Cristopher Valoy is a Dominican merengue singer and producer, son of Cuco Valoy and brother of Ramón Orlando. He is the voice on El Venao, which is one of the most travelled Dominican records ever made.

Los Cantantes

The group was his brother’s idea. Ramón Orlando put Los Cantantes together as a project with Cristopher as its front man, wrote the material and let the singing carry it. Miguel Miguel, Feni Ortiz, Ricky Ricón and Alexis Palacios were in it with him.

El Virao came out with an official video in 1995. El Venao followed in the middle of that decade — sources give both 1995 and 1996 — and it went everywhere. It is one of those merengues that stopped being a record and became a phrase, and it is sung in countries that could not otherwise name a Dominican song.

Solo y Sin Na and No Hay Pesos are on the same shelf. The formula was a joke told at speed over a merengue that never lets up, which is a much harder thing to write than it sounds.

A house of musicians

There is no version of this story that does not start with the family. His father is one of the founding figures of Dominican salsa and merengue both; his uncle Martín Valoy sang beside his father for decades; his brother is a bandleader, an arranger and a Gran Soberano winner. Growing up inside that is an apprenticeship whether or not anyone calls it one.

What is unusual is the division of labour. His brother wrote and arranged; he sang. In a family where nearly everybody does everything, taking one job and doing it properly is its own kind of decision.

Since then

He came back in 2013 with fused merengue and the same comic register, and he has kept recording under his own name — La Fiesta, Las Mil Maneras, New York E’ Lindo, and a bachata, Amor En Pelota. He also works as a producer.

He still performs El Virao. Thirty years on, the audience still knows every word, which is what a song of that size does to the rest of a career.