Elvis Montilla is a Dominican merengue singer of the 1980s who billed himself — and is still remembered — as «La voz más alta del merengue», the highest voice in merengue. From Los Mina, in Santo Domingo Este, he passed through Los Kenton and left his signature on records by Nando Galán y su Orquesta; decades later, he is still appearing in public, now as often in worship as in merengue nostalgia.

Los Kenton and the golden-age circuit

Montilla was a merenguero of the eighties, a former member of Los Kenton, the famous orchestra of brothers Tito and Luis Kenton — one of the defining bands of merengue's golden age. The local history of his Los Mina neighborhood, where he lived on calle Guanábana in the sector Francisco del Rosario Sánchez (Las Frutas), preserves that membership, and Dominican press still introduces him by it.

The Nando Galán records

He is identified as a featured singer of Nando Galán y su Orquesta. A Los Mina neighborhood chronicle identifies him as the singer of «No te odiaré» and «Luna». Both songs appear on the B side of the LP «Besitos y Espinita» (Velvet, 1988). The same chronicle attributes «¿Dónde está ese amor?» and «Me hace temblar» to him; these performance credits come from that chronicle.

A second calling

Time moved Montilla from the dance floor to the altar without taking him out of public view. By 2018 he was singing Christian worship — on 8 June of that year he sang praises at the 50th graduation ceremony of the Universidad Nacional Evangélica (UNEV). And the merengue world has not forgotten him either: in May 2023 he appeared as a special guest at the «Reencuentro Dorado del Merengue», a Mother's Day gathering of golden-age figures in Santo Domingo's Zona Colonial.

Legacy

Elvis Montilla was a member of Los Kenton and was associated by a Los Mina neighborhood chronicle with «Luna» and «No te odiaré», songs included on Nando Galán y su Orquesta's 1988 LP «Besitos y Espinita». In 2018 he sang worship music at a Universidad Nacional Evangélica ceremony, and in 2023 he appeared at the «Reencuentro Dorado del Merengue».