Victor Hugo 'Prince of Salsa' Booking Information

Victor Hugo and the Mambo Boys

Victor Hugo ‘Prince of Salsa’

With a musical catalogue of more than 12 albums and 150 songs, Victor Hugo is without doubt one of the most prolific and exciting Latin music acts of all time. No wonder he is considered to be the ‘Prince of Salsa’.

As a child, Victor’s link to music was through his mother, an actress and songstress in his native Venezuela. Although educating himself in other fields he always gravitated towards music, a pursuit that has engaged him all of his life.

He became part of the High School choir and rose to Assistant Musical Director as he hoped one day, like the Director, to compose music for others. However, unable at that time to sell his songs, he eventually decided to sing them himself.

He grew up listening to his salsa hero Oscar D’Leon, never imagining that one day he would sing on the same stage as his hero. Meanwhile, Victor took advantage of his ability to speak English to sing in a local rock band and later to act and sing in musicals in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas.

A pioneer of Latin music in Europe, Victor founded and led a number of high profile Latin bands as well as making several forays into the world of Latin Pop. He ventured twice into the popular music charts with ‘Tequila’ on Island Records and the dance hit ‘The Latin Thing’ with Faze Records, both of which entered the Top 10.

Victor’s own compositions have been featured in films and advertising campaigns and his name has been associated with Bacardi, Signal, Corona, Tequila and El Cuervo amongst others.

As one of the most accomplished and talented Latin musicians in Europe, Victor Hugo has lent his band to, and collaborated with many of the great names of Salsa. Amongst others this impressive list of Salseros includes El Canario, Tito Puente, Celia Cruz, Junior Gonzalez, Luis Felipe Gonzalez, Tito Nieves, Mario Civico, Palmieri, and of course Oscar D’Leon.

Victor Hugo is a charismatic and energetic performer and is first choice for many international festivals, theatre events and celebrity parties and receives superlative reviews wherever he goes.

With his band, he has performed for many of the rich and famous, throughout the world including several royal families worldwide. Today he is one of the most prominent voices of today’s salsa, a trend of tropical music that he has humbly
helped to define.

For Victor, as for so many other performers, the road to success was not easy. The Venezuelan, Puerto Rican and Cuban performers of his youth that he listened to, fed his desire to become like them some day.

He had his first experience as a Salsa vocalist, singing with a band called King Salsa after emigrating from Venezuela to London. Later he spearheaded another Salsa band called La Clave. After sharing the stage with piano virtuoso Charlie Palmieri in London he was asked by Palmieri to replace Hector Lavoe on a short tour. This was a turning point for Victor and he began to sing and compose for a living with his own group ‘Victor Hugo con Picante’.

One of his first recordings ‘Salsa con Samba’ included a couple of his own compositions. On this album Victor performs alongside piano maestro Chucho Valdez of Cuba and Chocolate Armenteros of Puerto Rico. Following this Victor went on to record another three albums with his own band: ‘Oye Latino’ became an anthem to the Latin diaspora; ‘Tropicalisimo’ had tracks featured in the motion picture ‘Janice Beard’ as well as the world-wide Bacardi advert ‘Available behind bars’ and ‘Latinoamerica’ was recorded in Germany with the help of another piano meister, Armin Keil, who had been successfully writing for Cano Extremera and Conexion Latina in Germany.

Having joined the Colombian super group Grupo Niche on stage, Victor was invited to join forces with the band in the studio, resulting in a series of recordings beginning with the album ‘El Niche Soy Yo’. This project was instrumental in some key changes to Victor’s style, and thanks to the success of the album and individual songs, Victor Hugo has established himself as a singer with the proven ability to generate hits.

This was the first time that Victor had the opportunity to work with members of Grammy Award winners Grupo Niche and ‘Son de Cali’ which influenced him to create the new Victor Hugo style.

Other albums followed as the musical relationship flourished with Julio Cortes, the extraordinary pianist from Grupo Niche that Victor now work’s with. ‘Salsa Pa America’ was awarded best Salsa Album by JPF music awards USA 2006, followed by ‘Que Pasa’ another successful Salsa album in the USA and worldwide.

In the fall of 2008 Victor Hugo, performer and composer, released his new album ‘Salsa Perfecta’. In this supremely executed new album Victor Hugo fuses several different Latin styles, including salsaton (La Mujer Perfecta) and salsa-zouk (Bailando) and Cuban style son.

Each of the songs is interpreted with deep emotion and it is clear that Victor Hugo loves his music, and makes his music, passionately, and that he looks to his albums as an opportunity to combine his most intimate feelings with the powerful delivery of his voice.

There is a sense of rhythm and urgency in his songs of optimism, of love, and of passion. Each song is beautifully illustrated with heart felt lyrics and Victor gives of himself musically in an array of very danceable compositions which prove that he is by far the most original, unique and exciting self-styled salsa performer this side of the Atlantic.

Victor Hugo

Salsa Perfecta
Import CD (LAS Records / HMP 3655-16), Released 2010;

Editor’s Pick:

It’s called “Salsa Perfecta” and a better name would be hard to find. Colombia’s Victor Hugo, one of our favorite salseros, has produced a terrific danceclub salsa release that seems fresh with each listen. Hugo’s voice is better than ever, with a quality that conveys strength and experience. His band, with former members of Grupo Niche, is refined and crisp. They are trombonists Carlos Latoche and Bernardo Aguirre, trumpeters Luis Bravo and Oswaldo Ospino, sax player Lucho Blanco, percussionists Alexandra Camacho and Diego (Zorro) Camacho, pianists Julio Cortes, Carlos (Piolin) Humberto and Hector Aguirre, a there’s a super power-coro with Alvaro Granobles and Diego Galindo. All tracks composed by Mr. Hugo. Check out the gems “Que Sera,” “Vaca Negra” and “Piano Man.”
DJ Alert: Highly Recommended. (BP, 2010-04-19)

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