Wilfrido Radamés Vargas Martínez (; born 24 April 1949) is a Dominican musician, composer, arranger and band leader.
He was surrounded by musical influences; namely, his father Ramón, an accordionist and guitarist, and his mother Bienvenida, a flute player and guitarist. Vargas began his musical studies early, attending the Municipal Academy of Music beginning at age 10. In 1976, Vargas and his band, Wilfrido Vargas y Sus Beduinos, performed at the Madison Square Garden alongside Los Hijos del Rey. In 1978, he released the song El Barbarazo which helped catapult his popularity in Latin America. It was also his first international hit. Alongside many Latin music artists, he performed during the 1979 music festival Havana Jam with the Fania All-Stars.
1980s
During the 1980s, he formed and directed many successful merengue groups including Las Chicas Del Can, The New York Band and Altamira Banda Show. He had international commercial success with songs such as , , and . Vargas appeared in the 1989 film .
1990s
He was nominated in 1991 for the 33rd Grammy Awards in the Best Tropical Latin Performance for his album Animation. In 1993, he was decorated by the Dominican president Joaquín Balaguer with the Order of Christopher Columbus in the Knight grade, alongside fellow Dominican musicians Jorge Taveras, Manuel Tejada and Julio Gautreaux for their contribution to the development and dissemination of the national music.
The song from his 1983 album was the basis for the 1991 hit single, by Cuban-American rapper DJ Laz.
For the telenovela Bellísima, Wilfrido performed the theme song, and also performed the song for the 1997 film Out to Sea.
2000s
In 2003 he acted in the drama film.
Vargas participated in 2007 at the Colombian version of The X Factor, as the groups mentor.
Today Vargas is one of the best-known artists in Latin America with hit songs such as (written by Calixto Ochoa), , , , and .
As of 2010, he lives in Colombia.
Discography
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
|-
! rowspan="2"|Title
! rowspan="2"|Year
! colspan="1"|Chart
|-
! style="font-size:8pt"|Tropical Songs
|-
| align="left"|Wilfrido Vargas y sus Beduinos||1973||-
|-
| align="left"|El semáforo||1974||-
|-
| align="left"|Merengues instrumentales||1974||-
|-
| align="left"|El jarro pichao||1975||-
|-
| align="left"|En el Madison Square Garden||1976||-
|-
| align="left"|¡Por el Campeonato Mundial! ||1977||-
|-
| align="left"|Haciendo historia||1979||-
|-
| align="left"|¡Punto y aparte!||1978||-
|-
| align="left"|Internacional||1979||-
|-
| align="left"|Evolución||1979||-
|-
| align="left"|El jeque||1980||-
|-
| align="left"|Abusadora||1981||-
|-
| align="left"|Wilfrido Vargas & Sandy Reyes||1982||-
|-
| align="left"|El Funcionario||1983||-
|-
| align="left"|El Jardinero||1984||3
|-
| align="left"|El Africano||1984||-
|-
| align="left"|La Medicina||1985||2
|-
| align="left"|Vida, Canción y Suerte||1986||17
|-
| align="left"|La Música||1987||4
|-
| align="left"|El Baile||1987||2
|-
| align="left"|Más Que Un Loco||1988||9
|-
| align="left"|Animation||1989||9
|-
| align="left"|Éxitos de||1990||9
|-
| align="left"|Siempre Wilfrido||1990||5
|-
| align="left"|Amor Casual||1991||-
|-
| align="left"|Itinerario||1992||5
|-
| align="left"|Usted Se Queda Aquí||1994||-
|-
| align="left"|El Extraterrestre||1995||-
|-
| align="left"|Wilfrido Vargas y Sus Consentidas||1996||-
|-
| align="left"|Hoy||1997||-
|-
| align="left"|Raíces||1998||-
|-
| align="left"|www.wilfrido-vargas.com||2000||-
|-
| align="left"|Dos Generaciones||2002||-
|-
| align="left"|El Único||2002||-
|-
| align="left"|Serie platino||2000||-
|-
| align="left"|Serie 2000||2000||-
|-
| align="left"|10 éxitos de oro||2000||-
|-
| align="left"|16 éxitos||2000||-
|-
| align="left"|16 éxitos 2||2001||-
|-
| align="left"|Oro de Oro||2001||-
|-
| align="left"|Dos generaciones||2002||-
|-
| align="left"|El único||2002||-
|-
| align="left"|Juntos||2002||-
|-
| align="left"|Colección diamante||2003||-
|-
| align="left"|Raíces 2 ||2004||-
|-
| align="left"|Grandes éxitos||2005||-
|-
| align="left"|2 grandes voces del merengue||2007||-
|-
| align="left"|15 éxitos||2008||-
|-
| align="left"|Los 30 mejores éxitos||2012||-
|-
| align="left"|Los Mejor 40 Grandes||2012||-
|-
| align="left"|Lo Mejor De Mi...||2013||-
|-
| align="left"|Éxitos y Mucho Más||2014||-
|-
| align="left"|Merengue Mix 2||2015||-
|-
| align="left"|60 y algo Más||2015||-
|-
| align="left"|Mi Historia 1||2016||-
|-
| align="left"|Mi Historia 2||2016||-
|-
| align="left"|La Música Vol, 2||2017||-
|-
| colspan="3" style="font-size:8pt"| Albums that did not chart are denoted with an "—".
|-
|}
Grammy Nomination
- Best Tropical Latin Performance – Animation (1990)
Filmography
{| class="wikitable"
! colspan="4" style="background: LightSteelBlue;" | Film
|-
! Year
! Film
! Role
|-
|1989
|Que Viva el Merengue y la Lambada
|Himself
|-
|2003
|Éxito Por Intercambio
|Himself
|}