Romeo Santos

If your body shivers on Latin rhythms, you are ready to sit over Romeo Santos’s music. For Latin music fans, it doesn’t get much better than the beats and lyrics of this Dominican-American singer, featured composer and former lead singer of the Bachata group Aventura. And his aventura (adventure) to the cliffs of success has just begun.

The 30-year-old Romeo Santos, who was born in The Bronx, New York, to a Dominican father & Puerto Rican mother, discovered his true passion – music – when he was twelve and entered the church choir. After writing poems at 13, Romeo began writing songs with other singers in mind, until friends encouraged him to sing for himself and he joined Bachata, drawing serious efforts to make the quartet popular. As part of the group, Santos performed in both English and Spanish, but his and the band’s work were widely ignored by the English-language media at the beginning. However, things started to change and step by step, Bachata’s hits reached near the top of the Billboard Latin charts and the top of charts on the European continent. For instance, nine years ago, when most of you were just learning to walk, one of the band’s songs, “Obsesión” maintained its number one position in Italy for sixteen consecutive weeks.

But enough with the history lesson. Santos is now going solo with his freshly released solo debut album, Formula Vol.1. The first single from this album, “You“, was released in May and became a number-one debut on the Hot Latin Songs and Tropical Songs chart, while his second single, “Promise” which features a duet with Usher peaked at number #1 on the Hot Latin Songs chart and number one on the Tropical Songs chart. As for the album, it sold more than 60,000 copies in its first week so Santos is very happy. The album beat out Planet Pit, by Miami rapper Pitbull; La mejor de todas by the Mexican group Banda El Recodo; and Independiente by Guatemalan singer-songwriter Ricardo Arjona but it’s not a huge surprise if you sit down and listen to the album. Some say that the key of success is the fusion of Santos’s Bachata roots of Dominican folk-pop with modern R&B and hip-hop because this new “lady-killer with an unearthly falsetto” as Rolling Stone magazine described him, persuaded Lil Wayne, Usher, Pitbull, Mario Domm, Camila, La Mala Rodriguez and Tomati to lend a hand on the album. Plus, the album features an opening skit with special guest George Lopez. “Suave, sweet-voiced singer Romeo is a major star and heartthrob…For a decade now, bachata has belonged to Mr. Santos, who has been one of the most prominent Latin singers in the country. “Formula Vol. 1? will be his solo debut, [and finds] Mr. Santos broadening his palette” wrote New York Times before the release.

Despite the critical appraise, Romeo Santos wants more. He wants to take his talent to another level and prove that he can do more than singing and writing so he will star in a Will Smith-produced comedy series slated to air on ABC. He will try his acting skills playing the role of a Dominican American torn between his parents’ traditional roots and his own ideas of success. Would this project be based on his own life? It’s possible as Santos has a lot to prove to his fans and to himself and his recent success is just a small baby comparing to what the future holds for him.