SANTOS STRIKES GOLD
Santos debuts 3rd CD
Self-styled “King of Bachata” Romeo Santos is straying from his formula and out to strike gold.
The ex-Aventura frontman’s third solo album — after “Formula, Vol. 1” in 2011 and “Formula, Vol. 2” three years later — is “Golden,” which features contributions from Julio Iglesias, Juan Luis Guerra, Daddy Yankee, Swizz Beatz and Nicky Jam.
The 18-track album will be released Friday, July 21 — which happens to be the Bronx native’s 36th birthday.
Viva recently drove around New York City with the singer at the wheel of his SUV — and tracks from “Golden” blaring from the stereo. ROMEO SANTOS: A good 70% of what you’re going to hear are a lot of things that, at some point in my life, I personally experienced. I don’t know if I really want to get into the details, in terms of which records. I want to leave that to people’s imagination.
But I can honestly tell you that this is probably the most personal album when it comes to relationships. I didn’t realize that until I was, like, almost 85% done with the album. This is the first time that most of what’s been written and sang by me is life — real situations.
VIVA: The first song from the album, “Golden Intro,” includes a verse in English, and it may be easy for people to forget that English is your first language. You’ve worked with Usher and Drake, but is collaborating with other big-name U.S. recording artists something you’d ever do to reach a much wider audience in the States? RS: I don’t think there’s an artist (who) would not want to record with (someone like) Beyonce. If you don’t, your perspective in music is crazy. People do not understand that there’s a lot of things that need to connect when it comes to labels, the managers involved, when it comes to making two artists work together. But I can honestly tell you that the day Beyonce calls asking if I want to do a song with her, I could be on the other side of the world and leave whatever it is I’m doing to make that happen. VIVA: On the new album, you collaborated with Juan Luis Guerra, on “Carmín.” What was it like working with such a great Dominican artist that you idolized? RS: It’s the closest thing we (Dominicans) have to Paul McCartney. Every time you work with a master and a musical genius like that, you get a little nervous, like, “Yo, is he gonna like it? Is he gonna dig this?” Listening to his music, you enjoy it. But you’re also being taken to school, and I grew up idolizing the man. VIVA: On the album’s final track, “Sin Filtro,” you rant in Spanish that there’s a difference between constructive criticism and outright gossip. Is that your way of getting back at the haters? RS: It doesn’t matter how much you’ve given people — you’re only as good as your last product. When you’ve been winning for a certain time frame, there’s a bunch of people out there that are waiting for you to fail. I’m too much of a perfectionist. It doesn’t mean that I can’t fail because of that. But even if you’re anti-Romeo, people have to respect success.