Grupo Mania | |
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Grupo Mania performing in 2011.
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Background information | |
Origin | Puerto Rico |
Genres | Merengue |
Years active | 1993-present |
Members | Héctor Serrano ("Banchy") Jhonny Vélez Daniel Serrano Rubiel Omar |
Past members | Alfred Cotto Edwin Serrano Elvis Crespo Reynaldo Santiago ("Chino") Alex Rivera Alexis Ramos Juan Luis Guzman ("Juancho") Oscar Serrano |
Grupo Manía (sometimes spelled Grupomanía or GrupoManía) is a popular merengue group from Puerto Rico that released its debut album in 1993. The group was formed by brothers Héctor and Oscar Serrano together with Edwin Serrano and Alfred Cotto in the early 1990s. In 1994, Edwin Serrano was replaced by Elvis Crespo before releasing their most successful albums.
In 1997, Crespo decided to leave the group and follow a solo career. He was replaced in 1998 with Reynaldo Santiago, who had previously sung with Zona Roja, another popular merengue band at the time. The band has achieved gold status with some of their albums and are considered one of the best in the genre.
At the beginning of the millennium, the band faced some controversy when Héctor Serrano, the group director, fired Cotto and Santiago on the grounds of alleged discipline problems. Cotto and Santiago would go on to form Grupo Starz, while Serrano replaced them with Alex Rivera and Juan Luis Guzmán.
Despite never having the same amount of success as previous years, the band continued to perform and record albums. However, in 2006, Serrano announced the group would go on a reunion tour entitled "The Originals" with former members, Elvis Crespo and Alfred Cotto. After three years of inactivity, Grupo Mania released "15 Años de Corazon" in late 2008.
Oscar Serrano is resigning from Grupo Mania after twenty-two years to pursue a solo career. At the same time, both of the bands are promoting theirs new hit.