Jorge Drexler

Wikipedia:

Jorge Drexler (born Jorge Abner Drexler Prada; September 21, 1964) is an Uruguayan musician, actor, and doctor specialized on otolaryngology.

In 2004 Drexler won wide acclaim after becoming the first Uruguayan ever to win an Academy Award. He won for composing the song "Al Otro Lado del Río" from The Motorcycle Diaries.

Early life

Drexler was born in Montevideo. His father, a German Jew, fled to Uruguay with his family at the age of four to escape the Holocaust. His mother is a Christian of mixed Spanish, French and Portuguese descent. Drexler was raised Jewish, but embraces Christian tradition as well.

Like much of his family, he studied medicine and became an otolaryngologist ear, nose and throat specialist. Drexler began playing piano at age five, before attending guitar and composition classes. Although he had an interest in music, he became a doctor like both of his parents. He attended medical school in Montevideo. During his time in medical school, Drexler took a break to hitchhike through Brazil.

He also studied music and recorded two albums, which were only released in Uruguay.

Career

In 1995 he was invited to Madrid by well-known Spanish songwriter Joaquín Sabina, who introduced him to other important Spanish singers. Drexler went to Spain to record the album Vaivén in 1996 with Spanish musicians. Vaivén included some old songs from his previous releases mixed with new compositions. He moved to Spain and recorded another four albums: Llueve (1997), Frontera (1999), Sea (2001) and Eco (2004).

Although he lives most of the year in Spain, his latest three albums were partially recorded in Uruguay with Uruguayan musicians. Juan Campodónico and Carlos Casacuberta, former members of rock band El Peyote Asesino, have produced Drexler's albums since Frontera.

His music is a combination of Uruguayan traditional music (candombe, murga, milonga, tango), bossa nova, pop, jazz and electronic music, which results in very personal compositions with original arrangements. The words also play an important role in his songs. Apart from love, reflections about identity, race and religions are a constant in his work.

Oscar

Drexler's song "Al otro lado del río" appeared in the internationally acclaimed film "The Motorcycle Diaries" (Spanish title: "Diarios de motocicleta"). Though Drexler himself sang the song on the movie soundtrack, it was performed together by Antonio Banderas and Carlos Santana at the Academy Awards ceremony. Upon his winning the Oscar for Best Original Song, Drexler's "speech" consisted mostly of him singing a portion of the song a cappella.

Personal life

He was married to singer-songwriter Ana Laan until 2005. His girlfriend is Spanish actress/singer Leonor Watling. She gave birth to their son Luca in January 2009. Watling sings in the band Marlango.