Juan luis guerra short biography
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BY JORDAN LEVIN
Posted on The Miami Herald, Fri, Jun. 21, One of the most beloved and influential artists in Latin music, Juan Luis Guerra -- who appears at the Miami Arena Sunday night -- is also one of the most independent, with a career that defies traditional commercial wisdom. The composer/singer, who brought the merengue of his beloved Dominican Republic to unprecedented levels of fame and sophistication with Bachata Rosa (), releases albums sporadically, is famously press shy, and tours rarely and briefly.
He is devoutly religious, and his witty, poetic songs often tackle social issues. El Niágara en bicicleta, the big hit off his last album, Ni es lo mismo, ni es igual (), compared the trials of going to a Third World hospital with crossing the famous Niagara Falls on a bicycle.
Guerra says he can't explain his success, and tries not to think about it in making his music. "I never thought about what I could do with my music; my work was just what I did," he says by phone from Santo Domingo. "I was searching for my own satisfaction, and the rest was just what came out. But you can't do things thinking about where it's going to end up. You just have to do what you have to do, and it works or it doesn't."
"Bacha
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Divine Sensuality: The Genius of Juan Luis Guerra
This is "perhaps the best moment of my career," says Juan Luis Guerra, probably the most famous Dominican on the planet, loved and recognized worldwide for his Merengue and Bachata hits. For an artist who never sought commercial fame, the songs of Juan Luis Guerra have become Latin America’s most famous and most enduring, making the continent dance, cry and laugh and, most importantly feel unequivocally Latin American, when they listen to him.
Visa para un sueño…
Born on June 7th of humble origins, it is quite astonishing that the man who was to write some of the most sublime compositions in Latin American history, grew up with no musical influences. “No one in my family was musical or played an instrument. My father was a good baseball player and a very good basketball player. He was a semi-professional athlete,” Guerra has said. “I started playing the guitar when I was about 10 years old. When I was older, I told my mother that becoming a musician was the only thing I wanted to do.”
As a teenager, heavily influenced by the Beatles, Juan Luis taught himself the basics of guitar playing and, after winning a contest, attended the National Conservatory on a scholarship, prior to studying at the famous Berklee Conservatory i
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Juan Luis Guerra
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