Ricardo Montaner

Early years

Montaner was born as Héctor Eduardo Reglero Montaner, in Valentín Alsina, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. However, he moved to Venezuela when he was 6 years old. During his youth, he performed in the church choir in the city of Maracaibo. The first song he internationally performed in a festival in Peru was "Canta, viejo, canta". After this, he decided to choose his artistic name Ricardo Montaner (using his maternal family name).

In 1976, he recorded his first single named Mares. The same year he participated in the Ancon Festival (a Peruvian music festival from 1968 to 1984); where he gained some popularity after performing his song "Murallas".

In 1983, he released his first album titled Cada Día. Although the album was not a great success, it was a start for Montaner's career. He describes this album "as his own version of death metal"

It wasn't until 1987 when Montaner became widely popular in Venezuela with the singles "Yo Que Te Amé" and "Vamos a Dejarlo" belonging to his self-titled album.

Success

The following year he came out with Ricardo Montaner 2 which featured hit songs like "Tan Enamorados" and "A Donde Va El Amor". At the same time, he acted in the popular telenovela (soap opera), Niña Bonita. This also became a tool to make his songs known to the rest of Latin America. He won 4 platinum albums in Argentina alone. His next two albums, Un Toque de Misterio and En el Último Lugar del Mundo, became classics of the popular music in Mexico, Central and South America with hits such as "La Cima del Cielo", "Me Va a Extrañar", "Déjame Llorar" and "Será".

By 1992 Ricardo decided to hit the Spanish Caribbean with Los Hijos del Sol, an album that contained songs like "Castillo Azul", "Honda" and "Piel Adentro". That year, he also recorded a duet with Michelle, which was the Latinamerican version for the Aladdin song "A Whole New World" titled "Un Mundo Ideal". In the same year (1992), he performed in his concert on the Madison Square Garden, with more than 16,000 people who attended the concert. Additionally, he released singles such as La pequeña Venecia in which he demonstrates his immense love and appreciation towards his adoptive nation Venezuela, in which he refers to Venezuela as his country. Montaner was nominated for three Lo Nuestro Awards in 1993: Pop Artist of the Year, and Pop Song and Video of the Year for the single "Castillo Azul".^[1]

Although Montaner has written most of his songs he has worked closely with other great songwriters in Latin America such as Pablo Manavello, Ilan Chester, and Oscar Gómez. But in 1994, Ricardo Montaner wrote and produced all the songs in his album Una Mañana y un Camino, which became popular only years after his release due to the lack of promotion by his new record label EMI Latin, with which Ricardo would also release Viene del Alma in 1995, an Italian pop-flavored album. Also in 1995 he teamed up with Yolandita Monge to establish a Guinness World Record for performing 3 concerts in different cities on the same day in Puerto Rico. This was only possible by air transportation via helicopter from stage to stage.

Changes in style

By 1997, Montaner was already a well-established artist in the Spanish-speaking music world and could give himself the luxury of experimenting with other styles of music without forgetting the roots that made him so popular a decade earlier. He again worked with Pablo Manavello and was signed under a new record company, Warner Music. This yielded the unprecedented success that Ricardo was expecting for. Es Así brought Ricardo much popularity in the United States Spanish-speaking areas and allowed Montaner to tour more than 17 countries in Latin America making him even more popular in Spain. Songs like "La Mujer de Mi Vida", "Para Llorar" and "Es Así" became very popular all around.

In 1999, Montaner recorded his greatest hits album past hits featuring the London Metropolitan Orchestra. This was also a hit upon release, selling over 1 million copies. Ricardo made another attempt in 2001 with Sueño Repetido that included the bolero-style song "Bésame" arranged by Bebu Silvetti. Again, the song became enjoyed immense success all over the world. Succeeding collaboration with Juan Carlos Calderón, Kike Santander, and Silvetti further propelled Ricardo's career to new heights in 2002, 2003, and 2004.

2002's Suma (Bolero style songs) and 2003's Prohibido Olvidar (balada pop) had fair results in terms of sales and acceptance. "Si Tuviera Que Elegir" in Suma was written for his daughter. In 2003 he broke the record for the most concerts on the same tour in the theater of Bellas Artes in Puerto Rico. He sold out 18 concerts breaking his past record of 12, which also held it Yolandita Monge and Ricardo Arjona. In 2004, he made another album with the London Metropolitan Orchestra named Con La London Metropolitan Orchestra Vol. 2 featuring his latest hits songs and two exclusive songs such as "Desesperado" and "Esta Escrito". In 2005, Montaner launched Todo y Nada which featured the songs "Cuando a mi Lado Estas" and "Nada".

For this album, he was nominated in the Latin Grammys for Album and Song of the year for "Cuando a mi Lado Estas". "Amarte es mi Pecado" and Heridas de Amor are non-album songs that have been chosen to be the theme songs on two very popular Mexican soap operas and that much popular have become these songs.

Recent years

In 2007, Ricardo released Las Mejores Canciones Del Mundo produced by Adrian Posse with the songs "Hoy Tengo Ganas de Ti", "Nostalgias (Argen Version)", "Échame A Mí La Culpa (Artista Invitado: Juanes)".

In 2008, he released Las Mejores Canciones Del Mundo II - Y Algunas Mías...! with the songs "Cuando Un Amigo Se Va", "Ansiedad", "Bésame (Featuring Pasión Vega)". Montaner's new single "Convénceme" is now success on iTunes and on the radio stations. His new album "Viajero Frecuente" (Frequent Traveler), is going to be available as of October 16, 2012 on iTunes and other stores.

Ricardo Montaner has sold over 22 million albums and keeps breaking records in arenas and theaters all over the world. The last one was in another concert that he did in Mar del Plata, Argentina; there were 220,000 people that attended the concert that night.

Montaner Started a tour named: "Viajero Frecuente Tour 2013" in Mexico on January 24, 2013.

He released the album "Agradecido" on December 2014 and started another tour with the same name on Mexico.

On October 2016, "Ida y Vuelta" was released, containing 20 songs, but only 11 were written by him. This album is different because he sang 9 songs written by well known Mexican singers (in an attempt to honor Mexico). In return, those Mexican singers sang some of Montaner's songs, all in the same album. The deluxe version of "Ida y Vuelta" contains all 20 songs, the basic version contains only 11. A month later, Montaner received the Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.^[2]