Carlos Santana

Carlos Augusto Alves Santana (born July 20 1947 in Autlán de Navarro, Jalisco, Mexico) is a Mexican–American Grammy Award-winning musician and Latin-rock guitarist.

Return to commercial success

Santana's record sales in the 1990s had been very low, and towards the end of the decade he was without a contract. However Arista Records' Clive Davis, who had worked with Santana at Columbia, signed him and encouraged him to record a star-studded album with mostly younger artists. The result in 1999 was Supernatural, which included collaborations with Bobby Martin Rob Thomas of Matchbox 20, Eric Clapton, Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean, and others.

Related Topics:
Arista Records - Clive Davis - 1999 - Supernatural - Bobby Martin - Rob Thomas - Matchbox 20 - Eric Clapton - Lauryn Hill - Wyclef Jean

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The first single was "Smooth", a dynamic salsa-ish stop-start number co-written and sung by Rob Thomas, and laced throughout with Carlos's guitar fills and runs. The track's energy was immediately apparent on radio, and was played on a wide variety of station formats. It spent twelve weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100; a music video set on a hot barrio street was also very popular. Supernatural started selling in large numbers and reached number one on the album chart; suddenly Carlos Santana was the comeback story of the year. The follow-up single, "Maria Maria", arranged by Bobby Martin, also reached number one and spent ten weeks there. Supernatural eventually sold over 15 million copies in the US alone, making it Santana's biggest sales success by far.

Related Topics:
Smooth - Music video - Barrio

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Supernatural and the different tracks on it then won nine Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year, Record of the Year for "Smooth", and Song of the Year for Thomas and Itaal Shur. Santana's acceptance speeches described his feelings about music's place in one's spiritual existence.

Related Topics:
Grammy Award - Album of the Year - Record of the Year - Song of the Year - Itaal Shur

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In 2002, Santana released Shaman, revisiting the Supernatural format of guest artists including P.O.D., Seal, and others. Although the album was not the runaway success its predecessor had been, it still produced two radio-friendly hits: the infectious "The Game of Love" featuring Michelle Branch reached #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and spent many weeks at the top of the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart; then "Why Don't You and I" featuring either Chad Kroeger from Nickelback or Alex Band from The Calling (the original and a remix with a different singer were combined towards chart performance) also reached the Hot 100 top ten.

Related Topics:
2002 - Shaman - P.O.D. - Seal - Michelle Branch - Chad Kroeger - Nickelback - Alex Band - The Calling - Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals

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In 2005, Herbie Hancock approached Santana to play on, as well as to help in gathering other artists to record, an album similar to Supernatural. The resulting album, titled Possibilities, was released on August 30 2005, featuring Carlos Santana and Angélique Kidjo on "Safiatou" (track 2).

Related Topics:
2005 - Herbie Hancock - Possibilities - August 30 - Angélique Kidjo - Safiatou

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