Sergio Pascual Vargas Parra, known as Sergio Vargas and nicknamed El Negrito de Villa, is a Dominican singer. A light lyric tenor, he came up through the orchestras of the golden years of merengue and has stayed at the front of the genre for four decades, working equally in bolero, bachata and salsa.

Villa Altagracia

He was born in Villa Altagracia, in the province of San Cristóbal, in 1960, and still lives there. The town gave him the name he has been billed under ever since.

The voice festival

He entered the Festival de la Voz organised by Rafael Solano and finished second. It was the same competition, run by the same man, that had launched an earlier generation of Dominican singers.

Los Hijos del Rey

He recorded with the orchestra of Dionis Fernández before joining Los Hijos del Rey as lead vocalist. The band was then headed by Fernando Villalona and Raulín Rosendo, and it was there that his following began to grow: the orchestra had fan clubs in Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Panama and along the east coast of the United States.

Por Ella, Mi Orgullo, Un Hombre y Una Mujer and Oh Mariana date from those years. La Tierra Tembló, recorded with the band in 1987, was the record that made the case for a solo career.

La Quiero a Morir

His first album under his own name appeared in 1986 and carried La Quiero a Morir, a Spanish reading of a song by the French singer Francis Cabrel. When he finally went out on his own, almost the entire band went with him.

The singles that followed set the pattern of his catalogue: Ciclón, Marola, Al Otro Lado del Sol, Bamboleo, Esta Casa Humilde and Perla Negra. Marola and Las Vampiras were both written for him by the composer Luis "Terror" Días.

The Casandra years

A concert of his own name was named show of the year by the Dominican critics’ association, and in the same round Las Vampiras took the award for music video of the year. He signed with an international label at the end of that decade, and a television programme he took part in brought him two further awards, one of them for international projection.

The interpreter

A large part of his catalogue is other people’s songs remade as merengue or bolero: material by Luis Miguel, Roberto Carlos, Juan Luis Guerra, José Feliciano, Pablo Milanés and the Gipsy Kings, among many others. He recorded Torero as a duet with José Alberto "El Canario", and has released joint collections with several of his contemporaries. His brother Kaki Vargas has worked alongside him for much of both their careers.

El Gran Soberano

He received El Gran Soberano, the highest honour of the Dominican critics’ association, and used the acceptance speech to argue for formal education for Dominican musicians. He has since won the Latin Grammy for best merengue or bachata album twice, and took a Congo de Oro at the Barranquilla carnival.

Public office

He served as a deputy in the Dominican congress for his home town of Villa Altagracia between 2006 and 2010.