LOS ANGELES — Dominican singer and songwriter Juan Luis Guerra, who revolutionized traditional merengue and bachata with jazz and pop harmonies and pop-style production, won for
Best Merengue Performance (“Ni Es Lo Mismo Ni Es Igual”) and Best Tropical Song (“El Niágara En Bicicleta”). After a string of albums, he took some time off to take care of projects at home
“I had a radio and
television project that I needed to attend to,” he said. but his album “Ni Es Lo Mismo Ni Es Igual” was well-received critically, culminating at the Latin Grammy Awards tonight.
“I am very happy for this, especially
for what it means for the Dominican Republic,” he said, speaking in Spanish backstage after the show.
In his remarks backstage he announced an “unplugged” project and, when asked about crossing over to a wider
audience, said he will not go “the crossover route. I prefer not to do that and stay with my roots.”
When asked if he ever wrote in another language he shyly conceded that he had tried writing in Portuguese.
“The
bachatas (a kind of guitar-centered Dominican ballad) sound wonderful in Portuguese, but they don’t work in English. ‘Quisiera ser un pez’ would be ‘I’d like to be a fish’” he said, quoting his own lyrics from
the song “Burbujas de Amor.” “I don’t think so,” he added with a chuckle.
