Leoni Torres

For more than twenty years this ASCAP Award-winning Cuban vocalist, composer, and record producer has blended classic and contemporary currents of Latin pop, threading salsa—and at times reggaetón—through an essentially mainstream approach. Leonardo Torres Álvarez entered the world in the final years of the 1970s along Cuba’s southern shore in Santa Cruz del Sur, where an early passion for American R&B, above all the work of Michael Jackson, quickly took hold. After several low-paying positions, one of which lasted three years and involved repairing refrigerators, he entered a parody stage troupe that lampooned everyone from his idol Jackson to the theme of Titanic. Local stages began hosting him by 1998; the next year he became a member of Maravillas de Florida, and in 2001 David Calzado invited him to perform with Charanga Habanera. Seven seasons with that celebrated group ended once his own career gained traction through the 2007 EGREM debut Bajo la Piel. Two further releases followed: Latiendo in 2011 and, the year after, Salseando, whose tracks recast earlier material in salsa arrangements.

Although Torres made his screen debut in 2014 with the film version of Héctor Quintero’s Contigo Pan y Onion, that year’s greater impact came from the song “Amor Bonito,” first heard as a duet with Descemer Bueno; the piece marked his initial notable success as a writer and preceded the co-writing credit he earned on Gente de Zona and Marc Anthony’s 2015 single “Traidora,” which received an ASCAP Award for Best Tropical Music Composition. Also in 2015 he paired with nueva trova pioneer Pablo Milanés for the single “Para Que un Día Vuelvas.” Another acting role arrived in 2016 inside Jonal Cosculluela’s Esteban, after which Torres devoted himself to the two-volume set Amor Bonito, an album dense with collaborative tracks. An extensive U.S. and European tour in August 2019 supported the project. Following his departure from EGREM, the March 2021 album Alma Cubana emerged from close work with Kelvis Ochoa and Leonardo Gil Milián.