Biography of juan luis guerra

Singer, songwriter

Juan Luis Guerra became one of the top-selling artists in Latin American music by revitalizing the traditional merengue sound and popularizing the so-called slum music, bachata, of his native Dominican Republic.

A major celebrity on the island nation, Guerra swept the Latin Grammys in 2007 by taking home five awards for his latest record, La Llave de Mi Corazón. A few months later, he also won the Grammy Award for Best Tropical Latin Album.

Guerra "has no equivalent in English-speaking pop, though there are parallels to songwriters like Paul Simon, Sting and Smokey Robinson," noted Jon Pareles in the New York Times, who explained that in the manner of both Simon and Sting, "Guerra has forged hybrid rhythms, melding merengue and other beats from the Dominican Republic with styles from across the Caribbean, guitar lines from Africa and touches of jazz and rock."

Guerra was born in 1957 to a middle class family in Santo Domingo, the capi