Royce met Andrés Hidalgo, who became his manager. Hidalgo later introduced Royce to record producer Sergio George, who immediately signed him to his label after hearing three of his demos.
Paul Michael Barry is a British songwriter and musician. He has written or co-written a number of well known songs, including "Believe" by Cher, "Hero" and "Bailamos" by Enrique Iglesias and the five-times platinum U.S. single "Let It Go" by James Bay. He has won three Ivor Novello Awards and ASCAP PRS writer of the year 2000. He has also achieved three US number-one singles, as well as other number-ones around the world.
The 9th Lo Nuestro Awards ceremony, presented by Univision honoring the best Latin music of 1996 and 1997 took place on May 8, 1997, at a live presentation held at the James L. Knight Center in Miami, Florida. The ceremony was broadcast in United States and Latin America by Univision.
The 11th Lo Nuestro Awards ceremony, presented by Univision honoring the best Latin music of 1998 and 1999 took place on May 6, 1999, at a live presentation held at the James L. Knight Center in Miami, Florida. The ceremony was broadcast in the United States and Latin America by Univision.
The introduction of Latin music in Canada began during the immigration waves of Hispanics into the country. The commercialization of Latin music emerged during the "Latin explosion" or "Latin invasion" of the 1990s after American Latinos began competing with Canadian recording artists and receiving music certifications issued by Music Canada. Since 1999, Latin musicians have gained popularity on radios, at nightclubs, music festivals, and appearances on television in Canada.
Jose Miguel Velasquez is a Venezuelan-born composer, music producer and vocal coach to several internationally famous recording artists. He currently resides in Miami, Florida, United States. He has been the recipient of two BMI Awards and a Latin Grammy Award.
Mau & Ricky is a Venezuelan Latin pop and reggaeton duo formed by singer-songwriter brothers Mauricio Alberto "Mau" Reglero Rodríguez and Ricardo Andrés "Ricky" Reglero Rodríguez, both sons of Argentine-Venezuelan singer Ricardo Montaner.