Aventura Embraces other Music Styles

Aventura, one of the most popular Bachata bands of the past decade, started in a church in the Bronx, U.S.A. Band members Henry Santos Jeter and his cousin Anthony “Romeo” Santos told Gannett newspapers they started singing in a church choir when they were teenagers in order for them to meet girls. They met the brothers Max “Mikey” and Lenny Santos, who are not related to Henry or Anthony, a couple of years later.

This historic meeting would mark the start of what would become the sweet and romantic melodies that would become the trademark of Aventura's sound.

Their mixing of traditoinal Bachata music from the Dominican Republic with Reggaeton, Hip-Hop and R&B has landed Aventura at the top of the Latin Music charts. The boy band has earned numerous awards, including Univision's “Premio Lo Nuestro” Entertainer of the Year award in February, 2010.
Aventura stopped at the AT&T Center yesterday evening, July 1, on the second leg of its “The Last” Tour. The tour is done to support the album “The Last”, which Aventura released in 2009. The album held its first position for 4 consecutive months on Billboard's Latin Music charts. “The Last” has also been Aventura's biggest crossover succes story: the album includes collaborations with Wyclef Jean and Ludacris.

In a recent interview, Aventura members told Gannett that they did not sacrifice the group's signature sound by including artists from other genres than their modern Bachata sound. They also said that they focus on not changing their own style to accommodate other artists style when they are collaborating. Lead singer Romeo Santos said, “If we're going to work with an artist like Wyclef, we trust his judgment and his ability to produce, so we let him just ride out and do what he feels,”

Many of Aventura's fans have been wondering if “The Last” really marks the group's final album release, because of the title the group has chosen to give the album. The members of Aventura told reporters that the title of the album had nothing to do with the future events concerning the group's existence. Last month, Romeo told the El Paso Times, “(It's) the last album of us doing all these bachata tracks. Now we'll put in more urban, more Americanized rhythms,” Santos continues, “We're going to try and experiment with some of the other genres we've had success at, because we've done songs in Reggaeton and songs with more of an urban side,” Santos said. “We'll still have our Bachata, that's what brought us here, but we want to try and break in with all these English-speaking people in the U.S.”