Wilfrido Vargas

Wilfrido Radhamés Vargas Martínez (Altamira; April 24, 1949) is a Dominican singer-songwriter, musician and orchestra director and one of the great musicians who is responsible for the internationalization of the merengue musical genre.. Vargas has served mainly as a trumpeter and vocalist, but he also directed his orchestra, and was also its producer. He is also known as the creator and producer of the successful merengue groups Las Chicas del Can and Altamira Banda Show.

Wilfrido Vargas is one of the best-known great artists in America with songs like "El Africano" (written by Calixto Ochoa), "Abusadora", "El Comején", "Por la plata baila el Mono", "El Baile del Perrito”, among others. Vargas has won several international recognitions, as well as in his country the Dominican Republic. In November 2018 he was recognized with the award for Musical Excellence during the Latin Grammy Awards ceremony.

Early years

Vargas was born on April 24, 1949 in Altamira, Puerto Plata. He was always surrounded by musical influences, since his father, Ramón Vargas, was an accordionist and guitarist, and his mother, Bienvenida Martínez, was a flutist and guitarist. Vargas began his musical studies by attending the Municipal Academy of Music in his region from the age of ten.

Career

His commercial career began with his own musical group Wilfrido Vargas y sus Beduinos, with whom he recorded his first album in 1972. He was also part of the well-known salsa group Fania All-Stars as a singer at the Havana Jam festival, held in Havana (Cuba) in 1979.

During the 80's he had international commercial success with songs such as "El Barbarazo", "El Jardinero", "La Medicina", and "El Loco y La Luna". In 1986 she won the Silver Orchid at the International Orchid Festival in Maracaibo Venezuela. He also appeared in the film Que viva el merengue y la lambada, 1989.

He was nominated in 1991 for the 33rd Grammy Awards in the category Best Latin Tropical Album for his album Animation. Vargas won a Silver Seagull at the 1992 Viña del Mar Song Festival.

In 1993, Dominican President Joaquín Balaguer decorated him with the Heraldic Order of Christopher Columbus in the rank of Knight, along with fellow Dominican musicians Jorge Taveras, Manuel Tejada and Julio Gautreaux for their contribution to the development and dissemination of the National Music.

Wilfrido also performed the theme song "Amor Casual" for the soap opera Bellísima and also performed the song "Que sera" for the movie Out to Sea (1997).

In 2003 he acted in the Dominican film Éxito porcambio.

In 2007 he participated as a jury in the Colombian version of X Factor.

In August 2010 Vargas released the song "Que te voy bien", a merengue with modern rhythms, leaving behind the traditional genre that characterizes him.

Since 2010, Vargas has lived in Colombia, but from 1985, until the mid-90s, he lived in Caracas, Venezuela, the country where Wilfrido's orchestras had the greatest number of performances.

Wilfrido was not only successful with his orchestra, but he was also the inspiration and founder of important groups of the merengue genre such as Altamira Banda Show, named in honor of his birthplace. He was also the mentor and responsible for the international success of the famous female merengue group Las Chicas del Can.

Singers

• Roy Tavarez
• Peter Cruz
• Willie Berrios
• Luis Mariano Lantigua
• Vicente Pacheco
• Victor Waill
• Wilfrido Vargas (principal).
• Eddy Herrera
• Bonny Cepeda
• Sandy Reyes
• Rubby Pérez
• Jorge Gómez (counter)
• Gene Chambers
• Marcos Caminero
• Mickey Taveras
• José Trinidad
• Orlando Alfonso Colón
• Raffy Diaz
• My friend Miguelito
• Charly Espinal
• Lessing Kérguelen

Discography

Grammy Nomination

• Best Tropical Latin Performance – Animation (1990)

Filmography

Controversies

Disagreements with Belkis Concepción

In mid-1985, Belkis Concepción - who was the group's first vocalist and leader - claimed to be the creator of the Las Chicas del Can group, not Vargas. Concepción, who had to leave the group due to illness, said she was the founder of the group in 1976. In her words:

I got a coup while I was in bed, that was also something that really affected me, because that name was given to me by Yaqui Núñez but, since I had not registered it to my name, Wilfrido took it with all members of the group. Despite that, Vargas and I got along.

Belkis Concepción

Concepción had created a group in 1976 known as Las Muchachas, which later - due to her union with Wilfrido Vargas in 1981 - would be renamed Belkis Concepción and Las Chicas del Can. In 1985, Concepción definitively broke working relations with Vargas.

Alleged lawsuit against Shakira

In May 2010, the Colombian singer Shakira released her song Waka Waka (This is Africa) with the same chorus used by the merengue "El negro no puede", which Las Chicas del Can recorded in the eighties. Originally the chorus belongs to the marching song "Zangalewa", used by soldiers in Cameroon, popularized by the Golden Sounds group from the same country, which Wilfrido Vargas used for the song. Vargas stated that he would not sue Shakira, since that song is not hers.

Golden Congos

Awarded at the Barranquilla Carnival Orchestra Festival: