Juliana O’Neal —Ycelmary Brito O’Neal, born on 28 June 1988 in Santo Domingo— is a Dominican merengue singer known as “La Reina del Mambo”, and a member of the Chamber of Deputies for Santo Domingo Este.

Beginnings

She began in music in 2005, at seventeen, when the producer and arranger Henry Medrano backed her talent. Unlike other Dominican artists, she launched her work first in the United States, under the label MP-Musical Productions, and won over Hispanic audiences there. Her first album, «Juliana y su mambo duro», is dated 2005 or 2006 depending on the release.

“La Reina”

Her second album, «La Reina», appeared in November 2010 on the label Sánchez Family Entertainment in the United States and Puerto Rico. Medrano had proposed a project of a woman singing urban merengue. According to a press release of her promoters, she was nominated in 2010 for the Premios Casandra in the category of urban merengue singer and gave more than sixty performances on tours in the United States. In January 2011, on the Telemicro television show «El Número Uno», Milly Quezada symbolically crowned her “Queen of Merengue” with a simple crown, telling her she was the authentic queen of the merengue de mambo. Later singles include «Corazón de goma» (2011) and «Rabia» (2012), and in 2017 she released the album «Up Grade» under the label HMRecords.

Politics

In 2020 she was elected deputy for the first circumscription of Santo Domingo Este for the party Fuerza del Pueblo, and in May 2024 she was re-elected, as the most voted candidate in the circumscription, according to El Caribe and Listín Diario. She is also a member of the party’s political leadership. Her legislative work has focused on social and cultural initiatives, and she has taken part in social campaigns such as «Caminantes por la Vida».

Legacy

Conectate described her in 2023 as seen by many as the female successor of great Dominican merengue singers such as Milly Quezada and Miriam Cruz.