Draco Rosa
Draco Cornelius Rosa Suárez (Spanish: [ˈdɾako koɾˈneljus ˈrosa ˈswaɾes]; born Robert Edward Rosa Suárez, June 27, 1969[2][3]), also known as Draco Rosa, Robi Draco Rosa or simply Robi or Draco, is a Puerto Rican singer, musician, songwriter and entrepreneur.
In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Rosa and the second or maternal family name is Suárez.
Draco Rosa
- Robi Draco Rosa
- Robi Rosa
- Draco
- Ian Blake (or Mr. Blake)
- Dolores del Infante (in 1999)
- Draco Rosa
- Robi Star
- Cornelius
June 27, 1969[1]
Long Island, New York, U.S.
- Musician
- singer
- songwriter
- entrepreneur
- Vocals
- guitar
- bass
- piano
1984–present
- RCA
- Phantom Vox
- Sony Latin
- Capitol
- Phantom Vox Corp
Rosa originally garnered fame as a member of boy band Menudo in the 1980s, singing lead on the band's biggest stateside hit, "Hold Me" and featuring prominently in the accompanying music video. After leaving the band he moved to Brazil where he released two albums, achieving mainstream success. Following a brief subsequent stint in California, he returned to New York and joined the band Maggie's Dream, which split after only one album, allowing him to resume his solo career. The singer and composer has released numerous albums, and has composed multiple songs for Ednita Nazario, Julio Iglesias and former Menudo band-mate, Ricky Martin. He has also been featured on VH1's Behind the Music.
Rosa has been highly influenced by the works of Bob Dylan, Miles Davis, Iggy Pop, Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Cash, Luis Alberto Spinetta, The Doors, Camarón de la Isla, Horacio Quiroga, Caetano Veloso, Glenn Danzig, Edgar Allan Poe and Jim Morrison.
In 1988, at age 18, he made his motion picture debut in the film Salsa, which was a big hit in Puerto Rico. During the filming of the movie, he met actress Angela Alvarado who would later become his wife.
In 1996, he released the Latino alternative rock album Vagabundo produced by Phil Manzanera before helping launch Ricky Martin's musical career into a new global setting with Vuelve. Rosa wrote and produced various of Martin's hit singles including "María", "Livin' la Vida Loca", "She's All I Ever Had", "The Cup of Life", "She Bangs" and "Shake Your Bon-Bon", among others. Rosa toured with Lenny Kravitz during the summer of 2004 to promote his concept album Mad Love.
In April 2011, Rosa was diagnosed with a non-Hodgkin lymphoma cancer near his liver. He underwent alternative and traditional treatment in Houston and Santa Monica. This kept Rosa in a hiatus for almost a year until his return in March 2012, when he started recording his latest album with Vida, and gave a concert with Juan Luis Guerra and Rubén Blades at the José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum. In December 2012, he was declared cancer-free. In December 2013, Rosa's manager confirmed his cancer had relapsed,[4] and he overcame cancer once again after a second bone marrow transplant, but had to remain in quarantine for four additional months.[5] As of February 2019, Rosa has been cancer-free for five years.[6]
Early life[edit]
Rosa was born Robert Edward Rosa Suárez on Long Island, New York to Puerto Rican parents, Norberto Rosa and Sonia Suárez. At a young age, he moved with his family to Puerto Rico where he spent much of his childhood in the town of Ponce.[7][8]
Career[edit]
Early years (1970s and 1980s)[edit]
In 1984, Rosa joined the increasingly popular Puerto Rican boy band Menudo. During much of his tenure with the group, he would share the stage with a young Ricky Martin, which would eventually lead to a musical partnership between the two that proved instrumental in launching Martin's solo career.[9] As the only member of Menudo who had a native grasp of English, Rosa sang lead vocals on many of the English-language tracks released by the group, including their stateside hit, "Hold Me". However, Rosa started to grow disenchanted with the band, particularly after he was denied the opportunity to write songs for them.[10] Rosa quit the group in 1987.
After moving to Barra Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Rosa spent time with local artists, adding to his musical education. He would go on to release two commercially successful Portuguese-language solo albums in quick succession in the late 1980s.
Rosa subsequently moved to Los Angeles where he had gotten the lead-role in the film Salsa. During its filming, Rosa met his future wife, Angela Alvarado. Like Rosa, Alvarado was also born in New York to Puerto Rican parents. Rosa also appeared alongside Christopher Mitchum in a German film entitled Gummibärchen küßt man nicht. Rosa wrote, produced and performed two songs ("Angela" and "Little Woman") for the soundtrack of the latter film, which was released by RCA Records under his publishing company, Ceiba Tree Music.
However, he would soon move back to his birth state of New York, where he formed the band Maggie's Dream, an alternative funk rock/metal band who released a self-titled album in 1990 and toured with Fishbone, the Black Crowes and Faith No More. A planned follow-up album, Elysium was recorded in 1992 but never officially released.[11]
Rise to individual success (1990s)[edit]
In 1993, a solo contract with Sony Music Latin enabled Rosa to record in Spain the first of his Spanish-language solo albums, Frío.
In between solo projects, Rosa worked on Ricky Martin's A Medio Vivir under the pseudonym Ian Blake by co-writing and co-producing the majority of the songs on the album,[12] including the hit single "María", which made it to the Billboard Top 10.
