Luis Miguel is a versatile musician renowned for both mariachi fusion and his fiery boleros. A movie star with old-world charm and unwavering cultural pride, his velvety voice commands attention wherever it travels.
Young Rodrigo works exhibit a delicate yet dramatic lyricism, vibrant orchestral colors that sometimes reach extremes and an expansive harmonic language influenced by their French master, Paul Dukas.
1. Alejandro Sanz
Grammy winner Juanes has collaborated with numerous artists including Shakira, Alicia Keys and Juanes. As a singer-songwriter himself he wrote all the songs on his albums; his musical style includes flamenco pop tropical styles.
He first rose to fame with the release of Viviendo Deprisa in 1991, thanks to songs such as Pisando Fuerte and Se le Apago la Luz which won him many new fans. Later he ventured into different stylistic waters on albums No Es Lo Mismo, Mas and El Tren de Los Momentos – each exploring new musical territory and garnering even greater fame than before.
Sanz is best-known for his romantic ballads. His gravelly voice adds an intimate quality to each track he sings; in addition to studio recordings, Sanz has performed in several stage musicals.
2. Shakira
Shakira was born in Barranquilla, Colombia and began writing poetry at age four. At that point she asked Santa for a typewriter for Christmas before working with her father to turn her poems into songs.
Shakira gained momentum with her third album, Pies Descalzos (literally “bare feet”), released in 1996. It sold three million copies worldwide and led her to win her first Grammy Award for Latin Pop Album – as well as opening up an MTV Unplugged tour that covered North America, South America and Europe.
Her latest album, Acrostico, is an ode to her children. For this project, the singer collaborated with numerous artists – The Weeknd, Karol G and Mercedes Sosa among them – as she sought their input.
3. Maluma
Juan Luis Londono Arias, better known by his stage name Maluma, has established himself as one of Latin American music’s premier singer-songwriters. From an early age he knew music would be his passion. So much so, that it took the name of one of his relatives as its base – his mother’s maiden name being chosen from its initial letters by Maluma himself!
At 18 million copies sold across singles and albums combined, he is widely considered one of the leading artists in Latin American urban music.
He’s managed to combine influences from both his Colombian roots and contemporary pop, producing songs that make you want to dance and concerts that light up an arena. He even became a menswear icon by joining forces with Balmain for their Miami-inspired capsule collection; on social media alone, he has amassed over 50 million followers on Instagram and 22 million on Spotify alone!
4. Ricky Martin
Ricky Martin was one of the most prolific Spanish musicians of the 1990s, selling over 25 million albums worldwide. Renowned for his masterful lyrics that fused pop music, rock, Latin, and flamenco into one signature sound, Ricky was among his peers as one of Spain’s premier musicians in this decade.
He became one of the most visible Latin-to-global crossover artists of his era with his English-language debut Livin’ la Vida Loca catapulting him to global stardom.
Manu Chao is an internationally-recognized performer whose musical interests reflect his multilingual background and cross-genre repertoire. He has become a key resource for students of Spanish.
5. Las Ketchup
Las Ketchup (Pilar, Lucia and Lola Munoz, collectively known as El Tomate), daughters of flamenco guitarist Juan Munoz “El Tomate”, debuted as Las Ketchup with their international hit single “Asereje.” Their first album Hijas del Tomate reached #1 in Spain’s Album Chart.
The song follows Diego, an inebriated character who visits a disco to dance to an uptempo hip-hop track with an absurdist, nonsensical gibberish chorus reminiscent of Sugarhill Gang’s 1979 old-school classic, “Rapper’s Delight.”
Even today, toddlers around the world cannot resist singing along and dancing to it. In 2006, Rocio joined her sisters as a fourth member and the band released its sophomore alum, Un Bloody Mary. However, legal complications kept them from recording again for several years until finally, in 2010 an updated version of Un Bloody Mary hit American charts and became an instantaneous success.