Juanes

Juan Esteban Aristizábal Vásquez, more commonly known as Juanes, was born in Colombia, in the state of Antioquía the 9th August 1972. From a young age, he became interested in the world of music and he started to learn how to play different instruments.

At the age of 15, he founded the music group called Ekhymosis, a group heavily influenced by thrash metal music of the 80s (Metallica and Slayer). With Ekhymosis he brought out 5 albums. According to Juanes, his first electric guitar was bought for him by Metallica who he thanked for having made him a professional. After the Split of Ekhymosis, Juanes decided to launch a solo career. In the year 2000, he made his debut with the Album Fijate Bien. In 2002 he strengthened his success with Un día normal, a success with the Latin American population.

In the year 2004, he achieved worldwide success with Mi sangre. In the year 2007, he released La Vida…es un Ratico which is considered one of the best works in Spanish. The song Me enamora is part of this album which reached number 1 status in the lists of music successes in more than 20 countries.

In 2008 in New York´s Madison Square Garden he began his La Vida World Tour 08-09, a very successful tour of concerts covering many countries like The United States, Canada, Spain, France, Germany, Morocco, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, Russia, Mexico, Chile, Colombia, etc.

Amongst his most listened to tunes in the world are A dios le Pido, La Camisa Negra and Me Enamora. His strong activism in humanitarian causes has resulted in him singing at the Nobel Prize of peace ceremony. From the start, he has always shown his commitment, above all for his own country Colombia, a country which has been greatly affected by violence for decades. In the year 2008, before the diplomatic crisis between Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela and a possible increase of international war, Juanes launched a large concert Paz sin Fronteras (Peace without borders) on the international Simón Bolivar bridge, the border between Venezuela and Colombia. Many Spanish and Latin American artists performed in the concert such as Juan Luis Guerra (Dominican Republic), Miguel Bosé (Spain), Alejandro Sanz (Spain) o Carlos Vives (Colombia); more than 300,000 people attended.

On a number of occasions, he has received awards from the Latin American Grammy awards and he has also been given major awards at the International Festival of Viña del mar in Chile.The French government has named him Caballero de Las Artes y de las Ciencias (The Man of Arts and Science) and people magazine has included him in the list of the most 100 influential people of the world.