Ironias victor manuelle biography

At a high school graduation party in Puerto Rico in the spring of 1986, salsa star Gilberto Santa Rosa introduced the young man who would become his protégé. Standing offstage, Victor Manuel Ruiz, age 17 and wearing braces, practically trembled with stage fright.

Once onstage, however, he was transformed into Victor Manuelle, a star-in-the-making with a piercing tenor voice and the improvisational finesse of the classic Puerto Rican soneros he had listened to while growing up.

“El sonero de la juventud!” (“The sonero of the youth!”) declared Santa Rosa when he introduced Manuelle to play with his orchestra that evening.

“I never expected to hear what I heard,” Santa Rosa later recalled. “I was struck by his capacity to improvise. I heard a very catchy voice with a natural capacity for improvisation. He dominated the style and the stage.” Recalls Manuelle: “It was an amazing night. I just thought it was a dream come true.”

That night began one of the most prolific and enduring careers in contemporary tropical music. In the 25 years since the release of his debut album, Justo a Tiempo, in 1993, Manuelle has placed 11 albums at No. 1 on Billboard’s Tropical Albu

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