Jon Secada

Juan Francisco Secada Ramírez born October 4 1961 better known as Jon Secada is a Cubanborn American singer songwriter and record producer He has won two Grammy Awards and sold 15 million records making him one of the bestselling Latin music artists His music fuses funk soul music pop and Latin percussion Secada has written songs for Gloria Estefan Ricky Martin and Jennifer Lopez He has toured with Luciano Pavarotti and recorded duets with Jim Brickman Olivia NewtonJohn and Frank Sinatra Secada has performed several times at A Capitol Fourth an annual Independence Day concert from the United States Capitol televised by PBS Secada was born in 1961 in Havana Cuba Secadas father José was incarcerated for 3 years as a political prisoner by the communist Cuban government In 1971 the Secadas received permission to emigrate and moved to Miami His parents opened a coffee shop Secada was raised in Hialeah Florida In 1979 Secada graduated from Hialeah Senior High School in Hialeah Florida During his performance of A Christmas Carol in 11th grade he says he realized his musical potential and was encouraged by teachers to pursue music as a career After graduating from high school Secada attended the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami where he received a Bachelor of Music in 1983 and a Master of Music in jazz vocal performance in 1986 He graduated cumlaude and was later inducted into the Iron Arrow Honor Society the highest honor bestowed by the University of Miami From 1986 to 1991 Secada was a teacher at Miami Dade College In 1986 Secadas University of Miami acquaintances introduced him to Emilio Estefan a musician in Miami Sound Machine and husband of Gloria Estefan Estefan listened to one of Secadas demos and then became Secadas mentor and manager This led to Secada becoming a backup singer for Miami Sound Machine In 1991 Secada cowrote and was a backup singer for Coming Out of the Dark a numberone hit song inspired by a tourbus accident involving Gloria Estefan in 1990 in which her back was broken In 1992 he released his selftitled debut album which sold 7 million copies In 1994 he performed a duet with Frank Sinatra a rerecording of The Best Is Yet to Come released on Sinatras album Duets II He also performed at the awards for Miss Venezuela 1994 In 1995 he performed on Broadway in Grease and he also presented at the 49th Tony Awards He also recorded If I Never Knew You a duet with Shanice for Pocahontas In 1999 he cowrote and coproduced Shes All I Ever Had for Ricky Martin In 2003 he performed in Cabaret He also cowrote Juramento for Ricky Martin From 2006 to 2009 Secada was a judge on Latin American Idol for its entire fourseason run In 2007 he cowrote three songs and performed in one on Lilian Garcias album Quiero Vivir In 2017 he released a tribute album with cover versions of songs by Benny Moré From 1988 to 1993 Secada was married to Jo Pat Cafro In May 1995 he started dating Maritere Vilar They were married in February 1997 and have two children Source Article Jon Secada from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30