El Varón de la Bachata — Eduardo José Acevedo Cabrera, born in La Isabela, Puerto Plata, on 13 October 1978 — is a Dominican bachata singer. He spent years going nowhere and then broke through at thirty-two with a Colombian song.

Early years and formation

He grew up on the amargue, listening to Antony Santos, Zacarías Ferreira and Raulín Rodríguez, and started playing at nine. In his teens he put a small group together with his brothers José Luis, Carlos and Filiberto Acevedo and worked the clubs of the north.

The broadcaster Salvador Vélez, DJ Vélez, is the one who moved him from that to a professional career.

The years that did not work

His first contract was with Megapro and he stayed with them for years without much happening. He has said he came close to giving it up altogether. That stretch is the part of the story most bachateros have and few tell.

Flor Prohibida

The break came in 2011. Flor Prohibida is a vallenato, and he rebuilt it as a bachata; it caught immediately and stayed on the radio through most of that year. The trick is an old one in Dominican music — the genre has always eaten what it borrows — but it took him from a working singer to a name.

Alma Perdida followed in 2014, Destino in 2016, Sangre de Vino in 2018, and Mercedes, Quédate and Amor 2020 all in 2020. He took the act to the United States for the first time at the end of 2015. Esto e’ Pa’ Gozar he cut with Krisspy.