BIOGRAPHY
LEO : Singer-Songwriter ambassador of Latin planet
Born in 1972 into a multicultural family, LEO spent his childhood between France, Spain and Venezuela, and it was precisely in Caracas, where he lived most of the time, that he studied music since he was 11 years old. But one day, events of the country would change the course of his life...
In 1989, after serious riots similar to a civil war in the capital (the "Caracazo"), LEO comes to France, and quickly realizes an evidence.
The young singer only expresses himself fully through Latin sounds of his childhood: salsa, bachata, cumbia and merengue will naturally be his favorite musical languages...
It was then that this lover of the language of Cervantes had a decisive encounter that would launch his career.
Settled in the city of Toulouse, LEO connects in the 90's with Latin musicians of the city, and gets his first contract as a singer in a famous club of the town: he will perform there for almost 7 years! There, he shares the stage with the mythical Cuban musician Clemente Lozano (Orquesta America, Orquesta Aragon), which is enough for him to become headliner at FIESTA PAMIERS (09) Latin Festival in 2001; then LEO gets an idea...
Salsa and related musical genres are just starting to find an audience in Europe; so LEO decides to go and make this musical genre known all over the country, even in places where the public only knows salsa by name: LEO creates the group RICASALSA in 2003 and starts a tour.
The singer-songwriter performs in France and Europe at festivals, local festivities and even private concerts: LEO Y SU RICASALSA perform no less than1100 concerts between 2002 and 2024.
LEO's arrangements are mostly based on Puerto Rican salsa, where congas, timbales, bongo are happily mixed with harmonies of piano, pulse of the bass and syncopations of the brass, highlighting cheerful melodies and danceable rhythms.
On stage, LEO also performs, according to the theme of his songs, other related Caribbean musical genres, such as Colombian cumbia with a more rustic sound, bolero or Cuban son, as well as Dominican bachata, a current and urban danceable style, with a more languid rhythm and very "guitaristic" melodies.
Since 2023, LEO has been performing on stage with, among others, Peruvian percussionist and pianist Alain Chimpen Olarte (Orlando Poleo, Tito Puentes, Dany Brillant), trumpeter Dayron Ramirez (Yuri Buenaventura, Ray de la Paz, Tony Vega), congero Miguel Gomez (bandleader of the famous Africando group) and Havana-born saxophonist-flute virtuoso Luis Daniel Olivero.
After its latest singles DESEÁNDONOS (bachata) in 2024 and AQUEL QUE TE AMA (salsa) in 2025, LEO invites his friend, Colombian singer Rigo Ruiz, to feature on a new "tropipop" (vallenato and Latin pop fusion) track : BENDIGAMOS LA DICHA.
