Juan Luis Guerra Seijas (born 7 June 1957)[1] is a 6' 5" Dominican musician, singer, composer, and record producer. He has sold 15 million records worldwide,[2] making him one of the best-selling Latin music artists.[3][4] Throughout his career, he has won numerous awards including 24 Latin Grammy Awards, three Grammy Awards, and one Latin Billboard Music Award. He won 3 Latin Grammy Awards in 2010, including Album of the Year. In 2012, he won the Latin Grammy Award for Producer of the Year.[5]

Guerra is one of the most internationally recognized Latin artists of recent decades. His popular style of merengue and Latin fusion has garnered him considerable success throughout Latin America. He is also credited for popularizing bachata music on a global level and is often associated with the genre, although his distinct style of bachata features a more traditional bolero rhythm and aesthetic mixed with bossa-nova influenced melodies and harmony in some of his songs.[6] He does not limit himself to one style of music, instead, his music incorporates a wide arrange of diverse rhythms such as merengue, bachata, bolero, balada, fusion, salsa, cumbia, mambo, cha-cha-cha, pop, rock and roll, reggae, classical, R&B, folk, blues, jazz, funk, soul, rock, hip-hop/rap, son cubano, and religious, amongst many others. "Ojalá Que Llueva Café" ("I Wish That It Rains Coffee") is one of his most critically acclaimed pieces.

Cuban singer-songwriter Silvio Rodríguez is a pioneer in the Nueva Trova movement!
FROM BRITANNICA
Nueva canción, (Spanish: “new song”) a genre of pan-Latin American popular music, best known for propelling a powerful populist political movement—especially in Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, and Cuba—during the 1960s and ’70s. The music’s instrumentation, rhythmic character, melodic structure, and textual form and content have been inspired largely by the region’s rural traditions. 

Distinctive features

Nueva canción embraces a broad spectrum of musical styles that have been consciously crafted as an emblem of the socially, economically, and politically marginalized peoples of Latin America and their struggle for social justice. The guitar, an instrument that has long been associated with folk music throughout Latin America, is central to the tradition. It is usually joined in performance by a number of indigenous—especially Andean—instruments, such as zampoñas (panpipes), quenas (end-blown flutes), and the charango, a distinctive plucked lute with a rounded back traditionally made from the shell of an armadillo. Rhythmically, nueva canción draws much of its material from regional dance forms such as the cueca of Argentina and Chile and the huayño of Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador. Melodies are often based on a pentatonic (five-pitch) scale, in the manner of much regional Latin American music, and they frequently oscillate between major and minor modes, which is characteristic of many Andean musical traditions.

Buena Vista Social Club was a musical ensemble primarily made up of Cuban musicians, formed in 1996. The project was organized by World Circuit executive Nick Gold, produced by American guitarist Ry Cooder and directed by Juan de Marcos González. They named the group after the members' club of the same name in the Buenavista quarter of Havana, a popular music venue in the 1940s. To showcase the popular styles of the time, such as son, bolero and danzón, they recruited a dozen veteran musicians, some of whom had been retired for many years.

The group's eponymous studio album was recorded in March 1996 and released in September 1997, quickly becoming an international success, which prompted the ensemble to perform with a full line-up in Amsterdam and New York in 1998. German director Wim Wenders captured the performance on film for a documentary—also called Buena Vista Social Club—that included interviews with the musicians conducted in Havana. Wenders' film was released in June 1999 to critical acclaim, receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary feature and winning numerous accolades including Best Documentary at the European Film Awards. This was followed up by a second documentary Buena Vista Social Club: Adios in 2017.

The success of both the album and film sparked a revival of interest in traditional Cuban music and Latin American music in general. Some of the Cuban performers later released well-received solo albums and recorded collaborations with stars from different musical genres.

«Abriendo puertas» es una canción de la artista cubana Gloria Estefan. Fue lanzado como el primer sencillo del segundo álbum de estudio en español, Abriendo puertas el 19 de septiembre de 1995 en los Estados Unidos y el 16 de octubre de 1995 mundialmente a través de Epic Records.

Información general

«Abriendo puertas» alcanzó su la cima de las listas en España, Colombia y los Estados Unidos (Hot Latin Tracks). Contó con la colaboración del compositor y productor colombiano Kike Santander. Éste combinó el tradicional ritmo colombiano, el vallenato, con la música salsa habitual en los trabajos de Gloria para darle a la canción un ritmo muy tropical y alegre. La canción recibió el premio Lo Nuestro a la Canción tropical del año en 1996.

Grupo Niche is a salsa group founded in 1978 in Bogotá, Colombia. In 1982, the group settled in the city of Cali, Colombia, enjoying great popularity throughout Latin America. It was founded by Jairo Varela and Alexis Lozano. Varela remained with the group throughout his life, serving as producer, director, songwriter, vocalist and guiro player. Alexis Lozano, trombone player and arranger later left to form Orquesta Guayacán. The group also included Nicolas Cristancho "Macabi" on the piano, Francisco Garcia "Porky" on the bass, Luis Pacheco, on the congas, and vocalists Jorge Bazán and Hector Viveros.

Grupo Niche's first album, "Al Pasito", released in 1979, did little to challenge the dominating salsa band of Colombia at the time, Fruko y sus Tesos. Two years later, however, the group found success with their second album, "Querer es Poder", particularly with the single "Buenaventura y Caney".

The group relocated in 1982 to Cali where they have been based since. After recording two more albums, Grupo Niche released "No Hay Quinto Malo" in 1984, which featured their signature song, "Cali Pachanguero". The tribute hit single to the "world salsa pito" catapulted Niche as one of the top salsa bands of Colombia.

Sara González Gómez (Marianao, Cuba; June 13, 1949 or 1951- La Habana, Cuba; February 1, 2012) was a Cuban singer.

In the 1960s, she studied the viola in the Amadeo Roldán Conservatory. She graduated from the National School of Art Instructors where she also taught guitar and solfège. She was one of the founders of the Nueva Trova Movement and one of its main proponents.[4] She belonged to The Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC) Sound Experimentation Group (GES), under the direction of Leo Brouwer, where she studied composition, harmony and orchestration. She produced music for film, television and radio as well as participating in several group albums with other figures from the Nueva Trova Movement and the GES. She was in a relationship with the painter Diana Balboa.[5]

In 1973, she composed Girón, la victoria ("Girón, the victory") a tribute to the Bay of Pigs Invasion victory in April 1961.