Fulanito

Fulanito, a group of Dominicans born in the United States, has received some of the large acclaim in Latin America for being among the first groups to combine Merengue (specifically Perico Ripiao) with Bachata, Reggaeton, Rap and hip hop, and house, with about 2 million albums sold throughout the world. At one time, they were the top selling act in Colombia, and placed on other charts including those of Japan, Switzerland, United States, and Chile. Their name means "Joe Who?" in Dominican slang. The group was formerly known as 2 in a Room.

History

The group started, when, in the early 1990s, the lead singer Rafael Vargas started recording with accordion player Arsenio de la Rosa when growing up in Washington Heights, a neighborhood in Manhattan, New York. They recorded their first song, "Guayando", and, after several failed attempts of presenting their music to a handful of large Latin labels, released their debut CD (with the help of Cutting Records) in 1997. This album sold 500,000 copies, while only a mere 50,000 was required to achieve gold status. They released El Padrino in 1999, which experimented with other Latin rhythms, such as Cumbia and Samba. After that, they toured from the Southern United States to Japan in only a month.In March 2008, Fulanito toured Australia for the second time ever, performing all their greatest hits. Their first time to Australia was in September 2004.

Discography

*"El Hombre Mas Famoso de la Tierra" (1997)
*"El Padrino" (1999)
*"The Remixes (2001)
*"Americanizao" (2001)
*"La Verdad" (2004)
*"Vacaneria" (2007)

EPs

*"Mira" (2007)

External links

* [http://www.fulanito.com Fulanito's website]

References

* [http://home-3.tiscali.nl/~pjetax/biographees/fulanito.html A biography of Fulanito]