The "Mujer de Fuego" will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2025 Billboard Latin Women in Music event on April 24 ...

and the single “El Africano” from Vargas’s 1983 album “El Funcionario” was a Latin hit. It’s a brassy merengue, with Pérez’s high vocals punctuated by saxophones and a raucous trombone.

He was 69. Know for songs such as “Volveré,” “El Africano” and “Tu Vas a Volar," Pérez devoted his long career to merengue, the signature musical style of the Dominican Republic.

In one of the deadliest tragedies in the Dominican Republic’s history, at least 113 people were killed when the roof of a popular Santo Domingo nightclub collapsed early Tuesday morning. Among the ...