Juan Luis Guerra Biography
Juan Luis Guerra Biography:Juan Luis Guerra (1957-) is a musician from the Dominican Republic whose music has earned him international acclaim and popularity. He began to study music at the National Conservatory of the Dominican Republic and later at Berklee College of Music (LA Phil). He began releasing music with his band, the 4-40, in 1984 and has continued releasing music since (Ilich). Over the course of his career, he has won 18 Latin Grammy Awards and 3 Grammy awards (Ilich). His music draws from Merengue, an influential music style from the Dominican Republic, and combines that with elements from pop and jazz (LA Phil). He is widely considered one of the music popular artists from the Dominican Republic (Ilich).
Juan Luis Guerra Early Life
Juan Luis Guerra Seijas (born 7 June 1957) is a Dominican musician, singer, composer, and record producer. Throughout his career, he has won numerous awards including 28 Latin Grammy Awards, three Grammy Awards, and one Latin Billboard Music Award. He won 3 Latin Grammy Awards in 2010, including Album of the Year. In 2012, he won the Latin Grammy Award for Producer of the Year.He has sold 15 million records worldwide,making him one of the best-selling Latin music artists.
Juan Luis Guerra Family
Born Juan Luis Guerra Seijas, his parents were Gilberto Guerra Pacheco, and Olga Seijas Herrero. He has two brothers, José Gilberto, a plastic surgeon, and Diego Esteban, a graduate in business administration. He was a student at La Salle and Santa Teresita school, where he stood out for his love of sports. Before becoming interested in music, Guerra studied Philosophy and Literature at the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo. He later studied guitar and music theory at the Dominican Republic’s Conservatorio Nacional de Música (National Conservatory of Music) in Santo Domingo, and then decided to go to the United States to attend the Berklee College of Music in Boston, from which he graduated in 1982 with a diploma in jazz composition. He then returned to the Dominican Republic and formed a band with local musicians from his community.
Juan Luis Guerra Career
Guerra released his first album, Soplando (1984), with local musicians who became known as Juan Luis Guerra y 440. The number refers to the standard tuning of A440. The band’s name in Spanish is Cuatro Cuarenta (“Four Forty”). According to Guerra, this first album was based on jazz tunes and concepts he had learned at Berklee, and it “wasn’t intended to be a commercial hit.” Subsequently, however, he began to write more merengues.
In 1983, after a performance in front of the Dominican entrepreneur Bienvenido Rodríguez, Juan Luis Guerra was signed to Karen Records. This marked a radical shift in Guerra’s musical style toward merengue. In this period, he recorded two albums, Mudanza y Acarreo in 1985 and Mientras Más Lo Pienso…Tú in 1987. These works gained more recognition, and the band was nominated to attend the OTI (Organization of Iberoamerican Television) Festival to represent the Dominican Republic.
In 1988, during the recording of the album Ojalá Que Llueva Café, Guerra became the dominant vocalist of 440. This album also began his international recognition; the album’s sales topped the charts in many Latin American countries.
In 1990, 440 released their next album, Bachata Rosa, which became a major hit and earned Guerra his first Grammy award. With sales over five million, the album let Guerra keep touring Latin America, US and Europe. It contains memorable love songs such as “Burbujas de amor” (Bubbles of Love), “Bachata Rosa”, “Rosalía”, “Como abeja al panal” (Like a Bee to the Honeycomb), “A pedir su mano” (Asking For Her Hand), “Carta de amor” (Love Letter), and “Estrellitas y duendes” (Little stars and elves).
Guerra attracted controversy in 1992 after he released his next album, Areíto (which is a Taíno word for song and dance). It featured the hit single “El costo de la vida”, a song that decries corruption in Latin America and the rising costs of living as a consequence. Other songs included in this album protest the poor conditions in many Latin American countries, the celebration of the ‘discovery’ of the Americas (“1492”), and the double standards of first-world nations. “El costo de la vida” was his first number-one hit in the Hot Latin Tracks.
His next album, Fogaraté (1994) avoided such controversy. It focuses on more rural and lesser known types of Dominican music, like Perico Ripiao.
Guerra’s 1998 release Ni es lo mismo ni es igual (Neither The Same Nor Equal) won three Latin Grammys in 2000 for Best Merengue Performance, Best Tropical Song, and Best Engineered Album. Its hits include “Mi PC” (lit. “My PC”, My Computer), “Palomita Blanca” (Little White Dove), and “El Niágara en Bicicleta” (The Niagara on Bicycle).
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Juan Luis Guerra Net worth
Juan Luis Guerra is a Dominican musician, composer, and producer who has a net worth of $45 million dollars. Born in 1957 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Juan Luis Guerra is one of the most famous Latin artists in recent times. He attended Universidad Autonoma de Santo Domingo for literature and philosophy and later studied music at El Conservatorio Nacional de Musica de Santo Domingo before moving to the United States to enroll at the Berklee College of Music in Massachusetts. After graduating, Guerra moved back to the Dominican Republic and released his debut album, “Soplando”, in 1984 with several local musicians. They formed the group Juan Luis Guerra y 440 and he became the band’s lead singer during the late ’80s. 440’s 1991 album, “Bachata Rosa”, scored Guerra his first Grammy win as it sold more than five million copies around the world. The group’s 1992 album, “Areito”, generated controversy for its apparently anti-capitalist undertones.
Between 1984 and 2014, he has released nearly a dozen studio albums, with two charting on the Billboard 200: “Para Ti” in 2004 and “La llave de mi corzaon” in 2007. Still, four have been certified at least platinum, with “Para Ti” going triple platinum in the United States. Guerra’s albums have sold more than 30 million copies worldwide. He has won at least 15 Latin Grammy Awards, two Grammys, and two Latin Billboard Music Awards. His most recent award win came at the Latin Grammys in 2012 when he scored Producer of the Year honors. Guerra is a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador and organized a benefit concert to build a children’s hospital in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake.