Ramón Fernando Villalona Évora, (Dajabón, Dominican Republic, May 7, 1955), better known as “Fernandito Villalona”, and nicknamed “El Mayimbe” or “The spoiled child”, is a Dominican singer. Although he originally became known with the ballad and bolero genres, Villalona has successfully ventured into genres such as merengue, bachata and lately in Christian music. He has recorded more than 20 albums, almost all of them resounding hits.
Villalona began singing at an early age and became popular after participating in “El festival de la voz”, a television contest in search of talents. After that, merengue icon Wilfrido Vargas hired him to be part of his group Los Hijos del Rey,1 but Fernando and the group would soon break up after his popularity became bigger than the group itself. He later entered a period of drugs and isolation, but never stopped singing, and continued recording during that period.
He participated in the Spanish version of “We are the World,” along with other superstars such as Shakira, Ricky Martin and Enrique Iglesias.
In recent years, Villalona gave his career a more spiritual perspective by converting to Christianity and releasing a Christian album. He has had some health problems that make performing a difficult task, but despite the fact that he is not able to perform frequently, Villalona is still one of the most important singers in Dominican history.
