Cheo Feliciano: The Sonero’s Sonero

Salsa produced many notable singers, and among the most widely admired was Cheo Feliciano, the Puerto Rican sonero whose smooth, swinging delivery made him a defining figure of the genre, and whose biography — from poverty through addiction to a celebrated comeback — became one of salsa's most frequently recounted narratives.^[1]

From "El Combo Las Latas" to New York

José "Cheo" Feliciano was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, in 1935.^[1] His musical start was early and improvised: at eight he formed his first group, "El Combo Las Latas" ("The Cans Combo"), so named because the boys were too poor for manufactured instruments and fashioned them from cans.^[1] He studied solfège and basic technique at the Juan Morel Campos school, and at seventeen he joined his family in the broad Puerto Rican migration to New York of the 1950s.^[1]

The Joe Cuba years

In New York, Feliciano auditioned for and joined the Joe Cuba Sextet, making his professional singing debut on 5 October 1957 with the bolero "Perfidia."^[1] He remained with the sextet for a decade, emerging as a leading voice of the boogaloo and Latin-soul era — the Afro-Cuban-meets-R&B sound that swept Latin New York in the 1960s — and one of the most admired young singers in the city.^[1][2]

A comeback and a Fania star is born

Feliciano's ascent was interrupted by a struggle with drug addiction. Following rehabilitation, he returned to music in 1972, joining the Fania label at the height of the 1970s salsa boom.^[1][2] His first solo album, Cheo, broke sales records in the Latin market and established him as one of Fania's foremost stars.^[1]

That album carried his signature song, "Anacaona," a tribute to the Taíno queen of Hispaniola who resisted the Spanish conquest — a stately, anthemic salsa that became one of the most enduring recordings of the era.^[1] Across the 1970s he recorded some fifteen albums for Fania, adding hits such as "Amada Mía" and "Juan Albañil."^[1]

A beloved elder

Feliciano was recognized throughout his career as a pioneer and an influence on numerous singers; in 1984 he was honored with a tribute concert featuring Rubén Blades and Joe Cuba.^[1] A consummate sonero — a master of the improvised vocal call-and-response over the montuno^[2] — he was equally accomplished in the tender bolero, and his warmth secured his standing as one of the most esteemed figures in the music. He died on 17 April 2014.^[1]

Why he matters

Feliciano's significance rests on his having embodied salsa's principal currents: its roots in working-class Puerto Rican migration, its narratives of redemption, and its highest discipline of improvised singing. From a boy with a tin-can band to a Fania mainstay, he supplied the genre with some of its most durable performances, and in "Anacaona" a song that linked the dance floor to the deep history of the Caribbean. Set alongside Larry Harlow and the broader Fania circle, his work helped define salsa at its most soulful.