Danny Rivera is a singer and songwriter born in San Juan whose career spans nearly 50 years. He is well known in Puerto Rico for his political activism. In 2008, Rivera acquired Dominican Republic citizenship. After 12 years of work, Danny Rivera and Nelson González in 2014 finished work putting new life into the classical bolero - in Spanish. Rivera and González Hit the Heart of the Latin American Song Book on Obsesión
The Music of Puerto Rico has evolved as a heterogeneous and dynamic product of diverse cultural resources. The most conspicuous musical sources of Puerto Rico have primarily included African, Indigenous, and European influences, although many aspects of Puerto Rican music reflect origins elsewhere in the Caribbean. Puerto Rican music culture today comprises a wide and rich variety of genres, ranging from essentially native genres such as bomba, danza, and plena to more recent hybrid genres such as salsa, Latin trap and reggaeton. Broadly conceived, the realm of "Puerto Rican music" should naturally comprise the music culture of the millions of people of Puerto Rican descent who have lived in the United States, especially in New York City. Their music, from salsa to the boleros of Rafael Hernández, cannot be separated from the music culture of Puerto Rico itself.
Plena is a genre of music and dance native to Puerto Rico.
Héctor Juan Pérez Martínez, better known as Héctor Lavoe, was a Puerto Rican salsa singer. Lavoe is considered to be possibly the best and most important singer and interpreter in the history of salsa music because he helped to establish the popularity of this musical genre in the decades of 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. His personality, style and the qualities of his voice led him to a successful artistic career in the whole field of Latin music and salsa during the 1970s and 1980s. The cleanness and brightness of his voice, coupled with impeccable diction and the ability to sing long and fast phrases with total naturalness, made him one of the favorite singers of the Latin public.
Pedro Ortiz Dávila, better known as Davilita, was a popular Puerto Rican singer of boleros and patriotic songs. He was the first artist to record the Rafael Hernández standard "Lamento Borincano".
Luis Felipe Rodríguez, better known as Felipe "La Voz" Rodríguez, born in Caguas, Puerto Rico, was a singer of boleros. He is regarded as the most popular Puerto Rican male singer of the 1950s based on record sales and live audience records. Many of Rodríguez's recordings are often considered to be classics in Puerto Rico.
Aguinaldo It is a genre of Puerto Rican and Venezuelan traditional and cultural music, popular in several Latin American countries., based on Spanish Christmas carols or villancicos which is traditionally sung on Christmas itself or during the holiday season. Aguinaldo music is often performed by parrandas - a casual group of people, often family or friends, who merrily go from house to house taking along their singing. The instruments used are four, maracas and drums. Some popular aguinaldos are Burrito Sabanero (Venezuela), El Asalto, Feliz Navidad, and De la Montaña Venimos.
Enrique Arsenio Lucca Quiñones better known as Papo Lucca, is a Puerto Rican multi-instrumentalist best known for his pianist skills. His main musical genres are Salsa and Latin Jazz. He ranks with the late Charlie Palmieri, as one of the best piano instrumentalists in Latin Jazz and Salsa. He is the co-founder with his father Don Enrique "Quique" Lucca Caraballo of the Puerto Rican band La Sonora Ponceña. He has also played and recorded with the Fania All-Stars, Hector Lavoe, Willie Colón, Celia Cruz, Johnny Pacheco, Bobby Valentín, Ismael Quintana, Gloria Estefan, Adalberto Santiago, Andy Montañez, Pablo Milanés, and Rubén Blades. He is also a well-known music arranger.
Feliz Navidad (1982) is Menudo's 12th album, and third Christmas album. The album was originally released in late 1982 with ten tracks and reissued in late 1983 with fourteen tracks. Both versions of this album have two different covers, with the second cover featuring Ricky Meléndez, Johnny Lozada, Xavier Serbiá, Miguel Cancel, and Charlie Massó. Both are compilations containing songs from their past Christmas albums Felicidades and Es Navidad.
Julio César "Tito" Rojas López, also known as "El Gallo Salsero", was a Puerto Rican salsa singer and songwriter.
Vicente Carattini, was a singer and composer of Puerto Rican Christmas-related songs.
The cuatro is a family of Latin American string instruments played in Puerto Rico, Venezuela and other Latin American countries. It is derived from the Spanish guitar. Although some have viola-like shapes, most cuatros resemble a small to mid-sized classical guitar. In Puerto Rico and Venezuela, the cuatro is an ensemble instrument for secular and religious music, and is played at parties and traditional gatherings.
Víctor Guillermo "Yomo" Toro was a Puerto Rican left-handed guitarist and cuatro player. Known internationally as "The King of the Cuatro," Toro recorded over 150 albums throughout a 60-year career and worked extensively with Cuban legends Arsenio Rodríguez and Alfonso "El Panameño" Joseph; salsa artists Willie Colón, Héctor Lavoe and Rubén Blades; and artists from other music genres including Frankie Cutlass, Harry Belafonte, Paul Simon, Linda Ronstadt and David Byrne.
Miguel Poventud a.k.a. "El Niño Prodigio de Guayama" and "Miguelito", was a Puerto Rican musician, singer, actor and composer of Boleros. Among the singers who have interpreted his musical compositions are Johnny Albino, Héctor Lavoe and Daniel Santos.
The Coro de Niños de Ponce is a children's choir in Ponce, Puerto Rico, founded in 1983. The choir is directed by founder María Inés Suárez. In 1993, the choir won first place at the International Children’s Choir Festival in Des Moines, Iowa.
The Feria de Artesanías de Ponce, formally, Feria de Artesanías y Muestra de Arte de Ponce, is an event that takes place every year in Ponce, Puerto Rico, where artists, craftspeople and artisans showcase their products. The products showcased are traditionally hand-made and in small quantities. The fair centers around crafts that highlight the traditional cultural background of Puerto Rico, including Taino, African, and Spanish traditions. The event started in 1974 and is reported to draw "thousands of visitors". It lasts three days and is held over a weekend during the month of April.
Las Mañanitas is an annual event held in Ponce, Puerto Rico, dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe. It consists of a pre-dawn popular parade, followed by a Catholic Mass, and a popular town breakfast hosted by the municipal government. It takes place on 12 December, and is a traditional event sponsored by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Ponce but attended by Catholic leaders from Puerto Rico at large. Widely covered by the press every year, the event is attended by over 10,000 people, including religious and political leaders and the general public. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the 2020 celebration will take place in a modified program fashion: there will be no walked procession, as traditionally done, but instead the Eucharist will be televised and would-be attendees can instead celebrate Las Mañanitas from their own homes.
Edwin Colón Zayas, is a Puerto Rican cuatro player from Puerto Rico. He joins a large number of Puerto Rican artists, "innovative tradition-bearing," who focus their talents in extolling the virtues of the Puerto Rican creole and Jíbaro way of life.
Rubén Colón Tarrats is a Puerto Rican composer, clarinet player and band director from Ponce, Puerto Rico. He also conducted the Banda Municipal de Ponce for ten years. He received his music training at Escuela Libre de Música de Ponce, Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico, and Temple University College of Music, and was a music professor at Ponce High School, Instituto de Musica Juan Morel Campos, and Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Puerto Rico.
"Aguanilé" is a song composed by American-Puerto Rican trombonist Willie Colón and Puerto Rican singer Héctor Lavoe and being recorded by themselves as the first single from their seventh studio album El Juicio released in 1972. Its origin comes from the Yoruba culture in Cuba and means "spiritual cleansing for your house" perhaps referring to Lavoe's drug problems.
