Draco Rosa

Draco Cornelius Rosa Suárez (born Robert Edward Rosa Suárez, June 27, 1969 ), also known as Draco Rosa, Robi Draco Rosa or simply Robi or Draco, is a Puerto Rican singer, musician, songwriter and entrepreneur.

Rosa originally garnered fame as a member of boy band Menudo in the 1980s, singing lead on the band's biggest stateside hit, "Hold Me" and featuring prominently in the accompanying music video.

After leaving the band he moved to Brazil where he released two albums, achieving mainstream success.

Following a brief subsequent stint in California, he returned to New York and joined the band Maggie's Dream, which split after only one album, allowing him to resume his solo career.

The singer and composer has released numerous albums, and has composed multiple songs for Ednita Nazario, Julio Iglesias and former Menudo band-mate, Ricky Martin.

He has also been featured on VH1's Behind the Music.

Rosa has been highly influenced by the works of Bob Dylan, Miles Davis, Iggy Pop, Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Cash, Luis Alberto Spinetta, The Doors, Camarón de la Isla, Horacio Quiroga, Caetano Veloso, Glenn Danzig, Edgar Allan Poe and Jim Morrison.

He would go on to release two commercially successful Portuguese-language solo albums in quick succession in the late 1980s.

Rosa subsequently moved to Los Angeles where he had gotten the lead-role in the film Salsa.

During its filming, Rosa met his future wife, Angela Alvarado.

Like Rosa, Alvarado was also born in New York to Puerto Rican parents.

Rosa also appeared alongside Christopher Mitchum in a German film entitled Gummibärchen küßt man nicht.

Rosa wrote, produced and performed two songs ("Angela" and "Little Woman") for the soundtrack of the latter film, which was released by RCA Records under his publishing company, Ceiba Tree Music.

In 1984, Rosa joined the increasingly popular Puerto Rican boy band Menudo.

During much of his tenure with the group, he would share the stage with a young Ricky Martin, which would eventually lead to a musical partnership between the two that proved instrumental in launching Martin's solo career.

As the only member of Menudo who had a native grasp of English, Rosa sang lead vocals on many of the English-language tracks released by the group, including their stateside hit, "Hold Me".

However, Rosa started to grow disenchanted with the band, particularly after he was denied the opportunity to write songs for them.

Rosa quit the group in 1987.

After moving to Barra Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Rosa spent time with local artists, adding to his musical education.

In 1988, at age 18, he made his motion picture debut in the film Salsa, which was a big hit in Puerto Rico.

During the filming of the movie, he met actress Angela Alvarado who would later become his wife.

However, he would soon move back to his birth state of New York, where he formed the band Maggie's Dream, an alternative funk rock/metal band who released a self-titled album in 1990 and toured with Fishbone, the Black Crowes and Faith No More.

A planned follow-up album, Elysium was recorded in 1992 but never officially released.

In 1993, a solo contract with Sony Music Latin enabled Rosa to record in Spain the first of his Spanish-language solo albums, Frío.

In between solo projects, Rosa worked on Ricky Martin's A Medio Vivir under the pseudonym Ian Blake by co-writing and co-producing the majority of the songs on the album, including the hit single "María", which made it to the Billboard Top 10.

In 1996, he released the Latino alternative rock album Vagabundo produced by Phil Manzanera before helping launch Ricky Martin's musical career into a new global setting with Vuelve.

Rosa wrote and produced various of Martin's hit singles including "María", "Livin' la Vida Loca", "She's All I Ever Had", "The Cup of Life", "She Bangs" and "Shake Your Bon-Bon", among others.

The 1996 release of his second album, Vagabundo, recorded in England and produced by Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera, has been hailed as a "tour de force of introspective haunting tunes".

The video for the song "Madre Tierra", directed by Angela Alvarado, won Best Rock Video in the 1997 Billboard Latin Music Awards; Vagabundo was included in Spin magazine's 1997 top 10 list of "greatest rock en español records of all time".

Entertainment Weekly named Rosa to their IT LIST of the 100 most creative people in the entertainment industry.

An English-language version of Frío, entitled Songbirds and Roosters was released in 1998.

Rosa toured with Lenny Kravitz during the summer of 2004 to promote his concept album Mad Love.

In April 2011, Rosa was diagnosed with a non-Hodgkin lymphoma cancer near his liver.

He underwent alternative and traditional treatment in Houston and Santa Monica.

This kept Rosa in a hiatus for almost a year until his return in March 2012, when he started recording his latest album with Vida, and gave a concert with Juan Luis Guerra and Rubén Blades at the José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum.

In December 2012, he was declared cancer-free.

In December 2013, Rosa's manager confirmed his cancer had relapsed, and he overcame cancer once again after a second bone marrow transplant, but had to remain in quarantine for four additional months.

As of February 2019, Rosa has been cancer-free for five years.

Rosa was born Robert Edward Rosa Suárez on Long Island, New York to Puerto Rican parents, Norberto Rosa and Sonia Suárez.

At a young age, he moved with his family to Puerto Rico where he spent much of his childhood in the town of Ponce.