Lester Mendez is a multi-platinum, Grammy award-winning record producer, songwriter and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

. His production/writing credits include a multitude of successful hits with Shakira, Jewel, Nelly Furtado,

Jessica Simpson Jessica Ann Simpson (born July 10, 1980) is an American singer, actress, entrepreneur and philanthropist. After performing in church choirs as a child, Simpson signed with Columbia Records in 1997, aged seventeen. Her debut studio album, '' Swe ...

Enrique Iglesias Enrique Miguel Iglesias Preysler (; (born 8 May 1975) is a Spanish singer and songwriter. He started his recording career in the mid-1990s on the Mexican indie label Fonovisa and became the bestselling Spanish-language act of the decade. By the ...

, and others.

Career

Starting out professionally as a session musician and programmer, he worked on a variety of music and genres, including Hip hop, Miami bass, Freestyle music,

House music House is a music genre characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 120 beats per minute. It was created by Disc jockey, DJs and music producers from Chicago metropolitan area, Chicago' ...

Deep house Deep house is a subgenre of house music that originated in the 1980s, initially fusing elements of Chicago house with the lush chords of 1980s jazz-funk and touches of soul music. Its origins are attributed to the early recordings of Larry Heard ( ...

, World music, Pop music and

Latin pop Latin pop (in Spanish and in Portuguese: Pop latino) is a pop music subgenre that is a fusion of US–style music production with Latin music genres from anywhere in Latin America and Spain. Originating in Spanish-speaking musicians, Latin po ...

. Mendez's keyboard, programming, arranging, and remixing credits include artists such as:

Jimmy Page James Patrick Page (born 9 January 1944) is an English musician who achieved international success as the guitarist and founder of the rock band Led Zeppelin. Page is prolific in creating guitar riffs. His style involves various alternative ...

David Coverdale David Coverdale (born 22 September 1951) is an English singer who is best known as the lead vocalist of Whitesnake, a hard rock band he founded in 1978. Before Whitesnake, Coverdale was the lead singer of Deep Purple from 1973 to 1976, after wh ...

David Byrne David Byrne (; born 14 May 1952) is a Scottish-American singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, writer, music theorist, visual artist and filmmaker. He was a founding member and the principal songwriter, lead singer, and guitarist of ...

Spice Girls The Spice Girls are a British girl group formed in 1994, consisting of Melanie Brown, also known as Mel B ("Scary Spice"); Melanie Chisholm, or Melanie C ("Sporty Spice"); Emma Bunton ("Baby Spice"); Geri Halliwell ("Ginger Spice"); and Vict ...

Pet Shop Boys The Pet Shop Boys are an English synth-pop duo formed in London in 1981. Consisting of primary vocalist Neil Tennant and keyboardist Chris Lowe, they have sold more than 50 million records worldwide, and were listed as the most successful duo i ...

Grace Jones Grace Beverly Jones (born 19 May 1948) is a model, singer and actress. Born in Jamaica, she and her family moved to Syracuse, New York, when she was a teenager. Jones began her modelling career in New York state, then in Paris, working for ...

, PM Dawn,

Bee Gees The Bee Gees were a musical group formed in 1958 by brothers Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. The trio were especially successful in popular music in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and later as prominent performers in the disco music era in ...

Jennifer Lopez Jennifer Lynn Affleck (' Lopez; born July 24, 1969), also known as J.Lo, is an American singer, actress and dancer. In 1991, she began appearing as a Fly Girl dancer on the sketch comedy television series ''In Living Color'', where she rema ...

, Ricky Martin, Babyface, Martika, Chris de Burgh,

Johnny Mathis John Royce Mathis (born September 30, 1935) is an American singer of popular music. Starting his career with singles of standard music, he became highly popular as an album artist, with several dozen of his albums achieving gold or platinum s ...

, Will Smith, Collective Soul, Angélique Kidjo,

Byron Stingily Byron Stingily is an American R&B and house-music singer born in Chicago, Illinois, known for his falsetto voice. He is now a part-time principal at a school in Chicago while still performing. Career Stingily had several hit records in the 1 ...

Exposé Expose, exposé, or exposed may refer to: News sources * Exposé (journalism), a form of investigative journalism * '' The Exposé'', a British conspiracist website Film and TV Film * ''Exposé'' (film), a 1976 thriller film * ''Exposed'' (1932 ...

