Victor Manuelle
| Víctor Manuelle | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Victor Manuel Ruiz |
| Born |
September 27, 1968 The Bronx, New York, U.S. |
| Origin | Isabela, Puerto Rico |
| Genres | Salsa |
| Years active | 1987–present |
| Associated acts | Gilberto Santa Rosa |
Victor Manuel Ruiz (born September 27, 1968, The Bronx, New York City), known professionally as Víctor Manuelle, is a successful Latin Grammy nominated American-born Puerto Rican salsa singer, songwriter, and improvisational son singer, known to his fans as El Sonero de la Juventud ("The Singer Of Youths"). He is identified primarily with salsa romantica or "salsa monga", but has also experimented with styles ranging from Colombian vallenato to reggaeton.
Unlike other salsa performers such as Marc Anthony, he has neither recorded in English, nor made a Latin pop album, nor (with rare exceptions) ventured into acting, preferring to remain a musician grounded within salsa music. He is currently tied with Marc Anthony for the most number-one singles in the Billboard Tropical Songs chart.
Although born in The Bronx, Victor was raised primarily in Isabela, Puerto Rico, where he enjoyed salsa music. His singing career began because of Gilberto Santa Rosa, during a concert at his high school's graduation party by salsa superstar. At the instigation of classmates, who were going on about their friend the sonero, Santa Rosa invited Victor to jump up on stage and sing a song with him. To Santa Rosa's surprise, not only could Victor sing, but he "free-styled" the improvisational soneo lyrics in the song, and traded soneos with Santa Rosa. Shortly thereafter, on Santa Rosa's recommendation, Puerto Rican bandleader Don Periñon hired teenage Victor as a backup singer.
Víctor Manuelle has become one of the best-selling salsa performers of recent years, with his albums selling a combined 1 million-plus copies in the U.S. Three studio albums, 1999's Inconfundible ("Unmistakable"), 2001's Instinto Y Deseo ("Instinct and Desire") and 2004's Travesía ("Crossover"), have cracked Billboard's overall Top 200 Albums chart, and the latter two reached #1 on the Latin Album chart (Inconfundible reached #2). Interestingly, while several of his singles have made the Top 5 or Top 10 on the Latin charts, he had to wait for 2004's Tengo Ganas ("I'm in the Mood") to score a Billboard #1 Latin hit.
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