Irisneyda Santos — billed on her records simply as Irisneyda — is a Dominican merengue singer from Salcedo and the founding-era female voice of The New York Band. She sang the leads on the band's 1986 debut that still carry her name, left with Franklin Rivers to form the duo Iris y Franklyn, and four decades later stands at the front of the same band again.

Career

She began in New York with Primitivo Santos y su Orquesta, singing ballads and merengues at the turn of the 1980s, before joining the band Wilfrido Vargas and Chery Jiménez built in 1986. On its debut, «Wilfrido Vargas Presenta: The New York Band» (Karen, 1986), she sings «Si tú eres mi hombre y yo tu mujer» and «Se nos rompió el amor» — the first cover of Manuel Alejandro's song — and the duet «Colé» with Rivers; Diario Libre calls her and Rivers the band's most prominent vocalists. After the 1988 rupture she fronted Iris y Franklyn (albums in 1990 and 1992), then, by the band's own account, moved to Puerto Rico and stood out there with her own orchestra. Her solo album «Con Uñas y Dientes» (WEA Latina, 1997) and the single «Desesperada» (2019) mark her own name's record; by her own telling in interviews she also recorded a Christian merengue catalog for Karen as "La Gozadera de la República Dominicana" — albums that have left no trace in the digital catalogs and stand here as her account. She returned with The New York Band for its 2016 Teatro Nacional reunion and co-leads its current phase, back on Dominican stages in December 2025.

Legacy

Irisneyda's legacy is permanence at the front line: the female voice of The New York Band's founding records, half of the duo its first split produced, a solo album of her own, and — when the band that defined New York merengue came back — the same voice, alongside Franklin Rivers, carrying it into its second life.