Obie Bermúdez

Obie Bermúdez first drew breath in Puerto Rico’s mountain town of Aibonito before his family settled in the fertile farmland surrounding Vineland, New Jersey, once he turned twelve. Poetry sparked his early creative drive, yet music and composition quickly became an all-consuming focus. A demo emerged in 1996; two years later RCA International put out his debut album, Locales. The pop project attracted modest notice without launching him to major stardom. Declaring himself a bohemian, he stepped away from recording and spent the next five years employed at a South Bronx laundromat, where the everyday experiences of customers and colleagues shaped nearly every track on his follow-up, Confesiones, which EMI International released in 2004. The more alternative-leaning set scored an immediate success when its opening single, “Antes,” climbed to number one on multiple Latin charts. Todo el Año arrived later that same year.

Following 2006’s Lo Que Trajo el Barco and the unplugged hits collection Solo Exitos, he turned his attention to the theatrical staging of El Canto del Coquí while becoming engaged to popstar girlfriend Jennifer Peña. The pair wed in 2007, and he became a father before the year closed. Wishing to avoid prolonged separations from his young family, Bermúdez extended his hiatus from music. In 2009 he joined the Broadway production of Paul Simon’s The Capeman.

He resumed recording with the independent release of Quien Me Lo Va a Creer in 2012, led by the single “Calendario Maya.” February brought Vida de Colores on Select-O-Hits, while EMI issued the compilation Mejor De almost simultaneously.