Prolific Latin pop star Ricardo Arjona says he will stop touring

Ricardo Arjona, the Guatemalan singer and songwriter known for dozens of Latin pop ballads that became international hits during a career that spanned more than 30 years, said he would retire from touring, citing back problems and an upcoming surgery.

Arjona, 59, wrote in social media posts Sunday that he would retire from performing on his “Blanco y Negro” tour after a show in Santiago, Chile, although his statement fell short of a retirement announcement.

“I will have to disappear to think of a reason greater than this,” he wrote in Spanish. “If I can’t find it, I’d rather not come back.”

Arjona said he had received “six spinal infiltrations,” also called epidural injections, over the past two months in order to be able to stand during his concerts and to delay the surgery. Before performing on Saturday, Arjona said he wasn’t sure he could make a move. His “Blanco y Negro” tour, which kicked off last year in Buenos Aires, included dozens of shows, with several stops in Mexico, Costa Rica and Guatemala. The North American leg of the tour this year included stops at New York’s Madison Square Garden, as well as dozens of other cities across the United States.

“I came from dear Argentina, which gave me songs in the streets and gave me a glory that I did not deserve,” he said. “I say goodbye to this Chile with so many stories and affection.”

The tour highlighted two of his albums: ‘Blanco’, released in 2020, and ‘Negro’, released in 2021. Over the course of a career spanning more than thirty years, Arjona has produced more than a dozen albums. studio albums, which have earned him several awards and accolades, including Billboard Latin Music Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017.

In 2006, Arjona won a Grammy Award for Best Latin Pop Album and the Latin Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Album for his album ‘Adentro’. From December onwards, Arjona’s music attracted more than 8 million people every month listeners on Spotify.

Arjona started his musical career in the 1980s, and after his music initially did not attract many listeners, he briefly taught at a public school, he said in an interview from 2011. He returned to music and his career took off in the 1990s, when he released songs such as ‘Historia de Taxi’, the story of a taxi driver’s love affair. The song remains one of his most popular hits to date and has been played over 158 million times on Spotify. Multiple other hits followed and placed him at the top of the Latin charts for his signature songs with romantic lyrics and inventive stories.

“Life and people have been extremely generous to these Guatemalans,” he wrote on social media, adding: “a public school teacher, who by playing the guitar, adding some words and trying a melody , accomplished a miracle I never expected. ”