Ruben Blades
Ruben Blades
Rubén Blades Bellido de Luna, known professionally as Rubén Blades, is a Panamanian singer, songwriter, actor, musician, activist, and politician, performing musically most often in the Afro-Cuban, salsa, and Latin jazz genres. As a songwriter, Blades brought the lyrical sophistication of Central American nueva canción and Cuban nueva trova as well as experimental tempos and politically inspired Nuyorican salsa to his music, creating "thinking persons'dance music"...
NationalityPanamanian
ProfessionWorld Music Singer
Date of Birth16 July 1948
CityPanama City, Panama
CountryPanama
It doesn't make sense for me to be a lawyer in a place where there is no law.
Every band had their own distinctive sound, but it was pretty much dancing music and rhythmic music with a tremendous emphasis on copying the Cuban models.
We had something to say. Whenever we played, people didn't dance, they listened.
I was a kid, and I remember my mother singing. She was also a radio soap opera actress, but my mother sang.
And music was a very important part of our lives. The radio was on all day.
So I went to Miami in '74 with my family and while I was there it became obvious that we needed money and we needed to do something, because my family, we left without anything really, and we didn't have any money to begin with.
So that in 1974, when I graduated as a lawyer, I figured I'm not going to be a lawyer under a military regime.
So that when I came from Panama... my family was exiled in 1973 and they went to Miami.
So that when I came to New York again, it was, I'm not too sure right now, but it was '74 or '75. I went to Miami in '74 and then I came to New York, I think, at the end of '74.
Yes, I was going to law school and it was closed in '69.
They're making a ton of money, and no one is getting a nickel.
I was born in Panama, the Republic of Panama, on July 16, 1948 in Panama City, in an area called San Felipe.
There was no television, so the radio provided you with everything.
I decided we should book ourselves, so I started booking the band.