Jorge Drexler

Infobox Musical artist
Name = Jorge Drexler

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Birth_name = Jorge Abner Drexler Prada
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Born = birth date and age|1964|9|21
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Origin = Uruguay
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URL = [http://www.jorgedrexler.com Official Site]
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Jorge Drexler (born Jorge Abner Drexler Prada on September 21, 1964) is an Academy Award-winning Uruguayan musician. On 2004 Drexler won wide acclaim after becoming the first Uruguayan ever to win an Academy Award, which he won for composing the song "Al Otro Lado del Río" from "The Motorcycle Diaries".

Career

In 1995 he was invited to Madrid by well-known Spanish songwriter Joaquín Sabina, who introduced him to other important Spanish singers. Drexler went to Spain to record the album "Vaivén" in 1996 with Spanish musicians. "Vaivén" included some old songs from his previous releases mixed with new compositions. He moved to Spain and recorded another four albums: "Llueve" (1998), "Frontera" (1999), "Sea" (2001) and "Eco" (2004).

Although he lives most of the year in Spain, his latest three albums were partially recorded in Uruguay with Uruguayan musicians. Juan Campodónico and Carlos Casacuberta, former members of rock band El Peyote Asesino, have produced Drexler's albums since "Frontera".

His music is a combination of Uruguayan traditional music (candombe, murga, milonga), bossa nova, pop, jazz and electronic music, which results in very personal compositions with original arrangements. The words also play an important role in his songs. Apart from love, reflections about identity, race and religions are a constant in his work.

Oscar

Though Drexler himself sang the song on the movie soundtrack, it was performed together by Antonio Banderas and Carlos Santana at the Academy Awards ceremony. Upon his winning the award for Best Original Song, Drexler's "speech" consisted mostly of him singing a portion of the song a cappella.

Personal life

Drexler was born in Montevideo, to a Jewish family. [cite news|url=http://www.theworld.org/?q=node/8622|title=Jorge Drexler talks about his album '12 segundos de oscuridad'|accessdate=2008-06-22] Like much of his family, he studied medicine and became an ear, nose and throat specialist. [cite news|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0DE1DA1430F931A25754C0A9639C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all|title=Latin American Singer's Rainbow Coalition of Identities|accessdate=2008-06-22] He also studied music and recorded two albums, which were only released in Uruguay.

Discography

*"La luz que sabe robar" (Ayui, 1992)
*"Radar" (Ayui, 1994)
*"Vaivén" (Virgin, 1996)
*"Llueve" (Virgin, 1998)
*"Frontera" (Virgin, 1999)
*"Sea" (Virgin, 2001)
*"Eco" (Dro, 2004)
*"Eco²" (includes 3 "bonus tracks" + DVD) (Dro, 2005)
*"12 Segundos de Oscuridad" (2006)
*"La Edad del Cielo (iTunes release)" (2007)
*"Cara B"(2008)

External links

* [http://www.jorgedrexler.com/ Jorge Drexler's official site]
* [http://www.miwml.com/jorgedrexler Jorge Drexler's Official Label Site - Free music online]

References