Jon Secada Pays Homage to Past Influences Through Passion Projects

As one of the best-selling Latin music artists, Jon Secada has two Grammy Awards under his belt and has sold 20 million albums. His music is lively, upbeat and his fusion of funk, soul music, pop and Latin percussion have won him fans around the world — in the U.S., he’s best-known for the ’90s hits “Just Another Day” (recorded in Spanish as “Otro Día Más Sin Verte”) and “Angel.”  

But before the Afro-Cuban singer and songwriter was ready to celebrate his multiple decades as a recording artist, he first paid homage to his past, saying it was important for him to “go back to my roots musically as a Hispanic and as a Cuban-American.”

As a child growing up in Cuba, he often heard the expressive tenor of Beny Moré (1919-1963), one of Cuba’s most beloved musical icons. So in 2017, Secada released To Beny Moré With Love, with Secada rerecording ten of Moré’s timeless classics. “To this day, Beny Moré is considered one of the icons of tropical music, as a vocalist, as a songwriter as a bandleader,” he says. “It was a bucket list-type of project. Something I wanted to do and then all the pieces came together to make it a reality.”

His passion project garnered the attention of Latin Grammy voters, who named it Best Traditional Tropical Album in 2017. The album combines Secada’s vocals with Moré’s, similar to the way Natalie Cole’s landmark album, Unforgettable With Love combined the singer’s vocals with those of her late father, Nat “King” Cole.

Check out Jon Secada's "musical melting pot" Spotify playlist below.

More recently, Secada released Solos, an intimate 2021 set of ballads and boleros, which he says is a musical tip of the hat to some of his other influences. While the Moré tribute was inspired by memories of Secada’s childhood, Solos takes cues from his young adulthood. “It deals really directly with my influences as a jazz vocalist and having studied jazz music at the University of Miami,” Secada explains.

At that time, Secada was enamored with The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album, recorded in 1975. “It was a big staple academically and for me it was a big deal back then. I love the record. It’s a record with just piano and vocal, so I wanted to do something like that in Spanish, and I found the right situation with one of the premiere international Latin pianists, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, who is a genius. Very few piano players are on par with this guy.”

Secada migrated with his parents from Cuba in 1970, but there were stops along the way. “We went to Spain first. We couldn’t come to the States directly,” he says. “My father got a visa and an opportunity to go to Costa Rica. We did that and then from Costa Rica we finally came [to Miami] and asked for political asylum. So I didn’t get to the States until I was close to 13 years old.”

An only child, Secada was shy and introverted in his youth. “I always thought that music could be something I was interested in, especially when I got to the States, but I never did anything until my second year of high school.” It was then Secada decided to audition for the chorus and pursue theater at Hialeah High School. “Everything snowballed,” he says. “That’s when I really got more confidence and started to realize this is something I really wanted to do.”

Though his parents loved music, they were not musicians, but rather factory workers before they eventually opened their own little Cuban cafeteria in Miami. However, the young Secada did have a familial connection to a performer. One of his aunts was Moraima Secada. “She was really well-known in Cuba and other parts of Latin America, especially Mexico,” he says. “So I guess the musical side of who I am came from my father’s side.”

After high school, Secada enrolled in the University of Miami, initially as a music education major, inspired by his mentor in high school. “She was the first person that kind of gave me encouragement and nourishment,” he says. “That’s the reason I’m a big believer in education and what it represents to young people, especially in the arts.”

Eventually, Secada switched his major to jazz performance, but his musical background wasn’t limited to jazz. “I grew up listening to everything,” he says. “I was going to a jazz school, but it was very vocational oriented. They really wanted to make sure that even though you are getting a jazz degree that you were well-rounded enough to understand and appreciate a fusion of different styles of music.”

That background served Secada well. After graduating from college with a master’s degree, he began landing nightclub gigs, working recording sessions and teaching at Miami Dade College. Eventually, Secada’s band came to the attention of producer-musician Emilio Estefan, the husband of Latin pop sensation Gloria Estefan.

Secada cowrote a number of songs for Gloria Estefan’s comeback album, Into the Light, including “Coming Out of the Dark,” recorded following a near-fatal tour bus accident in which she broke her back. Estefan invited Secada to be a member of her touring band, and it was on that tour in 1990-’91 that he had his breakout.

“She had a moment in the show where she needed to change and take a break,” Secada recalls. “She allowed me to do a song by myself that was something we had written that never made it to the record, but that was it. That was my spotlight, because then besides being a songwriter, the labels eventually noticed me. ‘Oh, this guy can sing as well.’”

From there, Secada experienced incredible success with his 1992 self-titled debut album, which went on to sell six million copies worldwide and was certified triple platinum in the U.S., for sales of three million copies. “I really appreciated the success because the money was coming in and I was able to buy nicer things, whether it was a car or a house, and I was able to retire my parents,” he says. “I really enjoyed that. That was the sweetest part of my success.”

Through the years, Secada has continued to record in both English and Spanish, picking up several Grammy Awards, as well as honors from performing rights societies ASCAP and BMI.

Though his record sales have leveled off, Secada remains undeterred. He remembers a talk early in his career he had with Emilio Estevez, prior to his breakout success. “We had done all these demos and nothing was working,” he recalls. “I remember Emilio saying maybe you as an artist isn’t going to work out, but you can still work with us as a songwriter and a producer and a musician. And at the end of the day I was fine with that. I was making a living at music.”

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