Rubén Blades
Latin-music icon Rubén Blades was at the center of the New York salsa revolution in the 1970s. His landmark albums in classic Afro-Cuban salsa are touched with rock, jazz, pan-Latin, and worldwide influences. Blades has collaborated with rock, jazz, pop, hip-hop, reggaeton, and salsa artists and has composed hundreds of songs and dozens of hits known for their eloquent, socially charged lyrics, colorful characters, and memorable melodies. His 2017 album Salsa Big Band was awarded the Latin Grammy for Album of the Year, and in 2021 the Latin Recording Academy named him Person of the Year and awarded him, again, the Latin Grammy for Album of the Year and the Latin Grammy for Best Salsa Album.
He is the subject of the award-winning 2018 documentary Yo No Me Llamo Rubén Blades, directed by Abner Benaim. He has won 12 Grammy and 13 Latin Grammy awards, and his role during the eight seasons of the AMC television series Fear the Walking Dead earned him an Imagen Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor - Television.
Blades starred in Hands of Stone opposite Robert De Niro and in Safe House opposite Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds. He has played memorable roles in films with such acclaimed directors as Robert Redford in The Milagro Beanfield War, Robert Rodriguez in Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Spike Lee in Mo’ Better Blues, Alan J. Pakula in The Devil’s Own, and Jack Nicholson in The Two Jakes. He was nominated for Emmys for his roles in the television movies The Josephine Baker Story, Crazy from the Heart, and The Maldonado Miracle. His work has been honored with Cable ACE, Independent Spirit, and ALMA awards and with the Raúl Juliá HOLA Founders Award and the Hispanic Heritage Foundation’s Arts Award.
Beyond Blades’ artistic success, he holds degrees in political science and law from the University of Panama and an LLM from Harvard Graduate Law School. He ran for president of his native Panama in 1994 and served as minister of tourism from 2004 to 2009. The Loeb Music Library at Harvard University formed the Rubén Blades Archives in 2008 to collect his work and papers. New York University Steinhardt appointed him Scholar in Residence for the 2018/19 academic year. In 2024, he received an honorary Doctor of Music degree from Princeton University. Since 2025, he has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Rubén Blades continues touring with the Roberto Delgado Big Band in the United States, Latin America, and Europe presenting his latest production, Fotografías, and his usual hits.
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