Anthony Santos a.k.a El Mayimbe is a Dominican singer, songwriter, musician, and producer. He is one of the top-selling Bachata artists of all time. He is known as one of the pioneers of modern Bachata in the early 1990s with his role in redefining the genre to include romantic lyrics, poppy guitar licks, and implementation of new instruments such as the piano and saxophone.
Early life
Santos was born in 1967 in Clavellinas, Las Matas de Santa Cruz in the Monte Cristiprovince. He grew up extremely poor in a little house on a farm land. His father worked many meaningless jobs for basically nothing, and the family would go without eating because of the little to no money income.
Music career
Santos entered onto the bachata scene in the early 1990s, beginning his career as the guira player for fellow bachateroLuis Vargas, only to leave the group and maintain a very public feud with Vargas. Raulín Rodríguez also started his music career with Antony as a guira player. Although Blas Durán is credited as the first bachatero to use an electric guitar, and Luis is credited as the first bachata guitarist to use guitar pedals, Anthony was the one who defined the sound of modern bachata. He did this through his use of an Alvarez 5084N guitar, with a humbucker mounted in the soundhole, and an Ibanez PT4 pedal. He is also credited as one of the first to use Yamaha APX series of guitars in bachata. Santos became the first rural bachatero to reach a mainstream audience, with his hit "Voy pa'llá". Santos adoption of soft romantic lyrics was more socially accepted than the bawdy style common to bachata before him, and he shortly became the genre's leading artist, helping move bachata into the mainstream. He is known as El Mayimbe de la Bachata, being that Fernando Villalona already had that name way before Santos. He is also known as El Bachatú, which is the nickname he originally started with. Santos is not only one of the biggest names in bachata music, but has served as an inspiration to many bachata artists and musicians such as Romeo Santos and Lenny Santos. He has performed various songs with Aventura and with Romeo. Hits include Ciego de Amor, Debate de 4 alongside Luis Vargas and Raulin Rodriguez, Masoquismo, among others.
