Alexis Vélez Alberio, also known as Alex Zurdo, is a Puerto Rican

Christian music Christian music is music that has been written to express either personal or a communal belief regarding Christian life and faith. Common themes of Christian music include praise, worship, penitence, and lament, and its forms vary widely around ...

rapper Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...

and

songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...

. He has almost a dozen musical productions, and has been awarded the

GMA Dove Award A Dove Award is an accolade by the Gospel Music Association (GMA) of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the Christian music industry. The awards are presented annually. Formerly held in Nashville, Tennessee, the Dove Awards ...

and

Arpa Awards The Arpa Awards, established in 2002 by the National Academy of Music and Christian Arts, are a ceremony of musical recognition of the work of contemporary Christian music artists, mainly of the Spanish language. The awards are presented each ye ...

, having also been nominated for a

Latin Grammy The Latin Grammy Awards are an award by The Latin Recording Academy to recognize outstanding achievement in the Latin music industry. The Latin Grammy honors works recorded in Spanish or Portuguese from anywhere around the world that has been r ...

, and a Premio Tu Música Urbano. He has been the main artist in various concerts and events around Latin America, sharing stages with

Funky Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the mid ...

Vico C Luis Armando Lozada Cruz (born September 8, 1971), known by his stage name Vico C, is an American rapper and record producer. Regarded as the founding father of reggaeton, Vico C has played an influential role in the development of Latin American ...

, Marcos Witt,

Christine D'Clario Christine D'Clario (September 7, 1982) is an American Christian music singer, songwriter and worship leader, who plays contemporary worship music primarily for a Spanish-speaking audience. She has released seven albums: six in the Spanish-langua ...

Tercer Cielo Tercer Cielo (in English ''Third Heaven'') is a contemporary Christian Latin pop music duo formed in 2000 by Dominican people (Dominican Republic), Dominicans Juan Carlos Rodriguez and Marcos Yaroide. The duo is currently composed of Rodriguez an ...

Danilo Montero Danilo Montero (born 1 November 1962) is a Costa Rican contemporary Christian music singer, author, and pastor, who currently serves as pastor of Lakewood Church's Spanish-speaking congregation. Biography Born on 1 November 1962, in San Jose, ...

Marcos Vidal Marcos Vidal is a Christian music singer and songwriter. In 1997 he won the International Award GMA as the best ''non-English male vocalist''.EnlaceMusical (Spanish) , Wikimania, August 2006. Biography Although born in Germany, Vidal has live ...

, and collaborated with artists such as

Olga Tañón Olga Teresa Tañón OrtizIn this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is ''Tañón'' and the second or maternal family name is ''Ortiz''. (born April 13, 1967) is a Puerto Rican singer-songwriter. Over the course of her career, she has ...

, Gabriel Rodríguez EMC, among others.

Musical career

Alex Zurdo, was born on June 10, 1983, in

Trujillo Alto Trujillo Alto (, ) is a town and municipality of Puerto Rico located in the Northern Coastal Plain, on the boundary between the karst zone and Sierra de Luquillo, north of Caguas, and Gurabo; southeast of San Juan, and west of Carolina. Truji ...

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

. At the age of 11 he wrote his first rap songs. At 13, he had his first piano and learned to play it himself. In the following years he participated in several non-Christian rap and reggaeton productions as "''Zurdo''", in duet with Rey Blasto. At the age of 21, he began his musical ministry, including ministrations, conferences and seminars and launched his first production of Christian music, entitled "Nada es mío", distributed by

Universal Music Latino Universal Music Latin Entertainment, a division of Universal Music Group, is a record company specialized in producing and distributing Latin music in Mexico, the United States, and Puerto Rico. UMLE includes famous Latin music labels such as Uni ...

