* En anglais uniquement
Beto Cuevas, well known for his 17-year tenure as the frontman of the Grammy-winning Latin alternative rock band
La Ley, embarked on a solo career after the band's breakup in 2005 and released his debut album,
Miedo Escénico, in 2008. Born
Luis Alberto Cuevas Olmedo on September 12, 1967, in Santiago, Chile, he grew up in Montreal, Canada, where his family fled during the reign of Augusto Pinochet. In the late '80s
Cuevas returned to Chile and joined the lineup of
La Ley, which was in the midst of a lineup shuffle. Once the new lineup was finalized with
Cuevas in place as the band's frontman,
La Ley made their full-length album debut in 1989 with Desiertos on EMI. Though the album proved unsuccessful -- going more or less unreleased, in fact -- the band ultimately broke through to mainstream success with the follow-up album
Doble Opuesto (1990) and its chart-topping English-language cover of
the Rolling Stones' 1973 classic "Angie." Subsequent albums
La Ley (1992),
Invisible (1995), and
Vértigo (1998) established the band as one of the leading alternative rock groups in Latin music. They also established
Cuevas as an impressive songwriter as well as a superstar frontman.
La Ley's peak success came around the turn of the century with the Grammy-winning albums
Uno (2000) and
MTV Unplugged (2001). After the band's breakup in 2005,
Cuevas embarked on a solo career, basing himself in Los Angeles and collaborating with producers
Steve Tushar (of the industrial metal band
Fear Factory) and
Aureo Baqueiro (whose credits include blockbuster albums by
Alejandro Fernández and
Sin Bandera, among others). Released in 2008 on Warner Bros. Records,
Cuevas' full-length solo debut album,
Miedo Escénico, was preceded by the lead single "Vuelvo," a Top Ten hit throughout most of Latin America. ~ Jason Birchmeier