Roberto Torres, born on 10 February 1940 in Güines, Cuba, began singing at eighteen and moved to Miami in 1959, where he joined La Sonora Matancera for three years before forming his own groups. After establishing the Charanga Broadway in 1962, he recorded eight albums with Gema, Musicor and Tico, and in 1969 became a vocalist for the Latin Dimension orchestra. In 1972 he launched a solo career, producing El castigador (1973) and subsequent LPs such as De nuevo, Roberto Torres y Sus Caminantes, Está en buenas manos, and El duro del guaguancó under the Salsoul label. He founded SAR Records in 1979, releasing works that highlighted Cuban folk styles and collaborated with artists including Alfredo “Chocolate” Armenteros. In the early 1980s he pioneered the charanga vallenata concept, blending Cuban charanga with Colombian vallenato, achieving success with tracks like "Caballo viejo". Throughout the 1980s and 1990s he issued albums such as Corazón de pueblo (1984), Elegantemente criollo (1986), Lo Mejor De Roberto Torres (1994), and Best of (1997). In 2000 he released Siempre sonando, and later Retrato musical and Ambassador. Torres was inducted into the Latin Grammy Hall of Fame in 2007, and in 2011 a star was dedicated to him on the Celia Cruz Plaza in Union City, New Jersey.
