"Puerto Rican singer Tony Vega was the salsa singer of the 1990s and is known internationally as an acclaimed salsa star and band leader who continues to produce some of the best music salsa has even seen.Tony Vega was born in Salinas, Puerto Rico in 1957 and was exposed to music almost immediately, as there are many musicians in his family. Vega began playing conga for a local band called La Preferida when he was just ten-years-old before joining the Latino rock outfit City Trash as a teenager. Influenced by Puerto Rican acts like Ismael ""Maelo"" Rivera, Rafael Ithier, El Gran Combo and Cortijo y su Combo, Vega launched his professional career in 1978, recording his first album as one of the two lead vocalists with La Selecta (a band led by Raphy Leavitt). Vega then joined the famous group La Mulenza for a few months before joining Willie Rosario's band, where he would stay for six years (1980-1986) and release his albums. Vega shared the lead vocal responsibilities with the now-famous Gilberto Santa Rosa and the album La nueva cosecha received a Grammy nomination.Vega moved around New York and Philadelphia for a few months before returning to Puerto Rico and joining forces with Eddie Palmieri, one of contemporary Latin music's biggest innovators. After touring extensively with Palmieri for his Grammy-winning album La Verdad (on which Vega appeared), Vega signed with RMM and released his solo debut, Yo Me Quedo, in 1988. The gold album was followed by 1991's platinum-selling album Uno Mismo, which earned Vega an important gig at the New York Salsa Festival in New York's Madison Square Garden. By now Vega was an internationally acclaimed salsa star. A string of successful albums followed for Vega, who has recorded 17 albums thus far and now has his very own backing band (which has appeared on his last four albums)."