Born and raised in Medellin, Colombia, Juan Esteban Aristizábal, JUANES, has become the world’s leading ambassador for Latin Rock. Acclaimed by TIME magazine as “one of the 100 most influential people in the world,” and by The New York Times as “the best singer and songwriter in Latin America … a soulful poet with an electric guitar,” JUANES has built a distinctive sound that fuses his love of rock and pop music with a multi-layered composition and a deep reverence for traditional folk and other indigenous rhythms of Colombia and Latin America.
With seven multiplatin studio albums, a critically acclaimed MTV Unplugged release and two Disney soundtracks under his belt, Juanes has sold millions of albums worldwide, recorded 11 # 1 singles on Billboard, and has been recognized with numerous awards, including 25 GRAMMY LATINO, 2 Grammy Anglo, 11 MTV Awards, 2 NRJ Music Awards, 9 Lo Nuestro Awards, 12 Our Land Awards, the highest possible awards at the Viña del Mar International Song Festival (torches of silver, silver seagull, and symbolic gold) and a long list of worldwide awards.
In December 2009 JUANES was awarded the National Peace Prize in Colombia in the honorary category, in November 2011, as artist of the decade (2000 – 2009) elected by millions of votes, in the Shock Awards. In addition to being considered the person of the year 2009. On December 4, 2011 he was awarded by the Teletón Chile Foundation with the Solidarity Medal during the end of the transmission of the Chilean solidarity campaign for disabled children served by the institution. On February 1, 2012, JUANES performed an acoustic concert for their live album ‘Juanes MTV Unplugged’ which was released in May of the same year. The album was released by the MTV network.
Recognized as one of the most important voices of Latin music on social networks (with an online follow-up of more than 25 million fans), JUANES also made several innovative television appearances and special events, such as the first performance in Spanish in a GRAMMY ceremony in a decade, the first in Spanish at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, and the TODAY Show Plaza concert series.
JUANES has also represented the Latino community with presentations at the World Cup, the event of the Vatican Family Festival with Pope Francis, a bilingual educational presentation at Sesame Street, tribute concerts on primetime TV to John Lennon and Frank Sinatra and multiple appearances at the Kennedy Center Honors and the Nobel Peace Prize.
The Colombian superstar is also a dedicated global activist, with a broad charity for his own “Mi Sangre” Foundation (featured in a special issue of Billboard’s Philanthropy) and as co-founder of the “Peace Without Borders” organization that uses music to unite to populations regardless of political or geographical divisions and defends that all people have the right to the basic human right to peace.
During 2017, JUANES continued to open new paths for Latin music with the release of the first complete visual album of the genre: Mis Planes Son Amarte, a collection of 12 songs and videos that detail the search for the true love of an astronaut through the time and space for which he obtained five additional Latin GRAMMY nominations (including Album of the Year and Record of the Year), making him the most nominated solo artist in the history of Latin GRAMMY.
“The greatest and most important artist of Latin music in the world at the beginning of the 21st century … Juanes stands firm in his commitment to artistic growth and constant reinvention …” – All Music.
In May 2018, JUANES presented to the public “Pa Inside”, its simple revolutionary that became a Platinum Certificate. The innovative “Pa Inside” video uses visual arts to celebrate the diversity of female beauty and support the inclusion and empowerment of women over reification, a struggle that JUANES has always had close to her heart. “Pa Inside” won the Latin GRAMMY 2018 award in the category of Best Short Video Music Video.
In the current year 2019, JUANES began with a right foot the mission of overcoming the achievements of the previous year. On January 11, the singer released his new single called “La Plata” to the world, a new success very similar to JUANES, which is accompanied by the #DeColombiaParaElMundo campaign, with which the artist wants to ratify his unconditional support to the potential of his compatriots, and therefore decided that this new song and video were performed by Colombian talent.
“La Plata” and “Pa’ Inside ”, two songs already considered international successes, are only the first 2 singles of what will be the next album JUANES will release in 2019.
So far in 2019, JUANES has already confirmed its participation in the next edition of the renowned Bottlerock festival to be held in May in Napa Valley, California. It will also be part of the poster of the most important music festivals in Latin America such as Vive Latino Festival (Mexico City), Lollapalooza (Santiago, Chile) and Festival Unique (Buenos Aires).