Michael Stuart is an American

Americans

The people of the United States, also known as simply Americans or American people, are the inhabitants or citizens of the United States. The United States is a multi-ethnic nation, home to people of different ethnic and national backgrounds...

 salsa

Salsa music

Salsa music is a genre of music, generally defined as a modern style of playing Cuban Son, Son Montuno, and Guaracha with touches from other genres of music...

 singer and actor

Actor

An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

.

Early years

Stuart was born in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, to Puerto Rican

Puerto Rican people

A Puerto Rican is a person who was born in Puerto Rico.Puerto Ricans born and raised in the continental United States are also sometimes referred to as Puerto Ricans, although they were not born in Puerto Rico...

 parents who settled in the 1960s after emigrating from Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

. There Stuart received his primary and secondary education. He was musically influenced by his uncle Israel "Timbalero" Stuart. Stuart grew up listening to hip hop

Hip hop music

Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...

 and rock

Rock and roll

Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...

 music. He grew to love many kinds of music, especially Latin music

Music of Puerto Rico

The music of Puerto Rico has been influenced by the Spanish, African, Taíno Indians, France, and the United States, and has become very popular across the Caribbean and across the globe...

. His uncle "Timbalero" was a professional musician

Musician

A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....

 and bandleader

Bandleader

A bandleader is the leader of a band of musicians. The term is most commonly, though not exclusively, used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues or rock and roll music....

. Stuart would accompany his uncle to many rehearsals where he would sing and play the maracas or conga

Conga

The conga, or more properly the tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed Cuban drum with African antecedents. It is thought to be derived from the Makuta drums or similar drums associated with Afro-Cubans of Central African descent. A person who plays conga is called a conguero...

s. He taught himself to play the trumpet

Trumpet

The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...

 and most of the times he would sing to the tones of Héctor Lavoe

Héctor Lavoe

Héctor Juan Pérez Martínez , better known as Héctor Lavoe, was a Puerto Rican salsa singer. Lavoe was born and raised in the Machuelito sector of Ponce, Puerto Rico. Early in his life, he attended a local music school and developed an interest inspired by Jesús Sánchez Erazo. He moved to New York...

 and El Gran Combo

El Gran Combo

El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, commonly known as El Gran Combo, is a Puerto Rican Salsa music orchestra. It is Puerto Rico's most successful musical group, and one of the most popular salsa orchestras across Latin America...

. It was Domingo Quiñones

Domingo Quiñones

Domingo Quiñones is a singer of salsa music. He is also a composer, producer and actor.Domingo Quinones was born on August 9, 1963 in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. When he was four years old he moved to Puerto Rico with his parents and lived in Ceiba. He returned to New York City in 1977. He began his...

 who had influenced Stuart's style of singing.

Singing career

With the help of his uncle, it was not long before Stuart was singing back-up to the likes of Johnny Rivera

Johnny Rivera

Johnny Rivera is a Puerto Rican American salsa singer.Rivera was raised in the Bronx, and attended high school at Benjamin Franklin High School. He moved briefly to Puerto Rico before returning to New York to begin a career in music...

 and Marc Anthony

Marc Anthony

Marc Anthony is an American singer-songwriter, actor and producer. Anthony is the top selling tropical salsa artist of all time. The two-time Grammy and three-time Latin Grammy–winner has sold more than 30 million albums worldwide. He is best known for his Latin salsa numbers and ballads...

. In 1996, Stuart recorded his first CD, Cuento de la Vecinidad (Tale of the Neighborhood), which included a remake of Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson

Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...

's "The Lady in My Life". His debut CD was a hit in the Hispanic

Hispanic

Hispanic is a term that originally denoted a relationship to Hispania, which is to say the Iberian Peninsula: Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain. During the Modern Era, Hispanic sometimes takes on a more limited meaning, particularly in the United States, where the term means a person of ...

 community. He was awarded the Farandula Magazine "New Artist of the Year 1996-97 Award" and The Tropical New Artist 1997 Award by the Tu Musica Awards and was nominated for the "New Artist of the Year" at the Lo Nuestro Awards in 1997. That year Stuart also sang in a Banco Popular production honoring Bobby Capo

Bobby Capó

Félix Manuel Rodríguez Capó , better known as Bobby Capó, was an internationally known singer and songwriter from Puerto Rico...

