Kinito Méndez, born José del Carmen Ramírez Méndez on November 18, 1963, is a
merengue music
Merengue is a type of music and Merengue (dance), dance originating in present-day Dominican Republic which has become a very popular genre throughout Latin America, and also in several major cities in the United States with Latino communities. ...
singer.
Biography
Mendez started his career in 1988 as one of the co-founders of the merengue band La Cocoband, along with Alfonzo "
Pochy Familia" Vásquez and Bobby Rafael. Mendez wrote and arranged many of La Cocoband's songs, including "La Manito", "El Boche", "El Cacu" and "Mujer Malvada". Mendez later decided to leave and start his own project in early 1992 with Bobby Rafael which was "Rokabanda", who won Orquesta Revelación del Año in Los Premios Cassandra in 1993. With Rokabanda, Mendez produced "El Bacano", "El Ñoñito" and "los hombres maduro". In 1995, Mendez released his solo album "El Hombre Merengue", which sold 1.5 million copies.
Mendez was responsible for the 1997 song "El Vuelo 587",
which pays tribute to
American Airlines Flight 587, an early morning departure flight from
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
to
Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo, formerly known as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city of the Dominican Republic and the List of metropolitan areas in the Caribbean, largest metropolitan area in the Caribbean by population. the Distrito Na ...
,
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...
.
Mendez partially wrote the lyrics; he and
Johnny Ventura
Juan de Dios Ventura Soriano (8 March 1940 – 28 July 2021), better known as Johnny Ventura nicknamed , was a Dominican singer and band leader of merengue music, merengue and Salsa music, salsa.
In 2004, he received the Latin Grammy Award fo ...
were the singer, which were then turned inside one of the songs in "Merenboom, Vol. 2."
Méndez himself had been a passenger on the flight before the November 12, 2001, accident flight occurred. The song was later re-released as "The Plane,"
or "El Avion" in Spanish. Méndez said that originally the song was intended to be about happiness while traveling to the Dominican Republic for the holidays.
The aircraft on the flight crashed in 2001.
Papi LaFontaine, who once served as Méndez's manager, died in the 2001 accident flight.
Méndez said that he was considering writing a new song about the flight, "
t it would be a slower song in tribute to all those who died."
Discography
* El Hombre Merengue (1995)
* El Decreto de Kinito Méndez (1997)
* A Caballo... (1998)
* Su Amigo (1999)
* D'Colores (2000)
* A Palo Limpio (2001)
* Sigo Siendo el Hombre Merengue (2002)
* Celebra Conmigo (2004)
* Con Sabor a Mi (2006)
* La Fábrica (2008)
Compilations
* Los Éxitos de Kinito Méndez (1995)
* Cachamba 96: The Unreleased Versions (1996)
* Sólo Éxitos (1998)
* 20th Anniversary (1999)
* 12 Éxitos (2001)
* 20 Éxitos (2002)
* Éxitos de Kinito Méndez (2005)
* Vida (2009)
Pa' Ti Pa' Mi Records
* El Hombre Merengue (1996)
* Vale la Pena (1998)
Videography
* A Caballo... (1999)
* Ayer y Hoy (2005)
External links
*
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mendez, Kinito
20th-century Dominican Republic male singers
21st-century Dominican Republic male singers
Merengue musicians
Latin music songwriters
Living people
1963 births