Sergio Pascual Vargas Parra (

Villa Altagracia Villa Altagracia is a List of municipalities of the Dominican Republic, municipality (''municipio'') of the San Cristóbal Province, San Cristóbal province in the Dominican Republic. Within the municipality there are three municipal districts ('' ...

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 ...

, March 15, 1960) is a performer of merengue and

bolero Bolero is a genre of song which originated in eastern Cuba in the late 19th century as part of the trova tradition. Unrelated to the older Spanish dance of the same name, bolero is characterized by sophisticated lyrics dealing with love. It h ...

, who was very popular in the 80s and 90s, during the "Golden Age of Merengue" and today remains active as one of the leading figures in Dominican merengue. His brothers, Kaki and Johnny, are also performers of the genre and have been by his side for much of their respective musical careers. Vargas was a deputy for the Dominican Liberation Party representing his people Villa Altagracia in the period 2006–2010.

Career

Known as El negrito de Villa, Vargas participated in the Festival of the Voice organized by the Dominican musician Rafael Solano, where he finished second. Two years later in 1982, he became part of the Dionis Fernández orchestra. In this orchestra, Sergio came to perform great hits like "The designers", "To the rhythm of the night", "A man and a woman", among others. After this, Sergio went on to reinforce the orchestra "Los Hijos del Rey" as lead vocalist. This orchestra in its beginnings was led by Fernando Villalona and Raulín Rosendo. It was in this group that its popularity began to grow, so much so that the group had fan clubs in Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Panama and the East Coast of the United States. In 1986 Sergio released his first LP under the Karen Records label. This LP includes the single "La quiero a morir" (''I Love Her to Death''), which is the Spanish version of "Je l'aime à mourir" by the French singer Francis Cabrel. In 1987 he recorded another album with Los Hijos del Rey titled "the earth quaked", with which he achieved great success. At the moment Sergio launched as a soloist, most of the musicians left with him, except for Diómedes Nuñez and shortly after Orvis García. The arrangements for this production are by Sonny Ovalles and his pianist Juan Valdez. The singles of this production are "Ciclón (indoor party)", "Marola", "On the other side of the sun", "Bamboleo", "This humble house", "Days of June" and "Black Pearl".

Albums / LP

* I love her to death (1986) *The Earth Trembled (1987) *Cyclone (Festa do interior) (1988) *The unconditional (1989) *This is my country (1991) *Bullfighter (1992) *By H or by R (1993) *The meringue is danced and danced (1994) *Like a bolero (1994) *Love Fraud (1995) *Just Meringue (1995) *My proposal (1996) *Time of love (1997) *Together (1998) *On-time (1999) *Once Upon a Meringue (1999) *Another era (with Los Panchos) (1999) *From Sergio Vargas to José Feliciano (2000) *Go and tell him (2001) *Bohemian Live (2003) *Bohemian (2004) *His successes in bachata (2004) *New, old and half-used loves (2009)

Compilations

*The Golden Years (1994) *The Best (1994) *Brilliant (with Johnny Ventura) (1994) *Musical history (1995) *Success Story (1995) *Face to face (with Johnny Ventura) (1997) *The man and its meringue (1998) *Big hits (1999) *Meringue gold (2000) *Series 2000 (2000) *Between friends (with Fernando Villalona) (2000) *Meringue (2001) *22 Ultimate Hits (2002) *Together (2002) *Gold Collection: 15 Successes (2002) *Tropical Blue Series (2003) *15 Favorite Songs (2003) *Diamond Collection (2004) *Sabrosonas of the memory (2005) *20 years are nothing (2005) *20 original hits (2005) *2 great voices of Quisqueya the beautiful (with Eddy Herrera) (2007) *Collectible 10 (2007) *A singer, 3 facets, a great artist (2008) *My favorites (2010) *Face to face (with Toño Rosario) (2013) *Great voices of the century collection

Songs

With the Children of the King *For her *My pride *A Man and a Woman * Je l'aime à mourir (I love her to death) *Oh Mariana *The earth quaked *Let's leave it *If you ever see her With Dionis Fernández & Orquesta *The designers *To the rhythm of the night With The Singer Arena *Is not easy As soloist *Marola (written by Luis Días) *The earth quaked *The vampires *Girlfriend *Too bad for so much love *Ragdoll ( salsa) *The little window *Heart of stone *The pill *tell him *Sorrows to the wind *Magic *A cigarette, the rain and you *Like a bolero *Women *Neither you nor I *Bad memory *Oh my god *What have you believed *Lost bullet *Go and tell *What's up sweetheart *It is going to hurt you *Last night we talked about love *Tell me where *My brunette

Covers

* Je l'aime à mourir, (by the French singer Francis Cabrel) *Bamboléo (from the Spanish flamenco group

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) *This humble house (by the Brazilian singer Roberto Carlos) *Black Pearl (from the Venezuelan singer Yordano) *The unconditional (from singer

Luis Miguel Luis Miguel Gallego Basteri (; born 19 April 1970) is a Mexican singer and record producer. Born in Puerto Rico to an Italian mother and a Spanish father, he is often referred to as Honorific nicknames in popular music, ''El Sol de Mexico'' ...

