Memín —Giovanny Belliard, born on 5 February 1969 in Santiago de los Caballeros and died on 19 June 2022— was a Dominican bassist, guitarist, arranger, composer and bachata bandleader, known as “El Sucesor”.

A family of musicians

He was the youngest of a family of musicians, the «Hermanos Belliard», in which he played second guitar and later requinto at parties. In the 1990s he also worked as a bassist for típico groups, among them those of «Gerardo Rosario», Agapito Pascual, «David David» and La India Canela.

With Luis Vargas and Anthony Santos

In 1992 he joined the band of Luis Vargas as second guitarist, at a moment when the group had lost many of its musicians on a tour of New York, and after leaving he kept arranging requinto parts and recording guitar and bass for Vargas. In 1995 he became the bassist of Antony Santos for almost two years, and afterwards he went on recording vocals, second guitar and bass on close to ten of Santos’s productions.

Solo work

His first group, «Línea de Fuego», was short-lived. In 1997 he formed «El Dúo de Moda» with Sussy, and their first hit was «Con un nudo en la garganta»; when the duo split he continued as a soloist under the name El Sucesor and led his own bachata orchestra. Among the songs he wrote are «Que se alocó», «Pa’ to perdío algo cogío», «Bartolina» and «La Garganta».

In the studio

Besides his own records he played guitar and bass on recordings for many bachata and merengue groups, including productions by Romeo Santos, Zacarías Ferreira, Frank Reyes and Prince Royce. He lived in the Bronx and in Santiago.

Legacy

He died in Santiago on 19 June 2022, aged 53. One profile called him probably the best guitarist of modern string merengue after Eladio Romero Santos.