, featuring Danny Rivera

Danny Rivera

Danny Rivera is a Puerto Rican singer and songwriter who was born in San Juan whose career spans nearly 50 years. He is well-known in Puerto Rico for his political activism.-Musical career:...

, José Feliciano

José Feliciano

José Feliciano is a Puerto Rican singer, virtuoso guitarist and composer known for many international hits including the 1970 holiday single "Feliz Navidad".-Childhood:...

, and Chucho Avellanet

Chucho Avellanet

Armando Hipólito Avellanet González , nicknamed "Chucho" is a Puerto Rican singer and comedic actor...

.
In 1998, Stuart recorded his second CD, Retratos (Pictures). Among the awards that he won for this recording were the "New Salsa Artist Award" and the Paoli

Antonio Paolí

Antonio Paoli was a Puerto Rican tenor. He was known at the height of his fame as "The King of Tenors and The Tenor of Kings." He is considered to be the first Puerto Rican to reach international fame in the musical arts...

 Award. He also debuted in the Puerto Rican version of the musical play Jesus Christ Superstar

Jesus Christ Superstar

Jesus Christ Superstar is a rock opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber, with lyrics by Tim Rice. The musical started off as a rock opera concept recording before its first staging on Broadway in 1971...

in San Juan

San Juan, Puerto Rico

San Juan , officially Municipio de la Ciudad Capital San Juan Bautista , is the capital and most populous municipality in Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 395,326 making it the 46th-largest city under the jurisdiction of...

, alongside Olga Tañon

Olga Tañón

Olga Tañón is a two-time Grammy Award and three-time Latin Grammy-winning Merengue and Latin Pop artist. Tañón has earned 5 Latin Grammy Awards and 19 Premios Lo Nuestro awards during her career.-Early years:...

. Stuart was awarded the "Best New Actors Award" by the Theater Circle for his performance. In the 1998 Banco Popular production honoring composer Rafael Hernández, Stuart sang alongside Ricky Martin

Ricky Martin

Enrique "Ricky" Martín Morales , better known as Ricky Martin, is a Puerto Rican and Spanish pop singer and actor who achieved prominence, first as a member of the Latin boy band Menudo, then as a solo artist since 1991.During his career he has sold more than 60 million album copies worldwide...

 and Gilberto Santa Rosa

Gilberto Santa Rosa

Gilberto Santa Rosa, also known as "El Caballero de la Salsa" , is a Puerto Rican bandleader and singer of salsa and bolero.-Early years:...

. In 1999, Stuart received a special recognition from the House of Representatives of Puerto Rico

House of Representatives of Puerto Rico

The House of Representatives of Puerto Rico is the lower house of the Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico, the territorial legislature of Puerto Rico...

, and he also received the "Peoples Choice Award" in the Tropical category at the Tu Music Awards.

In 2000, Stuart released his third album, Subeme el Volumen (Bring up the Volume). That year he sang "Algo En Ella" ("Something in Her") for the film soundtrack

Soundtrack

A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...

 of Under Suspicion

Under Suspicion (2000 film)

Under Suspicion is a 2000 American film directed by Stephen Hopkins. It stars Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, Monica Bellucci and Thomas Jane. The film is based on the 1981 French film Garde à vue and the 1970s British novel Brainwash, written by John Wainwright...

, a movie that included the participation of Miguel Ángel Suárez

Miguel Angel Suarez

Miguel Ángel Suárez was a Puerto Rican soap opera and movie actor.-Early years:Suárez and his sister were born into a middle class family and raised in the Santurce section of San Juan, Puerto Rico. His father worked at a local supermarket and his mother was a housewife. When Suárez was a child,...

 and Nydia Caro

Nydia Caro

Nydia Caro is an American & Puerto Rican actress and singer. Born in New York City to parents from Rincón, Puerto Rico, she initiated her career in the arts at a very young age while living in New York...