) * I try to forget you (played by Nicaraguan Hernaldo Zúñiga); composed by Manuel Alejandro. *Bullfighter (with José Alberto "El Canario"; original song by

Julio Iglesias Julio José Iglesias de la Cueva (; born 23 September 1943) is a Spanish singer and songwriter. Iglesias is recognized as the most commercially successful Spanish singer in the world and one of the top List of best-selling music artists, reco ...

and José Luis Rodríguez) *Until you forget me (performed by

and written by

Juan Luis Guerra Juan Luis Guerra Seijas (born 7 June 1957) is a People of the Dominican Republic, Dominican musician, singer, composer, and record producer. Throughout his career, he has won numerous awards including 28 Latin Grammy Awards, three Grammy Awards, ...

) *Oh! woman (originally performed by

) *Scandal (played by Javier Solís) *Forgive me, forget it (with Gisselle; originally performed by Juan Gabriel and Rocío Dúrcal) *To say goodbye (with Gisselle; originally performed by José Feliciano">Rocío_Dúrcal.html" ;"title="Juan Gabriel and Rocío Dúrcal">Juan Gabriel and Rocío Dúrcal) *To say goodbye (with Gisselle; originally performed by José Feliciano and Ann Kelly) *That which you gave me (interpreted by Alejandro Sanz) *El negrito del Batey (played by Alberto Beltrán) *The Broken Cup (originally performed by José Feliciano) *After you what? (originally performed by José Feliciano) *Why do I have to forget you? (originally performed by José Feliciano) *Tell Me Heart (originally performed by Amaury Gutiérrez) *What once was will not be (originally performed by José José) *I live for her (originally performed by

Andrea Bocelli Andrea Bocelli (; born 22 September 1958) is an Italian tenor. He rose to fame in 1994 after winning the newcomers' section of the 44th Sanremo Music Festival performing " Il mare calmo della sera". Since 1994, Bocelli has recorded 15 solo st ...

and Marta Sánchez) *To live (composed and performed by Pablo Milanés)

Achievements

In 2018 he received the Great Sovereign during the celebration of the 2018 Sovereign Awards, where he thanked his award with a speech in favor of education for Dominican musicians. In 1988 he was awarded by the Association of Art Writers of the

with a Cassandra (nowadays known as sovereign awards) for his concert titled Sergio. This concert was awarded as a show of the year. Sergio Vargas also won the Casandra award for the best video clip for the song "Las vampires" by the composer Luis Días. In 1989 CBS International offered him a record deal. After much contemplation, he left Karen Records and signed with CBS. In 1991 it was a very productive year for Sergio Vargas' career; after participating in the television program "This is my country" he was awarded the Casandra (today called sovereign awards) award. He also received the Casandra award for his international projection and singing in places like New York's

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as the Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh and Eighth Avenue (Manhattan), Eig ...

in front of 20,000 spectators at the Merengue Carnival. Under the direction of producer and director Jean Louis Jorge. Sergio shot a special program for Sony Music International. In 1993 he received a gold record, and was also one of the singers who participated in the famous Eight Street Festival in the city of Miami. In 2018 in the largest demonstration held to artists in the

called awards Cassandra (nowadays known as sovereign awards). Sergio Vargas had a special participation in the awards. After the participation, they gave him the recognition as THE GREAT SOVEREIGN (artist of greatest importance in the

and internationally). In 2021, Vargas won the Latin Grammy Award for Best Merengue/Bachata Album. Today Sergio is known and recognized as the artist of the Homeland and his group one of the most active orchestras in the field. Countries such as Colombia, Cali, Bogota, Santa Marta, Cucuta, Ocaña, Medellin, among others, recognize Sergio as the favorite merengue of all time. His fame is so great that even in the city of Cali in the town of (Chipichapi) there are hotels that bear his name in his main suid.

Golden Congos

Awarded at the Barranquilla Carnival Orchestra Festival at the Barranquilla Carnival:

Activism

During the term of Hipólito Mejía (2000–2004), Sergio Vargas decided to stop cutting his hair in protest until the government fixed all the streets of his hometown

. To this day, Sergio still has his long hair, for Sergio, not cutting his hair is a symbol of a

Revolutionary A revolutionary is a person who either participates in, or advocates for, a revolution. The term ''revolutionary'' can also be used as an adjective to describe something producing a major and sudden impact on society. Definition The term—bot ...

and he always has his roots in mind and the constant struggle for

to be recognized as what he is today.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vargas, Sergio 20th-century Dominican Republic male singers African diaspora in the Dominican Republic Dominican Republic male songwriters Male songwriters Latin music songwriters Bolero singers Merengue musicians Living people 21st-century Dominican Republic male singers 1960 births Latin Grammy Award winners Dominican Republic singer-songwriters Dominican Republic musicians 20th-century songwriters 21st-century songwriters Dominican Republic politicians Dominican Republic activists People from San Cristóbal Province 20th-century composers 21st-century composers