Juan Luis Guerra Seijas, better known as Juan Luis Guerra, was born in 1956, in Santo Domingo.
This musician, studied the career of “Philosophy and Letters” on the University of Santo Domingo and, at the end, he obtained a scholarship to study music at Berklee College of Music in Boston.
During this trip full of illusions, when delivering a letter that had been commissioned to him, he met the woman of his life, a design student: Nora vega.
This Dominican musician defines himself as quiet, he spends hours locked in his studio where no one dares to bother him and there he reads, composes and creates what his wife first hears, his new songs.
He lives in his world of spirituality, where his two sons Jean gabriel Y Paulina, his wife, his fatherGilberto Guerra) and his mother (Olga Seijas), are the most important.
Juan Luis He returned to his country after completing his music studies.
It was there that he began to work performing accompaniments with his guitar to local artists such as Sonia Silvestre, and also composed music for TV commercials.
With this work he was gaining experience and recognition, and that was how he began to establish a relationship with different characters in the musical environment such as the singer Maridalia hernandez, Mariela Market Y Roger Zayas-Bazán, who accompanied him at first on his recordings.
Soon after, continuing with the streak of successes, War forms his first musical group which he called “Group 440”, with whom he records his first album that they called “Blowing”, which went on sale in 1984.
His first work presents a fusion of traditional merengue with jazz, together with a Manhattan Transfer-style vocalization, as defined by the musician himself.
In 1985, the Dominican musician to whom several compliments from his fans already belonged, signed his first contract for the record label “Karen Records”.
And to this strong decision is added a change in musical style, orienting himself to the merengue in its commercial version, and that is how, convinced by his new style, he records the albums, “Moving and Hauling” in 1985 and “The more I think about it … you” in 1987.
Soon after, the musician shows his facet as a composer, and thus begins to shine for other artists as he has done with Tati Salas, to whom he composed the song “From your mouth” with which he participated in the OTI Festival, remaining among the top 3 places.
Other of his most recognized compositions are among those made for Mexican artists Emmanuel, “I have not been able to see you”, recorded in 1990, and for Luis Miguel the songs “Until you forget me” in 1993, and “I need you” in 2003.
Following its trajectory, Juan Luis, in 1989 he recorded his album “Hopefully Coffee Rain”, an album of incredible popularity, which leads him directly to become the main figure of his group that would go on to be called “Juan Luis Guerra and 440”.
This is when Juan Luis Launches himself as an international artist, reaching the peak of fame, as he has obtained numerous sales that have placed him in the first position in many Latin American countries.
At the beginning of a new decade, loaded with expectations that loomed from his person, he presents his next album, “Pink bachata”, being undoubtedly the most successful of his career from a commercial point of view.
This album sold some 5 million copies and led the artist to fill stadiums and arenas to their maximum capacity on different stages in Latin America and Europe.
Thanks to this album, Juan Luis got his first prize Grammy, of which he has also been a presenter, along with the Canadian singer Celine dion.
The following year, 1991, Juan Luis enters the Brazilian market through the transnational record company “Polygram Records” with the album “Pink Romance”, which only contains four songs from his previous CD covered in Portuguese by the Brazilian lyricist Aloysio Reis.
Complemented to this new experience, the Dominican returns to compose this time for the Mexican Emmanuel, shining with the letter of “I have not been able to see you”.
“Areito” arrives in 1992, making War in a controversial figure in the Dominican Republic, from which the subject “The cost of life”, which manifests about the poor living conditions of many in Latin America; and it is this album that has also taken Guerra on a tour of Latin America and Europe.
His next album is called “Fogaraté” and has seen the light in 1994, and achieved fame thanks to the song belonging to the same material called “The tickle” rescuing the folkloric fast meringue known as Perico Ripiao next to the accordionist Francisco Ulloa and its set.
It is the following year he undertakes a new project by founding a radio station called “Viva FM” and a television channel, “Mango TV”, through which he was in charge of spreading musical talents from his country.
And it is in this same year, unexpectedly, the compilation is on sale “Great Hits of Juan Luis Guerra and 4.40” getting great response from the public.
After four years of musical inactivity, War presents the album as a surprise “It is neither the same nor the same” in 1998, with which in 2000 he obtained three awards in the issuance of Latin Grammy Awards.
Currently, the musician continues his career with mini-tours and sporadic concerts in various countries, knowing that he will never return to the big concerts.
Followed in 2001, comes a new compilation called “Romantic Collection”, which includes the best ballads and bachatas of Juan Luis.
And finally in 2004, after 6 years of his last CD, he arrives “For you”. Disc dedicated to God thanking everything received from Him after his conversion to the gospel.
Between 2005 and 2006, Juan Luis Guerra has been dedicated to celebrating the launch of “20 Years Tour” visiting numerous cities such as Aruba, Curaçao, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Ecuador, United States, Spain, Holland, Denmark, Italy, Santo Domingo and Chile in what were 28 successful concerts.
In 2006 he was a “special guest” to sing at the opening of the concert of the legendary group “The Rolling Stones” in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
He is currently recording his new album which will feature meringues, bachatas, salsas, guitar songs and vocals, folk meringue and what I call mix, a genre that mixes various Caribbean dance rhythms.