Ricardo Arjona, the Guatemalan singer and songwriter known for dozens of pop ballads that became international hits during a career spanning over 30 years, announced that he would stop performing concerts for his latest tour, citing back problems and an imminent surgery.
On Sunday, 59-year-old Arjona wrote in social media posts that he would stop performing on his Blanco y Negro tour after a show in Santiago, Chile, although he did not announce retirement in his statement.
“I will have to disappear to invent a reason that is greater than this,” he wrote in Spanish. “If I don’t find it, I prefer not to return.”
Arjona said he had received “six spinal infiltrations,” also known as epidural injections, in the past two months to be able to stand during his concerts and delay the surgery. Before performing on Saturday, Arjona said he was not sure if he could take a step. His Blanco y Negro tour, which started last year in Buenos Aires, included dozens of shows, with various stops in Mexico, Costa Rica, and Guatemala. This year’s North American leg of the tour included stops at New York’s Madison Square Garden, as well as in dozens of other cities in the United States.
“I come from beloved Argentina, which gave me songs on the street and gave me a glory I did not deserve,” he wrote. “I bid farewell in this Chile of so many stories and affections.”
The tour showcased two of his albums: Blanco, released in 2020, and Negro, released in 2021. In a career spanning over 30 years, Arjona has produced over a dozen studio albums, earning him several awards and accolades, including the Billboard Lifetime Achievement Award in Latin music in 2017.
In 2006, Arjona won a Grammy Award for Best Latin Pop Album and the Latin Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Album for his album Adentro. Arjona’s music has amassed over 8 million monthly listeners on Spotify as of December.
Arjona began his music career in the 1980s. After his music initially failed to attract many listeners, he briefly taught at a public school, he said in a 2011 interview. He returned to music, and his career took off in the 1990s when he released songs like “Historia de taxi,” a tale of a taxi driver’s romance. The song remains one of his most popular hits to date, with over 158 million plays on Spotify. Several other hits followed and placed him at the top of the Latin music charts for his characteristic songs with romantic lyrics and inventive stories.
“Life and people have been immensely generous to this neighborhood Guatemalan,” he wrote on social media, adding, “A public school teacher who, by playing the guitar, adding some words, and trying a melody, achieved a miracle he never suspected.”
Jesus Jiménez is a general assignment reporter. More by Jesús Jiménez