, Paris by Air,

Gloria Estefan Gloria Estefan (; born Gloria María Milagrosa Fajardo García; born 1 September 1957) is a Cuban-American singer, actress, and businesswoman. Estefan is a seven-time Grammy Award winner, a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, and has been ...

, Chynna Phillips, Regina Belle, Gerald Alston, Phyllis Hyman, Jaydee, Haddaway, Deep Forest, Lonnie Gordon, Cerrone, Jimmy "Bo" Horne, Murk (band), Funky Green Dogs, Qkumba Zoo,

Wubble-U Wubble-U was an England, English dance music act of the mid-1990s, that was signed to Bertelsmann Music Group, BMG's independent record label, Indolent Records. Members were Laurant Webb, Justin Bailey, Dave Pine, Charlotte Fairman and Dave Coker, ...

Nuclear Valdez Nuclear Valdez is an American rock band from Miami, Florida, United States. The band members all are of Latin American descent and were born outside of the United States. Background information Nuclear Valdez was formed in Miami in 1983 by vocalis ...

, Afro-Rican, Lulu, the seminal freestyle band

Will To Power (band) Will to Power is an American dance-pop group that originated in South Florida in the mid-1980s founded by Miami producer Bob Rosenberg. The group recorded a number of hit singles on the ''Billboard'' dance and pop charts in the late 1980s and ear ...

, and many others. His early production / songwriting career saw him working with

Chris Blackwell Christopher Percy Gordon Blackwell (born 22 June 1937) is an English businessman and former record producer, and the founder of Island Records, which has been called "one of Britain's great independent labels". According to the Rock and Roll ...

Island Records Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in 1959 by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in Jamaica, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, anoth ...

artists

, Angélique Kidjo, Baaba Maal, Dominican-born rapper , and others. As his career continued to grow as a producer & songwriter, he went on to work with a number of artists, including:

Carlos Santana Carlos Humberto Santana Barragán (; born July 20, 1947) is an American guitarist who rose to fame in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band Santana, which pioneered a fusion of Rock and roll and Latin American jazz. Its sound featured ...

, Jason Mraz, Josh Groban, Dido, Sia, Nelly Furtado, Shakira, Seal,

Donna Summer LaDonna Adrian Gaines (December 31, 1948May 17, 2012), known professionally as Donna Summer, was an American singer and songwriter. She gained prominence during the disco era of the 1970s and became known as the " Queen of Disco", while her mus ...

Anastacia Anastacia Lyn Newkirk ( ; born September 17, 1968) is an American singer, songwriter and former dancer. Her first two albums '' Not That Kind'' (2000) and '' Freak of Nature'' (2001) were released in quick succession to major success. Spurred o ...

, Ricky Martin,

Sean Paul Sean Paul Ryan Francis Henriques OD (born 9 January 1973) is a Jamaican rapper and singer who is regarded as one of dancehall's most prolific artists. Paul's singles "Get Busy" and "Temperature" topped the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart in the ...

, Jem, Kerli, Oh land, Ladyhawke, Mike Posner, Sam Sparro,

Mr Little Jeans Monica Birkenes, better known by her stage name Mr Little Jeans, is a Norwegian singer-songwriter living in Los Angeles, California. She has released two studio albums: ''Pocketknife'', in 2014 and ''Better Days'' in 2022. The pseudonym Mr Lit ...

, Adam Lambert, PlayRadioPlay!, Tarkan, Markus Feehily, Skylar Stecker, Rittz,

She Is We He Is We is an indie pop band from Tacoma, Washington, fronted by lead singer, Rachel Taylor. Career 2008–2011: Formation and early years Rachel Taylor and Trevor Kelly met while working at Ted Brown Music Company, a music store in their ...

and others. Most recently, he founded a project called

Gemini Rising ''Gemini Rising'' (also known as ''Alien Rising'') is a 2013 American sci-fi action thriller produced by Tim Anderson and directed by Dana Schroeder. The film stars Lance Henriksen, Amy Hathaway, John Savage, Brian Krause and Dave Vescio. P ...

, in which he writes and produces all the music. Fellow collaborators on the project are Fiora (musician) and Tensnake. He also produced and co-wrote all 10 songs on the debut album by Claude Fontaine, a project he co-developed and co-conceived with Claude. The album was released on Innovative Leisure Records in the spring of 2019.

Awards

Discography (select)

References

External links

EMI Music Publishing
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mendez, Lester American record producers Grammy Award winners Latin Grammy Award winners American male writers Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) American people of Colombian descent