María Alejandra Matos

Perhaps the hottest young, female merengue artist today is Maria Alejandra, from Puerto Rico. Interested in singing from a very young age, Alejandra started studying music and voice when she was 15 years old, inspired by merengue greats Juan Luis Guerra and Olga Tañón. Within a year she was recording advertising jingles for television, and singing many different musical genres in hotels. Alejandra released her debut album, Que Lloren Las Mujeres Tontas on the Rodven label. The album received wide critical acclaim. It included hit songs such as the title track and gave great impretus to a promising career. Alejandra’s second album, Locuras brought her international recognition. Also on the Rodven label, the album helped solidify her status as up-and-coming merengue star. The album showed Alejandra’s energy as well as talent with a mixture of ballads and very danceable songs such as “Como Pez En El Agua” and “Mar De Emociones”. Produced by Tony “Tun Tun” Castro, who also worked with Elvis Crespo and Grupo Manía, Alejandra has released her third album, the self-titled Maria Alejandra and possibly her best effort to date. The recording appears on the Universal label with great songs such as “Me Equivoque” . The album also included Si Tú Te Vas, which appears on two tracks: once as a ballad, her first, and again in merengue form. Both tracks are excellent examples of Alejandra’s talent.