Juan Manuel —full name Juan Manuel Puente, born in El Seibo, in eastern Dominican Republic— is a Dominican merengue and bachata singer, producer, arranger and songwriter, best known as the voice behind the New York orchestra La Línea’s hit merengue version of «Si me dejas no vale».

From found objects to «Sensación Juvenil»

As a child he made music out of whatever he could find around the house or in the street, from soda cans to empty deodorant bottles. At sixteen his persistence earned him a place in the group «Sensación Juvenil», and he later joined «Orquesta La Unión» before moving to Santo Domingo, where he quickly became lead singer of «Orquesta Caramba» and traveled to New York to record his first production with them.

«La Línea» and «Si me dejas no vale»

Taken with the city and the opportunities it offered his career, he stayed in New York for five years, joining the orchestra «La Línea», which introduced him internationally through merengue versions of well-known songs. Its version of «Si me dejas no vale» quickly climbed radio charts and reached television audiences across Latin America through the music channel HTV.

Madrid and «El Impactante»

Following a relationship, Juan Manuel relocated to Madrid, where he built a solo career, known there as «El Impactante», and toured much of Europe both on his own and alongside major tropical-music stars. On his first tour of Peru in 2013 he wrote, arranged and recorded a song in a single day with the Peruvian singer and actress Alejandra Pascucci, former vocalist of the group Alma Bella: «El Idiota», which drew wide coverage in the Peruvian press and television.

Legacy

Juan Manuel went on to release further albums, including «Corazón de Bachata» and, later, «Juan Manuel y los Clásicos del Merengue», and has remained active on Dominican television, appearing on Telemicro’s «Extremo a Extremo» as a performer still identified, decades into his career, by the orchestra that made him internationally known.