Monchy & Nathalia is a Dominican bachata duo. Monchy — Ramón Rijo, born in La Romana in 1977 — formed it around 2010 with the singer and guitarist Nathalia, whose name is Carmen Luisa Reyes.

Starting again

He had been half of Monchy & Alexandra, the biggest bachata duo the country produced. When that ended he left J&N Records and set out to build the format a second time with a different partner, which is a harder thing than starting from nothing: the audience arrives already knowing what it expects to hear.

The Dominican press framed it plainly at the time as a bet on the rebirth of a duo.

Who Nathalia is

She studied guitar and spent years working in the tourist zone of the east, singing in trios and other small formations — the hotel and resort circuit where a lot of Dominican singers learn the trade without ever recording.

A bachata duo where the woman plays guitar is not the usual arrangement. In the earlier duo Alexandra Queen sang and the guitars were somebody else’s job.

The records

The self-titled debut came out in February 2011 and carried Amor Traicionero, Soy Para Ti, Te Vas, Sin Principio Ni Final and Caliente o Frío. It was nominated for best merengue or bachata album at the twelfth Latin Grammy Awards.

They kept working after that, more slowly. No Saber de Ti and Hasta el Alma both came out in August 2021.