Wilfrido Vargas

Über Wilfrido Vargas

Wilfrido Vargas was merengue's great modernizer, a trumpeter and bandleader who spent the 1980s bolting funk, disco, rock, and Caribbean rhythms onto the Dominican two-step. His arrangements exported merengue across Latin America, and hits like El Africano and Abusadora became continental standards. He also ran a hit factory of a band that launched the careers of singers including Sergio Vargas and Bonny Cepeda, and his novelty smash El Baile del Perrito defined a dance craze.