. After his first album, Alex released from 2005 to 2009, one album per year. Albums such as ''Con propósito'', ''Se trata de ti'' (with Jonny L), ''De Gloria en Gloria - La Trayectoria'', ''Una y mil razones'' and ''Así son las cosas.'' His seventh production titled "''Mañana Es Hoy''" ("Tomorrow is today") took three years. The musical production was in charge of the producer duo Marcos Ramírez and Víctor Torres ( Los Tranz4Merz), Effect-O, DJ Cróniko and Alex himself. It was promoted with the single «¿Dónde estás?» ("Where are you?") that talks about the importance of fatherhood. Since 2012, their productions have been released every two years, and nominations and recognitions for various ceremonies such as the

and AMCL began. This album is Alex Zurdo's first to make it onto the ''Billboard'' charts, debuting at number 9 on

Latin Rhythm Albums Latin Rhythm Albums is a record chart published by ''Billboard'' magazine. Like all ''Billboard'' album charts, the chart is based on sales, which are compiled by Nielsen SoundScan based on sales data from merchants representing more than 90 ...

, remaining in the top 15 for over 20 weeks. For this record production, Alex won three AMCL Awards in 2012, in the categories ''Urban album of the year'', ''Urban song of the year'' for «Mañana es hoy» and ''Musical intervention of the year'' for «Si no hay amor» ("If there is no love") with Vanessa Vissepó. ''De la A a la Z'' ("From A to Z") was launched in 2014 and featured the participation of

Redimi2 Redimi2 (born Willy González Cruz; June 3, 1979) is a Dominican Christian music rapper and songwriter. González began releasing music in 1999 as a part of Redimi2 Squad, alongside his brother JG. After all members besides González left the grou ...

, Nancy Amancio and

Samuel Hernández Samuel Hernández is a Puerto Rican Christian music singer. He also has had songs crossover and become mainstream secular hits. His 2003 album ''Jesús siempre llega a tiempo'' was one of the first big-selling Puerto Rican Christian albums. He per ...

. The album debuted at number 4 on

Billboard's ''Billboard'' (stylized as ''billboard'') is an American music and entertainment magazine published weekly by Penske Media Corporation. The magazine provides music charts, news, video, opinion, reviews, events, and style related to the music ...

chart. This album won an AMCL Award in 2014 in the category ''Urban Album of the Year'' and ''Urban Song of the Year'' for "No soy yo" with

, and was also nominated at the 2015

for "Best Urban Album". On the "From A to Z" tour, Alex Zurdo's first live album was recorded, which was titled AZ Live and was released in 2016. The concert that was used for the recording of the album was that of its presentation in his native country, specifically at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot. The album was nominated at the 2017 Arpa Awards in the categories "Best Live Album" and "Best Urban Album". In 2018, he released his album ''¿Quién contra nosotros?'' (Who Against Us? in English), also, it obtained at the

Dove Awards A Dove Award is an accolade by the Gospel Music Association (GMA) of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the Christian music industry. The awards are presented annually. Formerly held in Nashville, Tennessee, the Dove Award ...

the recognition of "Song of the Year in Spanish" for the single «Sin ti», while in

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

, being nominated as ''Best Christian Album'' ''in Spanish'' at the

Latin Grammy Awards The Latin Grammy Awards are an award by The Latin Recording Academy to recognize outstanding achievement in the Latin music industry. The Latin Grammy honors works recorded in Spanish or Portuguese from anywhere around the world that has been r ...

and

, being the winner in these last two ceremonies as "Best Christian Album in Spanish", and "Best Urban Album", respectively. Then, he launched ''M.E.M.E.'' in 2020, (acronym for "Menos Ego, Más Enfoque", "Less Ego, More Focus" in English), where the single "Toca la guitarra, Viejo" ("Play the guitar, dad") dedicated to his father, was approached by various media due to the theme touched,

Alzheimer's Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As t ...

