Carlos Vives

Beginning his career acting in telenovelas, Carlos Vives' success allowed him to pursue his love of music to huge acclaim and success. Born August 7, 1961, Vives grew up in Santa Marta, Magdalena, Colombia, until he and his family moved to Bogotá at age 12 where his love affair with music began. In 1982, Vives started to appear in telenovelas like "Pequeños Gigantes" (1983) and "Tuyo es Mi Corazón" (1985) until his breakthrough role playing the title role of a boxer in "Gallito Ramírez" (1986). That same year, Vives began releasing music with the title song off his second album ultimately reaching No. 30 on the Billboard Hot Latin Tracks chart. After taking a break from music, Vives returned to acting and took a memorable leading role in the Spanish language soap "La Otra" (1988). Returning to Colombia in 1991, he was cast in the leading role of composer Rafael Escalona in the musical dram "Escalona" (1992), singing the composer's songs in the series. This role led to a renewed interest in Carlos Vives' music and his singing career truly took off. Vives returned to television in 2012 as a vocal coach on Spain's version of the musical talent show, "The Voz" (2012).