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Wilfrido Vargas
Wilfrido Vargas became one of merengue's most innovative bandleaders, incorporating elements of Haitian compas, Colombian cumbia, and other Caribbean and Latin genres into merengue's core rhythmic structure, helping expand the genre's stylistic range throughout the 1970s and 1980s. His large orchestral merengue arrangements and his role discovering and mentoring numerous subsequent merengue stars, including several singers who launched their own successful careers after performing in his band, gave him an influence on the genre extending well beyond his own recordings. Vargas's willingness to experiment with faster tempos and increasingly elaborate horn arrangements helped push merengue's commercial dance-floor energy to new levels during his most commercially successful period, directly shaping the genre's sound throughout the 1980s. His combination of his genre-expanding stylistic innovations and his significant role mentoring subsequent merengue stars has made Vargas one of the most influential bandleaders in the genre's modern history.
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Elvis Crespo
Elvis Crespo brought merengue to unprecedented mainstream American commercial success with his 1998 single "Suavemente," which became one of the most widely recognized merengue songs internationally and helped introduce the genre to a massive audience outside its traditional Dominican and broader Caribbean base. His subsequent album of the same name became one of the best-selling merengue albums ever released, and "Suavemente" specifically became a fixture at weddings, parties, and celebrations across Latin American and Latino communities well beyond the song's initial Dominican merengue context. Crespo's Puerto Rican-American background, born and raised in New York City rather than the Dominican Republic itself, reflected merengue's broader diaspora popularity across the wider Latino community in the United States, not solely within the Dominican-American population specifically. His combination of "Suavemente's" unprecedented mainstream crossover success and its enduring status as one of merengue's most globally recognized songs has made Crespo one of the genre's most commercially significant modern ambassadors.
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