The 1996 release of his second album, Vagabundo, recorded in England and produced by Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera, has been hailed as a "tour de force of introspective haunting tunes".[13] The video for the song "Madre Tierra", directed by Angela Alvarado, won Best Rock Video in the 1997 Billboard Latin Music Awards;[14] Vagabundo was included in Spin magazine's 1997 top 10 list of "greatest rock en español records of all time".
Entertainment Weekly named Rosa to their IT LIST of the 100 most creative people in the entertainment industry.[15]
An English-language version of Frío, entitled Songbirds and Roosters was released in 1998. As he toured with his songs from Vagabundo, Rosa wrote and recorded his fellow former Menudo bandmate, Ricky Martin's chart-topping album Vuelve, again under the pseudonym Ian Blake, which resulted in five hit singles including "The Cup of Life" (as well as its Spanish version "La Copa de la Vida"). Rosa formed Phantom Vox Corporation, a multimedia production company that joined Dräco Cornelius Music with other writers under Phantom Vox Publishing, the company's subdivision for licensing of original compositions. Phantom Vox Studios, Rosa's own multimedia recording studio and another subdivision of the company, worked as Music Supervisor for Livin' the Life, an independent movie that won the Best Film Award in the 1999 New York Latin Film Fest. Phantom Vox filmed and edited the video for "Commitment #4", a track Rosa composed and recorded in dedication to the removal of the United States Navy from the island–municipality of Vieques, for bombing training in many parts of the island.
As a producer (1998–2002)[edit]
Between 1998 and 1999, Rosa wrote and recorded Ricky Martin's second eponymous album and the first in English, which includes the popular single "Livin' la Vida Loca". The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard album charts, selling 22 million copies worldwide. For Martin's follow-up album, Sound Loaded, Rosa produced four tracks, including the hit single "She Bangs". The album was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album at the 42nd Grammy Awards. It won the American Music Award for Favorite Latin Artist and was nominated for the Favorite Pop/Rock Male Artist. It was also nominated for the Juno Award for International Album of the Year at the Juno Awards of 2000. The album has sold over 22 million copies, worldwide.
Rosa also produced Corazón (1999), the platinum album of Ednita Nazario, for which he also wrote and produced the song "Más Grande Que Grande" under the name Dolores del Infante, which reached a spot in the Top 10 Latin Billboards for 10 weeks. Corazón was nominated for the 2000 Billboard Latin Music Award for Female Pop Album of the Year. Rosa wrote and produced three songs for singer Julio Iglesias' album Noche De Cuatro Lunas (2000).
Rosa was one of three singer/songwriters honored in Banco Popular's Christmas Special Encuentro (2002) alongside Juan Luis Guerra and Rubén Blades.
Compilation albums and seventh and eighth studio albums (2002–2008)[edit]
In 2002, Rosa released "Libertad del Alma", a compilation album which debuted at the top of the Latin Album Billboard chart based only on its sales in Puerto Rico.[16] After two years of experimentation and sessions in studios around the world, Rosa released Mad Love on March 30, 2004. With most songs in English, collaborations with musicians from all over the world and the music videos for "Dancing in the Rain" and "Lie Without a Lover" (both directed by Angela Alvarado Rosa), Mad Love debuted at No. 2 on Billboard's Heatseeker charts and was considered the No. 1 Latin album of 2004 by New York's Newsday. The video for "Más y Más", also directed by Alvarado, won the 2004 Latin Grammy Award for Best Video.
A few months after the release of Mad Love, Rosa released another compilation album intended specifically for the Latin market titled "Como Me Acuerdo", which included four new tracks along with some other songs. He went on an international tour to promote both albums. During the tour he visited several major US cities, as well as Japan, Singapore, England, Spain, Germany, Denmark, Panama, Brazil, Colombia and Argentina, among others. In Bogota, Colombia in particular, he closed the 2004 Rock al Parque, a multitudinous all-day musical extravaganza with a crowd of 150,000 people.[17]
Rosa ended the tour in his native Puerto Rico, where he sold out the island's recently opened new 18,000-seat arena, José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum. Titled "Draco al Natural", the concert was the basis for a CD/DVD, offering a full-length documentary of the live performance directed by Rosa's wife, Angela Alvarado, and released in 2005. Rosa also presented sold-out concerts at Centro de Bellas Artes in September of that year. After this, his contract with Sony Records ended and he released his second album in Spanish titled Vino in 2008, which Rosa considers as the follow-up album to Vagabundo[18] and is included in his production Draco: Limited Collector's Edition, along with the Teatro Live DVD.
Amor Vincit Omnia (2009–2011)[edit]
Rosa yet again honored his roots in 2009 with the release of Amor Vincit Omnia (Love Conquers All). A collection of songs with a heavy influence of Puerto Rican folk music. Songs like "Esto es Vida", "Amores de mi Calle" and "Espejismo" have the old-school feel of mountain music of yesteryear. The critically acclaimed album received a 2010 Grammy nomination for "Best Latin Rock Alternative Album" and received the Rock Record of the Year at Premios Lo Nuestro 2011 with two other nominations for Artist and Song of the Year. A successful tour followed culminating in Rock in Rio in Madrid, where Rosa shared the main stage with Jane's Addiction and Rage Against the Machine.
With Menudo
With Maggie's Dream
Books[edit]
Rosa, Draco; Niessen, Nena (2015). El Secreto de la Vida a Base De Plantas [The Secret of Plant-Based Life] (in Spanish). Puerto Rico: Penguin Random House. ISBN 978-1-941999-46-2.
