Thursday, 23 June 2016

Romeo Santos


Anthony Santos (born July 21, 1981), known professionally as Romeo Santos, is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, featured composer and former lead singer of the Bachata group Aventura. Due to his quick and recent rise to stardom, and his worldwide commercial success both as a member of Aventura and as a solo artist, he is considered by many to be The King of Bachata Music. As a member of Aventura, Santos was a key figure in popularizing Bachata, with hits reaching near the top of the Billboard Latin charts and the top of charts in Europe. In 2002, the band's song "Obsesión" was number one in Italy for sixteen consecutive weeks. After releasing several albums with Aventura, the group went its separate ways. Since then, Romeo has embarked on a solo career which in three years has spawned seven number one songs on the Hot Latin Songs chart and eight number ones on the Tropical Songs chart.

In 2012, he sold out New York City’s famous Madison Square Garden three nights in a row. The performance was then turned into a CD/DVD package and subsequently released as a live album, The King Stays King: Sold Out at Madison Square Garden.

In 2013, Formula, Vol. 1 received a Grammy nomination for Best Tropical Latin Album.

In 2014, he conquered another New York landmark, Yankee Stadium, selling out an entire double-header show. Those concerts made history for Santos, becoming the first Latin artist to headline at the Stadium. The Fania All-Stars last did so, one block south at the old Yankee Stadium on August 24, 1973.

His sophomore album Formula, Vol. 2 was released February 25, 2014. Featuring collaborations with Drake, Nicki Minaj, Marc Anthony, Carlos Santana, Tego Calderón, and Kevin Hart. “Formula Vol.2” became the best selling Latin album of 2014.

Santos was one of the most frequently played artists on jukeboxes across New York City neighborhoods, second only to The Rolling Stones. The analysis, by digital jukebox company TouchTunes and the Wall Street Journal, covered listening patterns in from March 2014 to February 2015.
Santos made his Hollywood debut in the film Furious 7, released April 2015, alongside Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, and Paul Walker.He was nervous about acting in Furious 7 but the cast made him feel welcome.

Santos was born on July 21, 1981, in The Bronx, New York City, to a Dominican father and a Puerto Rican mother. He had a humble upbringing, with his father working construction and his mother staying at home to take care of the family. He joined his church’s choir at age 12. At the same time, he developed a great passion for bachata music, long before it became popular around the world, when he was 15.

Before the success of Aventura, Santos founded a group called “Los Tinellers” ("The Teenagers" written phonetically in a Dominican pronunciation), with his cousin Henry and two friends in the early 1990s. The group released an album called Trampa De Amor, and by the end of the decade, they changed the name of the band to Aventura.

The group, for which Romeo was the main songwriter and producer, released 5 studio albums in a decade, spawning many top 10 hits like "Un Beso", “Los Infieles”, “El Perdedor”, “Por Un Segundo”, “Dile Al Amor” and probably their most popular song, “Obsesión”.

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