By 
Romeo Santos has had many hit songs with a group called Aventura and as a solo artist. But to truly understand him, it is necessary to trace his background from the beginning to the present.
He was born Anthony Santos in the Bronx, New York in 1981. His father is Dominican and his mother is Puerto Rican. He grew up near Yankee Stadium and is fluent in Spanish and English. Romeo has said that it was a nice neighborhood in the sense that it was a mix of African Americans, Puerto Ricans and Dominicans and they all knew each other.
At home, his mother influenced him musically. Romeo said that he “had a beautiful voice and played romantic balladeers like José José and Julio Iglesias”.
His older sister, Laura, is his personal manager and said he was a quiet boy but liked to sing. Even when he played with toys, he would hum.”
At 13, Santos joined the choir at his Catholic church so he could meet girls he really liked. He said that he “realized he joined the choir for all the wrong reasons when he started getting accolades for his singing. From then on, music became his mission because he felt like this is the only thing I’m good at.”
When he was 15 years old he began to develop a passion for bachata music, saying that “many of the songs did not have a good reputation and the lyrics were quite vulgar and negative.” All that changed when in 1999 she formed a group with three of his relatives and called it Aventura.
Through trial and error over a long period of time, they experimented with bachata music and finally got the sound mix they wanted. It was smooth and more contemporary. As they proceeded to sing their revised Bachata-style music, it began to gather steam. The group sold 1.8 million albums and had several top ten hits. Since Romeo was the group’s lead singer, songwriter, and producer, his superstar status became more credible.
As one analyst put it, “Romeo wrote words that were simple and people could relate to.” It should also be noted that Romeo wrote some lyrics that read like steamy soap operas. This was demonstrated with the first worldwide success of Aventura titled “Obsesión”.
A little-known fact that says a lot about his mother’s character was this: As the Adventure star was rising, he broke up with the girl he’d been dating since high school only to find out she was pregnant. His son Alex was born in 2001. Romeo said that “he was immature and for the first year and a half he made excuses not to commit and wanted to focus on his music.”
It took a while for his dear mother to make him understand that he had to “man up” and he did. He bought a house for his and Alex’s ex-girlfriend. She has become close to his son, who is now 14 years old, and interacts with him as a good parent should. How lucky Romeo is to have a mother who has the character to remind his son that he has to do the right thing at life’s crossroads.
In 2011 he announced that he was leaving Aventura to start a solo career. Two years after doing so, he featured Usher and Lil Wayne on songs with English lyrics that are the closest he’s come to mainstream R&B. “I’m reaching a huge audience,” Romeo said, “I’m doing what artists like Beyoncé are doing in terms of selling out stadiums. The difference is that my audience speaks Spanish.”
In 2014, Romeo sold out two nights at Yankee Stadium and did it solo rather than like other big-name artists who needed a fellow celebrity singer to partner with them to fill the house.
At the 2015 Billboard Latin Music Awards, Romeo Santos took home 10 awards including Artist of the Year, Songwriter of the Year, Producer of the Year, Hot Latin Songs Artist of the Year and Best Latin Album of the Year for Formula, Vol 2.
During the ceremony, Romeo made a special comment to Marc Anthony saying that he had the great privilege of recording with Marc and that he was like a brother to him. The fact that Romeo did that pleased me since Marc Anthony is one of my favorite singers. Marc is a REALLY GOOD singer. So I’m happy that Romeo gave him a special thank you.
Finally, I confidently say that the boy from the Bronx in New York will have a brilliant career given the success and guidance he has had.