American singer-songwriter Elvis Crespo has won multiple honors for his contributions to merengue, including a dozen Lo Nuestro Awards across three decades. ∙ Crespo started his musical career as a member of the Puerto Rican merengue quartet Grupo Mania, before going solo in the late ’90s. ∙ His debut release, 1998’s Suavemente, was the very first merengue LP to hit No. 1 on the Billboard Top Latin Albums chart. ∙ The inaugural Grammy Award for Best Merengue Performance was given to Crespo for his 1999 sophomore album, Pintame. ∙ “Sopa de Caracol,” his 2013 chart-topping collaboration with Pitbull, brought renewed attention to the Honduran original made popular by Banda Blanca in the early ’90s. ∙ In 2016, Crespo contributed vocals to Deorro’s hit single “Bailar,” which became a Top 5 song in the US, Israel, the Netherlands, and Spain. ∙ Two decades after its release, Crespo’s signature smash, “Suavemente,” is still revered as the Latin pop classic that popularized merengue around the world.