. The soundtrack also included songs by fellow Puerto Ricans Carlos Ponce

Carlos Ponce

Carlos Armando Ponce, Jr. is a Puerto Rican actor, singer, composer and television personality. Ponce began his acting career by participating in Spanish language soap operas for Televisa and Telemundo. Ponce continued to expand his acting career by participating in various American television...

, Ednita Nazario

Ednita Nazario

Ednita Nazario is a Puerto Rican singer and songwriter who has achieved stardom both at home and abroad. She has been in the music business from a young age, and has released over twenty albums throughout her career....

 and Olga Tañon

Olga Tañón

Olga Tañón is a two-time Grammy Award and three-time Latin Grammy-winning Merengue and Latin Pop artist. Tañón has earned 5 Latin Grammy Awards and 19 Premios Lo Nuestro awards during her career.-Early years:...

. Stuart also sang two songs in Obra Maestra (Masterpiece) by Eddie Palmieri

Eddie Palmieri

Eddie Palmieri , is a Grammy Award winning Puerto Rican pianist, bandleader and musician, best known for combining jazz piano and instrumental solos with Latin rhythms.-Early years:...

 and the late Tito Puente

Tito Puente

Tito Puente, , born Ernesto Antonio Puente, was a Latin jazz and Salsa musician. The son of native Puerto Ricans Ernest and Ercilia Puente, of Spanish Harlem in New York City, Puente is often credited as "El Rey de los Timbales" and "The King of Latin Music"...

.

In 2002, Stuart released his fourth CD, Michael Stuart. In 2004, Stuart released the Latin Pop

Latin pop

Latin pop generally refers to pop music that has what may be perceived a Latin American influence...

 album Sin Miedo, which was nominated for Latin Grammy Awards of 2005

Latin Grammy Awards of 2005

The 6th Annual Latin Grammy Awards were held in Los Angeles at the Shrine Auditorium on Thursday, November 3, 2005. It was the first ceremony to be broadcast by Univision in the United States. Ivan Lins was the big winner winning two awards including Album of the Year. He is the first and only...

 for Best Tropical-Contemporary Album of the Year. In 2005, he starred in a musical event titled Homenajes that toured throughout the United States, South America

South America

South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

, and Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

, paying tribute to Salsa/Rumba

Rumba

Rumba is a family of percussive rhythms, song and dance that originated in Cuba as a combination of the musical traditions of Africans brought to Cuba as slaves and Spanish colonizers. The name derives from the Cuban Spanish word rumbo which means "party" or "spree". It is secular, with no...

 performers of all time. In 2006, Stuart released Back to da Barrio, which is a salsa album of notable reggaeton

Reggaeton

Reggaeton is a form of Puerto Rican and Latin American urban and Caribbean music. After its mainstream exposure in 2004, it spread to North American, European and Asian audiences. Reggaeton originated in Puerto Rico but is also has roots from Reggae en Español from Panama and Puerto Rico and...

 songs sung by other reggaeton artists, such as "Ven Bailalo", "Pobre Diabla", and "Mayor Que Yo"...

Stuart's latest release is a salsa album entitled Sentimiento de un Rumbero, released on Machete Records in 2007. He is active in the music business and participates on stage productions in Puerto Rico. Stuart participated in a beach festival named "Back to School", on August 9, 2008.

Discography

• 1996: Cuento de la Vecinidad (RMM Records)
• 1998: Retratos (RMM Records)
• 2000: Subeme El Volumen (RMM Records)
• 2002: Michael Stuart (RMM Records/Universal Music Latino)
• 2004: Sin Miedo (RMM Records/Universal Music Latino)
• 2006: Back To Da Barrio
  Back to da Barrio
  Back To Da Barrio is a salsa album by Michael Stuart which covers popular reggaeton songs in salsa. The album was nominated for Tropical Album of the Year by a Male Artist at the 2007 Latin Billboard Music Awards, losing to Víctor Manuelle's Decisión Unánime.- Track listing :# Mayor Que Yo [4:24]#...
  
   (Machete Records)
• 2006: Grandes Exitos (CD & DVD) (RMM Records/Universal Music Latino)
• 2006: Pura Salsa (RMM Records/Universal Music Latino)
• 2007: Sentimiento De Un Rumbero (Machete Records)