Kewdy de Los Santos, who works as El Gato Malo, is a bachata singer from Yamasá, in Monte Plata. He accompanies himself on guitar and came up on the requinto, which is a different sort of career from the one a bachatero usually has.

The requinto years

He was playing guitar as a small child in a house where both sides of the family were musicians. At thirteen he was singing in the chorus of several groups; at sixteen he was playing requinto in a group called Francis; a year after that he was doing the same in Las Hembras de la Bachata, and singing as well.

That is the old apprenticeship: the requinto player stands behind the singer for years, learning the repertoire from inside the arrangement, and then one day steps forward. The lead lines he plays now come out of it.

El Gato Malo

The nickname became the act. Soldadito Marinero, El Gato Malo, Linda To’, Como Yo Nadie Te Ha Amado, Bram Bram, Vuelve Pa’ Tu Casa and El Celular are the songs people ask for, and they are almost all about love and betrayal, which is where bachata has always kept its business.

Bachatas Para Él came out in 2019, and Todos Sus Éxitos and Gato Malo followed. Te Duele, in 2024, went somewhere else: a bachata written as a social song rather than a romantic one.

Playing the songbook

A large part of what he does live is other people’s repertoire, sung whole. His medleys of Antony Santos and of Raulín Rodríguez are among the most watched things on his channel, and the tribute is not incidental — those are the two voices a bachatero of his generation grew up copying.

He tours, including long runs in Spain, and keeps releasing singles between the medleys.