Chayanne walks into a rehearsal room at Miami’s Blue Dolphin Studios, dressed head to toe in black – tight pants and shirt, crisp blazer, formal leather shoes – and warmly hugs his manager, his assistant and his creative director. Then he extends his hand to greet the photographer waiting for a cover shot. “Nice to meet you,” he says with a big smile. “I’m Chayanne.”
“I think we all know who you are here,” I say lightly, but Chayanne pauses and turns to look at me.
“No,” he tells me without reproach, his smile unwavering and his voice firm. “My father taught me that no matter where you are, you should say hello and introduce yourself. You can’t assume that people know who you are.”
And so this encounter becomes another in a long list of anecdotes about Elmer Figueroa Arce, better known as Chayanne. The artist who goes out to dinner and gets up several times to greet his fans. The artist who is the first to arrive at rehearsals and the last to leave. The star who greets the maids by name and dances with them in the hallways. The guy who jogs alone in the morning.
“He’s a model father, a model husband; handsome, tall; he dances; he’s the perfect man,” says Henry Cárdenas, CEO of Cárdenas Marketing Network, which has produced Chayanne’s tours for decades, including his upcoming global arena tour. “He’s a man untainted by scandal. (Chayanne has been married to Marilisa Maronesse for over 30 years and has two children with her: Lorenzo and Isadora, the latter also a singer.) I’ve known him for years. I’ve spent a lot of time with him, and you can see who he is. He’s the guy who would stop his golf game to take a photo with a fan.”
Check out the exclusive photos below and read Leila Cobo’s cover story for Billboard Español here.
