Yovanny Polanco — born Geovanny Polanco on 2 November 1974 in Nagua — is a Dominican merengue típico accordionist, singer and composer known as «El Mambólogo».

An accordion at fifteen

Son of the accordionist Julio Polanco and María Constanza de la Rosa, he moved with his family to Santo Domingo at three and to the rural community of Arroyo al Medio Arriba, Caño Teloso, at eight, before his father bought him his first accordion at fifteen. Sent to Santiago de los Caballeros at seventeen to specialize in the instrument, he started out busking around the city’s Monumento a la Restauración for tips, naming Tatico Henríquez, El Cieguito de Nagua, Rafelito Román, Lupe Valerio and Siano Arias, alongside his own father, as his main influences.

First bands

The store owners Fidel Lora and Dagoberto Rodríguez helped him put together his first group, «La Candela Típica», which lasted six months; a second, «Geovanny Polanco y Rafaelito Burdier», ran for two years and produced the songs that appeared on his 1999 album «Para mis amigos», among them «La historia de un gran amor» — a breakup song that has stayed in his live set ever since — «El general» and «Dile que vuelva». At twenty-four, the businessman Aureliano Guzmán backed him in forming «Geovanny Polanco y su Mambo Swing».

The battles of the típico

Signed to «J&N Records», he released «¿De qué tú priva?» (2002) and followed it with a run of live albums recorded as head-to-head “battles” against other típico bandleaders — «La batalla del típico», rounds 1 through 3, and «El Prodigio vs. Geovanny Polanco, round 4» (2003), against El Prodigio. «Linda morenita» (2004) paired him with Alex Bueno on «Ven mi amor», and «Lindo amanecer» followed in 2005.

Legacy

He was nominated for the Premios Casandra as Conjunto Típico in both 2011 and 2012, and has continued touring internationally and recording under a stage name — Yovanny — that keeps the spelling by which he was known growing up, rather than the Geovanny on his birth certificate.