– Juan Luis Guerra has been a legendary figure in Latin music with over 30 million albums sold worldwide and over 20 Latin Grammy wins
– His new EP “Radio Güira” showcases his innovative fusion of genres and commitment to connecting with a younger audience, while also celebrating his signature sound from his earlier work
– Guerra credits his faith for his successful career and hopes that his music brings joy and transformation to his listeners
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If you’re Dominican and were alive during the 1980s and ’90s, chances are Juan Luis Guerra’s hits became the soundtrack of your life. They’d play at every family function, during long car rides, or at the beach, and he was likely your mami’s favorite artist to blast during her Saturday morning cleaning rituals. Throughout his prolific and four-decade career, Guerra has not only reinvented the tropical rhythms of his native Dominican Republic alongside his band 4.40, but he’s also reached audiences way beyond just the Dominican community. With 30 million-plus albums sold around the world and more than 20 Latin Grammy wins, Guerra has become a legend in the Latin music space and not just for his poetic lyrics — he’s often referred to as the Pablo Neruda of merengue and bachata — but also for never being afraid to innovate or color outside of the lines of what “Dominican music” is supposed to sound like. His new EP, “Radio Güira,” which was released earlier this month, proves just that.
“Radio Güira” was inspired by both a radio show Guerra had years ago, as well as his love for the güira, a percussion instrument that’s often played in Dominican folklore music. The innovative EP also includes interludes, radio-style commercials, and even one of Guerra’s favorite habichuelas guisadas recipes by Nuna, the woman who cooks in his home. You hear her reciting the recipe in the intro to the “Cositas de Amor” track. “I had a radio [show] in the Dominican Republic called Radio Viva and it played music from the continents. Then when I started working on the album, [and] I realized it was a lot of new things — things I haven’t done before,” Guerra tells POPSUGAR.
Guerra has been fusing different sounds and genres since the ’80s, when practically no other Latin music artist — let alone a Dominican artist — was bold enough to try. It’s what has contributed to his signature sound. If a Juan Luis Guerra song plays on the radio, even if it’s your first time hearing it, you’ll easily recognize it as one of his. And with “Radio Güira,” there’s a celebration of both old school and new school Guerra. It fuses genres like mambo, merengue, rock and even jazz.
Guerra’s inspiration to fuse sounds early in his career had a lot to do with the music he listened to during his youth — a lot of it being rock. He was a big fan of The Beatles growing up, for example.”The sound of our guitar, the way I play guitar, it is very rock-oriented within bachata,” he says. “That’s why our bachata has a different color compared to others. I have always been drawn to mixing different genres and I think the result was very good [and] a lot of the younger generation are doing the same.”
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