Born the 21st of May in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Milagros Quezada Borbón, or “Milly” as she is known, is without a question the best known female Merengue artist of her homeland. Better known as “La Reina Del Merengue” (The queen of Merengue) her career spands from 1975 until today (as of 2011).
ThatsDominican.com has had a chance to speak with this artist, check out the footage of our encounter with her and her sons at a performance in New York. ThatsDominican.com Interviews Milly.
Since young, Milly has enjoyed music, having 4 siblings (all who are also musicians) they migrated to New York where she attended highschool and college where she graduated with high honors from New York city College.
Her start in music was with her siblings, Rafael, Martín and Jocelyn, and together formed what was then known as “Milly Jocelyn y Los Vecinos”, they would perform locally at first in Washington Heights, New York. During the start of the 80′s, success soon came mainly due To Milly’s unique style of singing and strong voice. They had hits like “La Guacherna”, “Volvió Juanita” and many more.
In her career, Milly has won many awards including The Casandra Awards in Dominican Republic, Billboard Awards, Premios Lo Nuestro in 1998, Ace awards and many more.
In 1995, after the death of her husband and manager Rafael Vásquez, Milly took a break from the music industry amidst what were to be hard times for her and her family. Knowing she had to overcome the situation, this eventually led to greater strenght within her, and this same strenght gave her enough courage to in 1997 re-launch her career, this time as a solo artist.
In her solo career, Milly has encountered even more success than she had with her group, and is known and beloved by all her people, not only in the Dominican Republic but in all Spanish speaking countries. Her struggle to make it in a male dominated scene is only surpased by her success.
Official site: http://www.millyquezada.net
Find her music in AMAZON: Milly Quezada