Fernando Villalona

About

Ramón Fernando Villalona Évora (born May 7, 1955), known professionally as Fernando Villalona, is a Dominican merengue singer. Considered to be one of the most important merengue artists in the genre’s history, Villalona began singing in the early 1970s; his popularity started to grow by the late 1970s and has not declined ever since. He is the first Dominican artist to call himself “El Mayimbe”, with the second being Antony Santos.

Fernando Villalona was born in Monte Cristi Province, in the northwest region of the Dominican Republic. His father was Ángel Ramón Villalona and his mother was Virginia Arcadia Évora de Villalona. He grew up with his nine siblings and parents in the municipality of Loma de Cabrera, in Dajabón Province where he attended his first studies and began his artistic activities. At the age of 15, he was the representative of his hometown at the Festival of the Dominican Voice in 1971.

Fernando began singing at a very early age and became popular after participating in “El Festival de la Voz”, an amateur TV talent show. After that, merengue icon Wilfrido Vargas hired him to be part of his group Los Hijos del Rey but Fernando and the…