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Biography
Born in New York City, U.S., however raised in the city of Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, Elvis Crespo’s musical journey began as a member of the Willie Berrios Orchestra in 1988. The singer subsequently became a member of Toño Rosario for six years, after which he studied business administration at the Metropolitan University of Puerto Rico, before joining the popular merengue group Grupo Manía. The addition of Crespo to the group in 1994 led to Grupo Mania’s most successful period, with the release of the popular albums “Explotó el Bombazo” (1994) and “Dance Manía” (1995).
In 1998 Elvis Crespo, named after Elvis Presley, decided to pursue a solo career and released his debut album “Suavemente” the same year. Aided by its crossover appeal to English-speaking listener, the album performed remarkably well in both Latin America and the U.S., later winning the Best Male Tropical/Salsa Album of the Year from Billboard Magazine. A year later arrived
Crespo’s sophomore album “Píntame”, which peaked at No. 22 on the Billboard 200, and won the Grammy Award for Best Merengue Album of the year. Aided by the singles “Pintame”, “Por el Caminito”, and “Tiemblo”, the album also won the Premio Lo Nuestro Award for “Tropical Album of the Year”.
An album of remixes appeared in 1999 suitably titled “The Remixes”, followed by his third full-length “Wow! Flash” in November 2001. Featuring a more mature singer-songwriter, moving away from a traditional merengue sound, Crespo’s fourth studio album “Urbano” was released in 2002. The singer’s 2004 album “Saboréalo” won the Latin-Grammy for Best Merengue Album in 2005, and paved the way for his sixth studio album “Regresó el Jefe” released in 2007. “Indestructible” followed in December 2010 featuring Voltio, which was succeeded by “Los Monsters” in 2012.
Live reviews
There aren’t many mainstream Merengue singers around, but Elvis Crespo is a wonderful exception to this. After winning a Grammy in Puerto Rico in 1999, he rocketed to international stardom for his unique and talented performances. He was originally a member of the band Grupo Mania, but has achieved the majority of his success after breaking away from the group.
Suavamente, the song that made the big break, was appealing globally because of it’s English language crossover. After the success of this track, Crespo went on to sell over 500,000 copies of his music, and began tailoring his music for a more international audience, breaking away from the Merengue heritage.
Seeing him in concert, I was hoping that he’d play a selection of tracks from various albums, not only the latter music in his career, and I was very pleased that he did. In fact, he took us on a chronological journey through his career, which was pretty exciting and great to hear the ways in which the music had progressed and evolved over time. The vocals and band were spot on, and audience interaction got the entire crowd hyped up and enthusiastic for the performance. It was an extremely enjoyable night with much singing, dancing, and a whole lot of talent!
yazhow
