{"id":500666,"date":"2026-02-21T21:13:59","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T01:13:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.net\/en\/uncategorized\/how-did-the-feud-between-willie-colon-and-ruben-blades-arise\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T21:21:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T01:21:33","slug":"how-did-the-feud-between-willie-colon-and-ruben-blades-arise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.net\/en\/uncategorized\/how-did-the-feud-between-willie-colon-and-ruben-blades-arise\/","title":{"rendered":"How did the feud between Willie Col\u00f3n and Rub\u00e9n Blades arise?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

They are cataloged as the duo that elevated salsa<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\nThe death of Willie Col\u00f3n this Saturday in New York, at the age of 75, reopens one of the most influential chapters of Latin American music: his alliance with Panamanian Rub\u00e9n Blades redefined salsa in the seventies and decades later led to a legal dispute.\n\nIn the mid-1970s, Willie Col\u00f3n created the melodies of salsa and Panamanian Rub\u00e9n Blades wrote the lyrics, together driving a new aesthetic that turned the genre into a social chronicle of Latin America and the Caribbean.\n\nThe relationship between both salsa artists was forged mainly under Fania Records<\/a>, the record label founded in New York by Dominican Johnny Pacheco and American businessman Jerry Masucci in 1964, producing great Latin American musicians based in the United States.\n\nBut the beginnings of Col\u00f3n and Blades date back to 1975 with the song 'El Cazanguero<\/strong>' and to 1977 with their first album together 'Metiendo Mano!<\/strong>', which includes the song 'Pablo Pueblo<\/strong>', a story about the hard life of a worker, hit by poverty, which gave way to the \"salsa with social conscience\" movement.\n\n\n

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\"(The duo was fundamental), the proof is what they recorded. Above all, the LP 'Siembra', where that concept of lyrics that speak of the reality of a continent of struggle, resistance and flags is reflected,\" explained to EFE the musical researcher, writer and Panamanian music lover, Mario Garc\u00eda Hudson.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\nBy 1978, the duo created their most successful album 'Siembra<\/strong>' with well-known works such as 'Pedro Navaja<\/strong>' and 'Pl\u00e1stico<\/strong>'; and in 1980 'Maestra vida<\/strong>', a salsa opera that narrates the society of the Latin American working class through the lives of the characters Carmelo da Silva and Manuela P\u00e9rez in a working-class neighborhood.\n\n\n

How did the feud between them begin? The legal dispute after a concert in San Juan<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\nThe salsa musicians ended up in an enmity that lasted more than 20 years. The conflict between Blades and Col\u00f3n occurred in 2003<\/strong>, when after meeting at a concert at the Hiram Bithorn Stadium, in San Juan, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of \u2018Siembra<\/strong>\u2019, Col\u00f3n accused Blades of not paying him the agreed sum of money.<\/strong>\n\nBlades indicated that for the event, produced by Puerto Ricans Ariel Rivas and C\u00e9sar Sainz, he would charge $350,000 and that, after paying for hotel expenses, musicians, and airfare, among others, he would split the remainder equally with Col\u00f3n.\n\n\n
You can also read: After years of not speaking, Willie Col\u00f3n congratulates Rub\u00e9n Blades for distinction at the Grammy | De \u00daltimo Minuto | Dominican Republic News<\/a><\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\nHowever, the lawyer by profession and former Minister of Tourism of Panama assured that he only received 68,000 dollars, and Col\u00f3n sued him in May 2007 alleging that he owed him 115,000 dollars for the concert fees<\/strong>.\n\nFinally, in 2013, a judge from a Puerto Rican court ruled in favor of Blades, finding that the concert promoter did indeed receive the artists' money and used it to pay off the company's debts without permission<\/strong>.\n\nThey also performed on several occasions in Puerto Rico, but separately. In the last performance in Panama last year during the Premios Juventud, Col\u00f3n performed 'La murga de Panam\u00e1<\/strong>', composed by him and Lavoe in 1970.\n\n\n

Despite that distance, the Panamanian singer dedicated a few words to his colleague on social media today, promising to expand on them later: \"I have just confirmed what I was reluctant to believe: Willie Col\u00f3n has indeed passed away. To his wife Julia, his children, family and loved ones, I send my deepest condolences.\"<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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