. In February 2021, he released ''UNO'', an album collaborating with

and

. In March 2021, he participated in "Al Taller del Maestro", a benefit streaming concert performed by

Alex Campos Édgar Alexánder Campos Mora, better known as Alex Campos, is a Colombian evangelical singer-songwriter. Campos has won three Latin Grammy Awards The Latin Grammy Awards are an award by The Latin Recording Academy to recognize outstandin ...

, where

Evan Craft Evan Kenneth Craft (born April 8, 1991), is an American Contemporary worship music singer. Evan has recorded albums in Spanish and English. His 2012 release, '' Yo Soy Segundo'', ranked high on the ''Billboard'' charts, reaching number one on the ...

was also present.

Personal life

On April 8, 2008, he married Denisse Contreras, sister of singer Daliza Contreras, wife of Dominican rapper Willy González, known as

. In 2011, his first child was born. In 2014, Alex Zurdo became a father for the second time.

Discography

* 2004: ''Nada es mío'' * 2005: ''Con propósito'' * 2006: ''Se trata de ti'' (with Jonny L) * 2007: ''De Gloria en Gloria - La Trayectoria'' * 2008: ''Una y mil razones'' * 2009: ''Así son las cosas'' * 2012: ''Mañana es hoy'' * 2014: ''De la A a la Z'' * 2016: ''AZ Live'' * 2018: '' ¿Quién contra nosotros?'' * 2020: ''M.E.M.E.'' * 2021: ''UNO'' (with

and

) * 2022: ''DTOX''

Awards and nominations

Latin Grammy Award The Latin Grammy Awards are an award by The Latin Recording Academy to recognize outstanding achievement in the Latin music industry. The Latin Grammy honors works recorded in Spanish or Portuguese from anywhere around the world that has been r ...
s

, - ,

, , '' ¿Quién contra nosotros?'' , , Best Christian Album , ,

Dove Awards A Dove Award is an accolade by the Gospel Music Association (GMA) of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the Christian music industry. The awards are presented annually. Formerly held in Nashville, Tennessee, the Dove Award ...

, - ,

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

, , ''Sin Ti'' , , Spanish Language Recorded Song of the Year , , , - , rowspan="2" ,

, , '' ¿Quién contra nosotros?'' , , Spanish Language Album of the Year , , , - , ''Mi GPS'' , , Spanish Language Recorded Song of the Year , ,

Arpa Awards The Arpa Awards, established in 2002 by the National Academy of Music and Christian Arts, are a ceremony of musical recognition of the work of contemporary Christian music artists, mainly of the Spanish language. The awards are presented each ye ...

, - , 2015 , , ''De la A a la Z'' , , Best Urban Album , , , - , rowspan="2" , 2017 , , rowspan="2" , ''AZ Live'' , , Best Urban Album , , , - , Best Live Album , , , - , 2019 , , '' ¿Quién contra nosotros?'' , , Best Urban Album , ,

Unción Awards

, - , 2012 , , ''Himself'' , , Best Male Psalmist , ,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zurdo, Alex 1983 births Living people Converts to Christianity People from Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico Puerto Rican rappers 21st-century American rappers

Musical career

Personal life

Discography

Awards and nominations

Latin Grammy Award The Latin Grammy Awards are an award by The Latin Recording Academy to recognize outstanding achievement in the Latin music industry. The Latin Grammy honors works recorded in Spanish or Portuguese from anywhere around the world that has been r ...s

Dove Awards A Dove Award is an accolade by the Gospel Music Association (GMA) of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the Christian music industry. The awards are presented annually. Formerly held in Nashville, Tennessee, the Dove Award ...

Arpa Awards The Arpa Awards, established in 2002 by the National Academy of Music and Christian Arts, are a ceremony of musical recognition of the work of contemporary Christian music artists, mainly of the Spanish language. The awards are presented each ye ...

Unción Awards

References

Latin Grammy Award The Latin Grammy Awards are an award by The Latin Recording Academy to recognize outstanding achievement in the Latin music industry. The Latin Grammy honors works recorded in Spanish or Portuguese from anywhere around the world that has been r ...
s