A Dominican Maestro!

Day 99

Out of all the great artist that have come from the Dominican Republic, no one is bigger or better than the Maestro Juan Luis Guerra and the reasons are abundant.  For the uninitiated, JLG is a musician with about a 40-year long career with mainly Latin rhythms like Merengue and Bachata but also covering Salsa, guaracha, rock, blues and many other.

But what makes him amazing?  Well, for me, it all comes down to his craft: the music and lyrics are just amazing, is like a poem made into music and he is not afraid of touching all types of topics: love, pain, breakups, politics, religion, happiness, sadness, joyfulness, sorrow... basically sings of anything at any given time but I do have to highlight that love is his main topic.

He is a highly respected musician in the industry and one of the biggest latin american stars who has won many Grammy awards, and is currently the leader of most Latin Grammy awards so far with 28 awards.  Even though is loathe by many back home (due to mostly underserved attacks because "he is not dominican enough" or "does not record music with other dominican artists like he does with international stars"), he is one of my favorite musicians even though I suck badly at dancing latin music.

That said, after I moved to Miami, Juan Luis Guerra is the one artist I try to always go to his concerts whenever he is in town, and so far I've seen him live at least 4 times with a 5th one coming up very soon.  Anyways, please note that if you ever want to start learning about dominican music and culture, JLG is a good point to start.

June 2008 - a bunch of dominicans and a colombian check JLG at the American Airlines Arena in Miami, FL




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