Romeo Santos
Anthony "Romeo" Santos (born July 21, 1981)[1] is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer who is best known as the frontman and lead vocalist of the bachata group Aventura. In 2002, the song "Obsesión" was number one in Italy for 16 consecutive weeks. He released several albums with Aventura before the group broke up. Since then, Santos has embarked on a solo career which has created seven number one songs on Billboard's Hot Latin Songs chart and seventeen number ones on the Tropical Airplay chart. Romeo Santos has sold over 24 million copies making him one of the best-selling Latin artists.[2]
For the footballer, see Anthony Santos (footballer). For the Dominican bachata singer, see Antony Santos.
Romeo Santos
Early life[edit]
Santos was born and raised in The Bronx, New York City on July 21, 1981, to a Dominican father and a Puerto Rican mother.[3][4] He had a humble upbringing, with his father, who worked in construction, being underpaid but being able to make ends meet for his family. His mother was staying at home and taking care of the children in the family. Santos attended public school in the Bronx, and Santos began his career by singing in a church choir at a young age.[5] Romeo was exposed to Latin genres of music including salsa, merengue, and bachata, listening to it at a young age because of his parents' love for it.[6]
Concert films and documentary[edit]
On November 6, 2012, The King Stays King: Sold Out at Madison Square Garden was released on DVD by HBO Latino. This is Santos' first concert film as a solo artist. It is based on his 3 night performance at Madison Square Garden in February 2012. It is currently available on HBO Max as Romeo Santos: The King Stays King–Live at Madison Square Garden.[32] It featured performances by Anthony Santos, Luis Vargas, P. Diddy, Tomatito, Wisin & Yandel, and Usher. It included behind the scenes footage and clips of Santos talking about a few topics involving his life and career.[33]
On June 25, 2021, Romeo Santos: Utopía Live from MetLife Stadium was released as a PPV event, based on the September 2019 concert in East Rutherford, New Jersey.[34] Concurrently, a documentary on Santos premiered on the same day titled Romeo Santos: King of Bachata which traced the history of Bachata, and showed Santos travelling to the Dominican Republic with The Kid Mero.[35] The documentary featured celebraties like Cardi B, Daddy Yankee, Emilio Estefan, Marc Anthony, Thalía and more. To promote the documentary, HBO built an elaborate pop-up promotion in Washington Heights, NYC in the form of a bodega, called House of Bachata, with free haircuts, Presidente beer, and karaoke parties honoring Santos. At its center was a PORTL "hologram" device in which Santos appeared in lifelike, lifesized, volumetric 4K to interact with fans.[36] On July 30, 2021, both films were released on HBO Max.
Artistry[edit]
Themes, genres, and musical style[edit]
Romeo, along with Lenny, Henry, and Max are the creators of the urban style of Bachata. As Los Tinellers, they started off as a traditional bachata group. In the late 1990, they would re-invent themselves as Aventura and started to add a more Americanized style to the genre. They mixed bachata with American genres like R&B, Pop, Hip Hop, Rap, Reggae and Rock. In 2011, when Romeo became a solo artist, he created his own style of bachata to separate his own music from the style he did with the group. His style is a more romantic mix of Pop and Contemporary R&B.
Acting career[edit]
Santos' first film appearance was in the 2007 Dominican film Sanky Panky as himself alongside his fellow band members from Aventura, performing live at Altos de Chavón in the Dominican Republic. In 2013, he appeared on an episode of the 44th season of Sesame Street.[44] He sang a song titled "Quiero Ser Tu Amigo". It is a song about asking someone if they want to be their friend.[45] Romeo Santos made his Hollywood debut in the film Furious 7, released April 2015, alongside Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, and Paul Walker.[46][47] He was nervous about acting in Furious 7 but the cast made him feel welcome.[48] In 2016, Santos was the voice of the cartoon character Early Bird in the 2016 film The Angry Birds Movie.[49]
Legacy[edit]
Santos has been dubbed the "King of Modern Bachata". Romeo, along with the other members of Aventura, are considered the main reason why bachata is recognized worldwide and made it more appealing to younger audiences, with their 2002 single Obsesión launching their careers. The group is credited with creating urban bachata-inspired artists like Prince Royce and Leslie Grace, as well as groups like Xtreme, Bachata Heightz, 24 Horas, Optimo, among others.
In Santos' solo career, his success continued as he would collaborate with more mainstream artists and eventually feature some of them in bachata. His collaborations with Usher and Drake led to the songs Promise and Odio, both of them being certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Additionally, the song Propuesta Indecente is his best charted and most certified song of his solo career and career overall, as it was certified 51× Platinum, which also means it has been certified 2× Diamond. Santos continued to break records by selling out Madison Square Garden 3 nights in a row in February of both 2011 and 2018, and Chile's Movistar Arena in March 2023. He has been the only bachata act to sell-out stadiums like the Félix Sánchez Olympic Stadium twice in Santo Domingo in 2012, Yankee Stadium twice in New York City in 2014, MetLife Stadium in New Jersey in 2019, National Stadium in Lima four nights in a row in February 2023, the Hiram Bithorn Stadium twice in Puerto Rico in May 2023 and more. His historic collaborations in Utopía brought unity into bachata and introduced to a bigger international audience the pioneers that made the genre what it is today. His fifth studio album, Formula, Vol. 3, has become a huge success with every song in the album being certified Platinum and gold. Overall, Santos is not only considered by many to be one of the greatest bachata artists of all time, but one of the greatest artists in Latin music history.
Personal life[edit]
Santos has four children. He had his first child, Alex Damian in the early 2000s with either an old girlfriend or a one-night stand. Santos later said he was scared at the time and ran away from the situation. Two years later, he became a part of Damian's life and has had an improved relationship since.
Santos is not married but has a long-time girlfriend. Together they have three children. He had Valentino in 2019, Solano in 2021, and Milano 2022. In the music video for "Solo Conmigo", his girlfriend was shown pregnant which suggested that he was expecting a fifth child. However, the baby was already born. Santos mentioned on social media that his fourth son had been born and that his heartbeat was in the intro of his 2022 album Formula, Vol. 3.[50]