Ricardo Arjona

Edgar Ricardo Arjona Morales (born 19 January 1964), known as Ricardo Arjona, is a Guatemalan and Mexican singer and songwriter.

He is one of the most successful and best-selling Latin American artists of all time, with more than 20 million records sold.

He is often called El bajito de sal (The low in salt), thanks to his breakthrough success with his fourth studio album, which bears the same name.

His music ranges from ballads to Latin pop, rock, pop rock, Cuban music, and more recently a cappella performances and a mixture of Tejano music and Norteño music, and Latin sounds.

Arjona is noted for his lyrical style, and often addresses topics such as love, sexuality, violence, racism and immigration.

Edgar Ricardo Arjona Morales was born on 19 January 1964, in Jocotenango, Guatemala, to parents Ricardo Arjona Moscoso and Mimi Morales de Arjona.

He spent most of his childhood in Guatemala City, where he began his musical instruction.

At age twelve, he participated in the contest "Festival Infantil Juventud 74" with "Gracias al Mundo", a song composed by his father, finally winning the event.

Although he initially enrolled in architecture and engineering at the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala (USAC), he graduated with a degree from the School of Communication Sciences.

In the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, he met Puerto Rican Leslie Torres and had two children with her: Adria and Ricardo.

Arjona began his musical career at age 21, when he signed with the now defunct Guatemalan record label, Discos de Centroamérica, S.A., and distributed by PolyGram, and released his debut album Déjame Decir Que Te Amo in 1985.

The label attempted to portray Arjona as a stereotypical Latin Lover.

The title track was released as a single, "Déjame Decir Que Te Amo".

This album failed to chart, but received moderate praise from critics, with Allmusic awarding it three stars out of five.

Because of his negative experience recording the album and its commercial failure, he decided to abandon music to teach school.

At age 24, Arjona reversed course and sought the opportunity to represent his country in the OTI Festival with the song "Con Una Estrella En El Vientre".

The sessions immediately following this decision produced the song "S.O.S Rescátame".

His second studio album, Jesús, Verbo No Sustantivo brought him commercial and critical success across Latin America and the U.S. and became a best-seller in many Central American territories.

Arjona started the new decade as a regular in the Mexican telenovela (soap opera) "Alcanzar una Estrella" (English translation: Reaching a Star), which assisted him in becoming a known singer throughout Latin America.

In 1988, he became the basketball coach of a boys' school (called Instituto Don Bosco).

After joining Sony Music in 1990 he released Del Otro Lado del Sol, one of his least successful albums.

That year, he started composing songs for other artists, such as Yuri's "Detrás de Mi Ventana", for her album Nueva era (1993).

Animal Nocturno, Arjona's fourth studio album, was released in 1993.

The album contained the hit singles "Mujeres" (No. 6 on Latin Songs) and "Primera Vez" (No. 6 on Latin Songs) and received thirteen platinum and one diamond certifications.

The song became a hit, reaching No.1 on the US Hot Latin Songs chart for three weeks in 1994.

Animal Nocturno sold 500,000 copies in 1994, and carried Arjona to fame along with his work on the Mexican telenovela Alcanzar Una Estrella, which allowed him to showcase his songwriting and singing skills.

They separated in 2005.

He later covered the song in his compilation album, Trópico (2009), alongside Melina León.

His work earned him numerous awards and accolades, including one Grammy Award, one Latin Grammy Award, the Latin Heritage Award as well as awards from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers; a silver and golden torch and two silver seagulls from the 2010 Viña del Mar International Song Festival, two Billboard Latin Music Awards, and a "Latin Trajectory of the Year" Award at the Orgullosamente Latino Awards of 2010.

As of 2010, Arjona began his current love relationship with the Venezuelan model Deisy Arvelo, with whom he has a child: Nicolas.

Arjona was a talented basketball player who played for Leones de Marte and TRIAS.

He toured Central America as a member of the Guatemala national basketball team.

Until recently, he held the record for the most points scored (78) in a single game by a Guatemalan.

He also taught at a primary school (called Santa Elena III), where he claimed to have spent six hours giving lessons and the rest of the day playing football.

This earned him a visit from a Ministry of Education representative, who was sent to evaluate his pupils.

The representative found that the students' education was actually above average.

As of 2016, Arjona had released sixteen studio albums, one live album, nine compilation albums and forty-three singles.

Four Arjona albums reached number one on the Billboard Top Latin Albums, and ten reached number one in Argentina.

Four albums had charted on the Billboard 200.

Four singles had reached number one on the Billboard Latin Songs chart and seven had done the same on Latin Pop Songs.