Lenny Santos a.k.a. Len Melody (born October 24, 1979) is an American guitarist, composer, producer and entrepreneur. He rose to global fame as the co-founder of the bachata group Aventura where he served as producer, lead guitarist, vocalist, composer and musical director. Lenny is responsible for the groups distinctive sound. He is the one who dared to experiment with bachata, adding fusions of R&B, hip hop and pop. He added electric guitars and effects like tremolo, phaser and wah. Lenny is considered the pioneer and creator of urban bachata, Lenny is one of the most sought out music producers in the Latin music industry to this day. Aside from being a musician and producer, he owns multiple businesses such as restaurants and lounges in the New York City area.

Early life

Santos was born in 1979 in

The Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, to Dominican parents. He grew up in the South Bronx neighborhood in the Bronx. He has six brothers. He initially wanted to play bass after seeing his brother Max play bass, but he chose guitar instead. His inspiration to play guitar was

Antony Santos Antony Santos a.k.a. El Mayimbe, now Anthony Santos, (born 5 May 1967) is a Dominican musician and singer. He is one of the top-selling Bachata artists of all time. He is known as one of the pioneers of modern Bachata in the early 1990s with ...

, saying that he copied him exactly and then added more stuff.

Music career

Lenny has worked for many Latin artists. Some of Lenny's credits as producer, guitarist and composer include

Prince Royce Geoffrey Royce Rojas (born May 11, 1989), known professionally as Prince Royce, is an American singer. At an early age, Royce took an interest in music, and in his teenage years began experimenting with music and writing poetry. By age nineteen ...

Romeo Santos Anthony "Romeo" Santos (born July 21, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer and actor who is best known as the frontman and lead vocalist of the bachata group Aventura. In 2002, the song " Obsesión" reached number one in It ...

Henry Santos Henry Santos Jeter (born Henry Santos on December 15, 1979) is a Dominican singer, songwriter, and producer. Best known for his tenure as a singer and songwriter in the bachata group Aventura. He made his debut as a solo artist in 2011. Early ...

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Toby Love Toby Love is an American singer and songwriter. Love is known for performing a style of bachata music that combines traditional and urban singing and production. Background Toby Love was born in The Bronx, New York The Bronx () is a borough ...

, Camila,

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Frank Reyes Frank Reyes born June 4, 1969, he is one of the best known bachata artists, famous throughout Latin America. He was born in the town of Tenares in the Dominican Republic. Reyes discovered his musical talent when he was a young boy. He and his b ...

, Optimo,

Andy Andy Andy Villalona better known as Andy Andy (born Angel Villalona in Azua de Compostela) is a Dominican musician from the famed Villalona family. He first started as a merenguero. He struggled with this type of music and the multinational record ...

, Carlos & Alejandra,

Ivy Queen Martha Ivelisse Pesante Rodríguez (born March 4, 1972), known professionally as Ivy Queen, is a Puerto Rican singer, rapper, songwriter, and actress. She is considered one of the pioneers of the reggaeton genre, commonly referred to as the Qu ...

, Elvis Martinez,

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, Alam A, among others. In 2020, he collaborated with the Argentine rapper

on the song " Ayer Me Llamó Mi Ex". In 2021, he worked with

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on her latest single "El Barco". He performed the song live with Karol on

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alongside Chi Requinto, lead guitarist of

band.

Aventura

Lenny, alongside his brother Max and his friends

Anthony Anthony or Antony is a masculine given name, derived from the '' Antonii'', a ''gens'' ( Roman family name) to which Mark Antony (''Marcus Antonius'') belonged. According to Plutarch, the Antonii gens were Heracleidae, being descendants of Anton, ...

and

Henry Henry may refer to: People *Henry (given name) * Henry (surname) * Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry Royalty * Portuguese royalty ** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal ** Henry, Count of Portugal, ...

formed the group Los Tinellers in 1995, releasing a studio album which did not do well. They then became Aventura in 1999. Lenny was the lead guitarist, producer, musical arranger, musical director and backup singer. Aventura released their debut album in 1999 breaking the rules of bachata music. He added fusions of R&B and Hip Hop. He added electric guitars and added guitar effects such as tremolo, distortion, harmonizer, flanger, phaser and wah which were never used or heard of in bachata. In 2002, the song, " Obsesión" achieved huge success in many countries, topping many international charts like France, Germany and Italy. Aventura's sound broke into the mainstream thanks to Lenny and the group helped bring bachata to international popularity. He produced Ella y Yo (feat. Don Omar) fusing

reggaeton Reggaeton (, ), also known as reggaetón and reguetón (), is a music style that originated in Panama during the late 1980s. It was later popularized in Puerto Rico. It has evolved from dancehall and has been influenced by American Hip hop m ...

with bachata and merengue elements. This sound was then sought out by reggaeton producers everywhere, making him the one of the pioneers of adding bachata elements into reggaeton. Lenny produced every single Aventura album, with Romeo co-producing the last three albums.

Elvis Martinez

Lenny produced, recorded and arranged Elvis Martinez debut album Todo Se Paga (1998) as well as his sophomore album Directo Al Corazon (1999) alongside his brother Max. He did this while working on Aventura's debut album. Lenny created most of the musical arrangements and recorded the guitar tracks. Max recorded the bass tracks. Lenny even showed Elvis how to play guitar.

Vena and DNA Latin Group

He and his brother Max formed a bachata group called D'Element. As D'Element, they have released one song called "You & Me". After producing a song for Steve Styles from the Bachata group Xtreme, he asked if he would like to join his new group. Steve accepted the offer and they formed the bachata super group VENA. They released their first two singles "Señora" and "Ya No" in 2012 which became instant hits. Since then they have released countless top charting songs, such as "Corazon de Hierro (feat. Teodoro Reyes and Frank Reyes)", "Dile a El", "Por Mentiras" among others. Steve left the group in 2015, after having problems with management. Max left the group to pursue and focus on his rap career, which he was supposed to do back when Aventura broke up. Lenny released "El Final" featuring Mike Stanley, which was written by Steve. Lenny had the rights to the song already, even though Steve released his own version of the song. In 2018, Lenny, alongside new singer J Love, released "Lujuria" under the group's new name DNA Latin Group, or DNA for short. They released their second single "Hermanita". Max then re joined the group and they released their third single "Soy Tu Delirio." Since then they have been working on new music, which is planned to be released in 2019.

Discography

Studio albums

* Lenny Santos... Aventurero (2012)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Santos, Lenny 1979 births Aventura (band) members Living people American people of Dominican Republic descent American bachata musicians Entertainers from the Bronx Bachata guitarists