Rubén Rada

He was born on July 16, 1943, in the Palermo neighborhood of Montevideo to a humble Afro-Uruguayan family. At the age of two, he contracted tuberculosis, which kept him hospitalized for two years at Saint Bois Hospital due to a lack of antibiotic treatments, which had not yet reached the country at that time.

His mother, Carmen María Silva, was Brazilian, born in the border town of Santana do Livramento. His father, Raúl Rada, was a candombe drummer from the Ansina neighborhood and abandoned his family when Ruben was two years old. He grew up with his mother, his two brothers, his aunt, and his cousins, sharing a single room in the Palermo neighborhood, where he lived until he was 10 years old.

On 26 August 2026, Rada's family announced that he had died early that day after experiencing complications from pneumonia. He was 83. Uruguayan president, Yamandú Orsi, decreed a national day of mourning.

Rada began his career in the 1960s and co-founded the band El Kinto with Eduardo Mateo. The group is recognized for pioneering candombe beat and for being among the first South American rock bands to sing in Spanish while incorporating Latin percussion into a rock format. In the early 1970s, he formed Totem, noted for its fusion of Afro-Uruguayan rhythms with rock influences. Rada later collaborated with Hugo and Osvaldo Fattoruso in the United States-based jazz fusion group Opa, contributing significantly to the album Magic Time (1977).

In 1965, he and Eduardo Mateo formed the band El Kinto Conjunto. This was the first group in Uruguay to create the beat genre in Spanish and to fuse rock with Latin American musical styles. In 1969 the success of his Candombe song "Las Manzanas" ("The Apples") led to his first solo album and participation in the Festival of Popular Music in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A year later he formed the band Tótem. He recorded more than thirty albums.

In 1977, he traveled to the United States after an invitation by the Fattoruso Brothers to play with the group OPA. Over the next year, he performed with Tom Scott, Ray Barretto, Hermeto Pascoal, and Flora Purim.

In the 1980s, Rada relocated to Buenos Aires, where he led an ensemble featuring both Uruguayan and Argentine musicians. The group produced a series of recordings that combined candombe, jazz, and rock, a period often considered among the most significant in his career.

During the 1990s, he lived in Mexico, working as a sideman with various artists, including Tania Libertad. He also recorded three albums in the United States during this period: Montevideo (1996), Montevideo II (1999), and Rada Factory (unreleased).

He returned to Uruguay at the end of the decade, entering a period of broad recognition and commercial success throughout the 2000s in Uruguay, Argentina, and other parts of Latin America.

In 2011, he received the Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his influential career and his contributions to the fusion of candombe with jazz, funk, soul, and other genres.

In 2013 Rada received Berklee's Master of Latin Music award from the Berklee College of Music.

In 2020, his song “El Ómnibus” was sampled by Freddie Gibbs and The Alchemist in the track 1985. Between 1991 and 1994, he settled in Mexico, where he worked as a composer and arranger for local musicians such as Mijares, Eugenia León, Stephanie Salas, and Tania Libertad. In 1994 he shared the spotlight with Sting and UB40 at the Palacio de Deportes in Mexico City.

With El Kinto

• 1971: Musicasion 4 1/2 (De La Planta)
• 1977: Circa 1968 (Clave)

With Totem

• 1971: Totem (Sondor)
• 1972: Descarga (Sondor)

With Opa

• 1977: Magic Time (Milestone)

Solo albums

• 1969: Rada (Sondor)
• 1974: Rada y Conjunto S.O.S (Clave)
• 1975: Radeces (Ayui)
• 1980: La Banda (Sazam)
• 1981: La Rada (Sazam)
• 1982: En Familia (Sazam)
• 1984: Adar Nebur (Sazam)
• 1986: La Yapla Mata (Raviol)
• 1987: Botija de mi pais (with Eduardo Mateo) (Sondor)
• 1987: Siete Vidas (Sazam)
• 1991: Fisico de Rock (Sondor)
• 1989: Pa' los Uruguayos (Melopea)
• 1990: Las aventuras de R. Rada y Litto Nebbia (with Litto Nebbia) (Melopea)
• 1991: Las aventuras de R. Rada y H. Fattoruso (with Hugo Fattoruso) (Melopea)
• 1991: Terapia de Murga (Melopea)
• 1996: Botijas Band con Ruben Rada (Orfeo)
• 1996: Montevideo (Big World)
• 1997: Miscelanea Negra (Ayui)
• 1998: Black (Universal)
• 1999: Rada Para Ninos (Zapatito)
• 1999: Montevideo Dos (Big World)
• 2000: ¿Quien va a Cantar? (Universal)
• 2001: Suenos de Nino (Zapatito)
• 2003: Alegre Caballero (Zapatito)
• 2004: Rubenra (Zapatito)
• 2006: Richie Silver (EMI)
• 2007: Varsovia (with Javier Malosetti) (Zapatito/Oday)
• 2008: Bailongo (Sony)
• 2009: Fan (MMG)
• 2011: Confidence, Rada Instrumental (MMG)
• 2015: Tango, milonga y candombe (MMG)
• 2015: Allegro (MMG)
• 2017: Confidence 2: La Película (MMG)
• 2019: Negro Rock (MMG)
• 2021: As noites do Rio / Aerolíneas Candombe (MMG)
• 2022: Candombe (MMG)
• 2024: Candombe con la ayudita de mis amigos (MMG)
• 2025: Gamurgatrónica (MMG)

Live albums

• 1983: La Cosa se Pone negra (Sazam)
• 1992: Concierto por la vida (Orfeo)
• 2004: Candombe Jazz Tour (EMI)
• 2020: Parte de la Historia (MMG)

Film

Television