Roberto Antonio Pérez Herrera, known as Rubby Pérez, was a Dominican merengue singer. His range and the brightness at the top of it earned him the name by which the country knows him, the highest voice of merengue, and he spent nearly fifty years at the front of Dominican dance orchestras.

Haina

He was born in Bajos de Haina in 1956 and meant to be a baseball player. A road accident ended that, and he turned to music instead, singing first in a youth choir and then studying at the National Conservatory in Santo Domingo, where he worked on piano and guitar. He was twenty-one when he joined his first orchestra, Los Pitágoras del Ritmo.

Los Hijos del Rey

The band that made him audible was Los Hijos del Rey, with Fernando Villalona at its front. The two of them recorded the duet Pato Robao there, which was the first record of his that the country learned.

Wilfrido Vargas

At the start of the eighties Wilfrido Vargas took him on as lead vocalist, and he stayed until 1987. Those are the years that fixed him: El Africano, Volveré, Las Avispas, Cuando Estés con Él and Cobarde Cobarde all went out with his voice on them, and the orchestra was the most widely exported Dominican band of the moment.

Buscando Tus Besos

He left to form his own orchestra in 1987. The first album carried Buscando Tus Besos, which he sang with Alex Bueno, and it was followed by Fiesta para Dos, Simplemente Amor, Ojos, Amores Extraños, No Te Olvides, Volando Alto, El Cantante, Tonto Corazón and Dulce Veneno across the next two decades.

The songs travelled. His self-titled album spent two weeks on the Tropical chart and reached fifteen, and Enamorado de Ella reached twenty-nine on the Latin charts. Dame Veneno, Hazme Olvidarla, Sobreviviré, Tú Vas a Volar, Hipocresía and El Perro Ajeno kept him on Dominican radio without interruption.

The Jet Set

He died on 8 April 2025, on stage and mid-performance, when the roof of the Jet Set nightclub in Santo Domingo came down during his concert. He was sixty-nine. More than two hundred people died with him, among them his saxophonist Luis Solís, known as Chican, and the president declared three days of national mourning. His body lay at the Eduardo Brito National Theatre.

Afterwards

His greatest-hits record entered the Tropical Albums chart at seven in the weeks that followed. Venezuela granted him its nationality after his death, and in July 2025 the Eduardo Brito National Theatre held a concert in his name, Rubby Pérez, Infinito, with Milly Quezada, Toño Rosario and Eddy Herrera among those who sang it.