Isaac Delgado

Cuban vocalist Issac Delgado rose to fame in the pioneering timba group NG la Banda during the late '80s before embarking upon a stylistically varied and long-lasting solo career in the early '90s that brought him critical as well as commercial success. Though Delgado sang in a few different groups during the 1980s, it wasn't until he joined NG la Banda in 1988 that he rose to any level of fame. His tenure with the pioneering timba group only lasted until 1991, but during that three-year time span he and the band created some of the most inventive and lively music in Cuba's illustrious history, in effect giving rise to new style of music. The NG la Banda compilation En la Calle (1992), which showcases highlights of his time with the group, stands as a landmark release in the evolution of timba. Delgado's solo career began in 1992, and while it proved successful on all counts in his native Cuba, he didn't break internationally until the mid- to late '90s once he signed to RMM Records. He continued to release albums regularly afterward, most notably the Grammy-nominated La Fórmula (2000) and the nueva trova cubana-inspired collection Versos en el Cielo (2002); however, once he defected from Cuba to the United States in 2006 and released the Sergio George-produced En Primera Plana (2007), his career rose to new heights of success, earning a pair of Latin Grammy nominations and spawning his biggest stateside hit to date, "La Mujer Que Más Te Duele," a duet with salsa superstar Víctor Manuelle. Born Issac Felipe Delgado Ramirez on September 11, 1962, in Havana, Cuba, El Chevere de la Salsa grew up in an artistically talented family: his father was a tailor, his mother was an actress, singer, and dancer in El Teatro Musical de la Habana, and his oldest brother was a singer,...