Francisco José Ceara, known professionally as Frank Ceara, is a Dominican singer, songwriter, and vocal coach born in Santo Domingo on 20 March 1967. He became known in 1992 with the bachata-ballad project «Bachata Magic», spent years as one of the country's most sought-after studio backing vocalists, wrote songs recorded by Milly Quezada and others, and has led the annual Christmas concert «Navidad entre Amigos». His 2025 album «El Saborcito de Tu Amor» includes a song with Juan Luis Guerra.

Origins

Ceara grew up in the Los Prados neighborhood of Santo Domingo in a musical family; he was given a small piano at six and later taught himself to play by ear. His family expected a professional career, and at thirteen he took singing and piano lessons in secret. He wrote his first song, «En Busca de un Amigo», at that age for a school-friends festival, where it placed among the winners. He began medicine, then business administration, and finished a technical degree in hotel management at the Católica before choosing music. He later studied singing for three years with Marianela Sánchez and for a year in Miami.

Jingles, choirs, and «Bachata Magic»

In the late 1980s a friend from a student choir brought him into the rock group «Empiphis», where he was lead singer for a year around 1990 and 1991. He then worked as a jingle and backing singer, part of a circle of studio vocalists around the producer Manuel Tejada that included Kiko Rodríguez, and the profile he supplied to the site Tambora y Güira credits him with 222 jingles by 1992. Over the years he sang backing vocals on recordings and shows for artists including Juan Luis Guerra, Wilfrido Vargas, Vickiana, Olga Lara, Sonia Silvestre, Julio Iglesias, and Emmanuel.

In 1992 Tejada produced «Bachata Magic», bachata versions of ballads sung by Ceara and the singer Audrey Campos, which turned into an unexpected hit through «Bailar Pegados». The pair won the Aplauso award as best new artist in Miami and Ceara was nominated for Premios Lo Nuestro. The second album, «Bachata Magic II», included «Lluvia de Besos», the theme of the Venevisión telenovela «Amor de Papel», and «Quedan Palabras». In 1994 he presented the concert «Lluvia de Besos» at Bellas Artes, and he held long residencies at the Café Capri in Santo Domingo, where he had his own night with his band.

Solo career and songwriting

Ceara represented the Dominican Republic at the Viña del Mar festival in Chile in 1995 and at the OTI Festival in 1996 with «Una Historia Más», written by Manuel Jiménez and Manuel Tejada. As a songwriter he wrote «Pídeme» for Milly Quezada, later recorded in a merengue version with Fernando Villalona, and «¿Cómo Le Hago Sin Ti?», written for a 2005 album by the actor and musician José Guillermo, which others recorded afterwards. Ednita Nazario recorded a song he wrote for her after asking him for one in 1995. In the 2000s he took the lead role in the Dominican production of «Los Miserables».

He wrote the official songs for the annual «Caminantes por la Vida» walk, a fundraiser for children with cancer, among them «Hay Amor en Mi Ciudad» and «Solo Faltas Tú», and «Quiéreme Como Soy», for an inclusion project for people with special needs. He works as a vocal coach directing singers in studios, and for more than a decade he has led the annual Christmas concert series «Navidad entre Amigos» with a fifteen-piece orchestra and guests.

«El Saborcito de Tu Amor»

His eighth production, «El Saborcito de Tu Amor», was released on 27 May 2025 to mark 35 years of career. It has eleven songs mixing bachata, ballad, and merengue, with cooking metaphors running through the lyrics. It includes «Así Bonito», which he wrote and Juan Luis Guerra produced and arranged in his New York studio, and «La Receta Perfecta» with Adalgisa Pantaleón. He was nominated for Composer and/or Lyricist at the 2026 Premios Soberano.

Legacy

Ceara's career combines a public role as a romantic songwriter and singer with less visible work in the recording studio: the choirs, jingles, and vocal direction that shaped the Dominican pop sound of the 1990s, and songs such as «Lluvia de Besos» and «Pídeme» that remain in circulation.