Luis Figueroa

Singer/songwriter Luis Figueroa's smooth, sultry tenor is adept at weaving tropical and Latin styles. He seamlessly melds genres from his Puerto Rican heritage including salsa, bomba, and plena with Latin pop styles and production. His style is evolutionary, a focused attempt at bringing the richness of salsa's tradition to new generations. Between 2016 and 2021 he released five singles (three charted). 1807, an EP, appeared in February 2021, followed in August by the full-length Canciones del Alma. May 2022's eponymous EP placed on three charts and was followed exactly a year later by the five-track Voy a Ti. In keeping with this tradition, he issued the six-track Coexistencia in May 2024, and in May 2025, he released the Gris EP.Born in North Philadelphia in 1989, Figueroa was encouraged to follow a musical path by his mother, and showed an early aptitude for singing and songwriting -- music kept him out of scrapes in his rough-and-tumble neighborhood. His insistence on speaking Spanish among his peers and singing in it almost exclusively drew consternation from some of his peers who thought the language of the old country was square. Undaunted, Figueroa began posting covers of songs by Elijah Blake, Trey Songz, Omarion, and others to YouTube. These covers have been a special release to fans as he continues to record and post them. His video for "Flor Plaida" in late 2015 crossed Marc Anthony's desk. The salsero was so impressed by what he heard, he called him up straightaway. His first words were "Luis, this is Marc Anthony and I'm your fan!" Anthony instructed his label, Magnus Media, to sign him immediately. Figueroa's cover of "Flor Palida" became his debut Magnus Media single in 2016. At the following year's Premios Juventud Awards, Anthony joined Figueroa and pianist Sergio George to perform the song. He won an award for "Favorite Hispanic YouTube Cover Artist." After a second single, "Hopeless," drew the fascination of Romeo Santos, the latter took the young singer under his wing and made him a backing vocalist on tour, not once but for three consecutive tours.While Figueroa spent most of 2018 on the Santos tour, he wrote "Por Perro" for Sebastian Yatra and Lary Over. He appeared in its video too. Figueroa also cut the Latin pop single "Pa Las Babies." Issued in 2019, it peaked at 20 on the Latin Pop charts and reached number 16 at Latin streaming. After another tour with Santos, Figueroa signed with Sony Music Latin and released the pop reggaeton single "La Especialista" near the end of 2019. He issued the bumping cumbia single "Te Deseo" in February of 2020 as an official pre-release for his debut album. It peaked at 24 on the Latin Pop Airplay chart and at 19 on Latin Pop Streaming. 2021 proved to be the singer's breakout year. He released a pair of charting singles in "Si Tu Me Dices Ven" and "Hasta El Sol de Hoy," (the latter topped the Tropical Airplay list), in addition to the seven-track mini-album 1807 and his debut long-player Canciones del Alma. He followed in May 2022 with Luis Figueroa, a five-song EP wedding traditional salsa, breezy bomba, sultry plena, and glorious organic-sounding co-production by Arbise "Motiff" Gonzalez. The summery, swinging Voy a Ti EP followed in May 2023. Again produced by Gonzalez, it topped airplay at Latin pop charts in the U.S. and topped three charts in Puerto Rico for seven weeks. Following a handful of charting singles, Figueroa released Coexistencia in May 2024. Co-produced with Gonzalez and Efraín "Junito" Davila, the set expertly melded urban sounds from reggaeton, and cumbia and rock in a pioneering 21st century salsa evolution. Single "Llorar Bonito" went top five on the Tropical Airplay chart and 28 on the Latin Airplay chart. It topped the Tropical charts in Puerto Rico and was nominated for "Best Tropical Song" at the 25th Latin Grammy Awards, while it also saw nods in 11 other categories including Artist of the Year.In May 2025, Figueroa released Gris, a six-cut EP showcasing a nearly hallucinatory meld of salsa, bolero, decima, bomba, bolero, and cumbia in with futurist production from Davila and Gonzalez. A stellar example of this sound and style combination was the single "Si Llamas" with salsa singer Christian Alicea.
© Thom Jurek /TiVo

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