Ramón Orlando Valoy is a merengue musician and son of Cuco Valoy.
He was born in Manoguayabo, then part of Santo Domingo, D.N. (the capital city) and now part of Santo Domingo Province. He studied music at National Conservatory of Music in the Dominican Republic.
In the 70s, after his father left Los Compadres Guitar quartet, he formed his first group, Los Virtuosos, with his father as the lead singer. His father kept the group and renamed it as Cuco Valoy y Orquesta (Cuco Valoy and his Orchestra) where he hired singers Peter Cruz and Henry Garcia. Ramon Orlando went to form another group. Years later, Cuco Valoy group disintegrated and he moved to Colombia due to his political differences with then Dominican president Joaquin Balaguer. Ramon Orlando then went onto a more ambitious project. He and then famous merengue singers Peter Cruz and Henry Garcia formed La Orquesta Internacional (The International Orchestra), where he was supposed to be the composer and director whereas Cruz and Garcia were to be the singers. However, of the first ten single production, Ramon Orlando wanted to sing four of them himself, which caused the group to split. Peter Cruz and Henry Garcia formed their own groups which didn’t last long. Ramon Orlando quickly hired a couple of boys with similar voice tones to Cruz’ and Garcia’s to interpret the songs already on the radio.
He was a nominee in the Latin Grammy Awards of 2005. |
