"Julio Jaramillo"
"Julio Jaramillo"
Monchy y Alexandra were a bachata musical group from the Dominican Republic. They sang together as a duo beginning in 1999. Monchy y Alexandra released the album "Hoja en Blanco" in 2000. Promotion of the album was slowed by visa problems and unauthorized cover versions. Even so, slowly, requests for the song began to flood into Miami, leading tropical radio stations WXDJ and WRTO to launch Sunday-afternoon bachata programs and to incorporate the music style into their regular programming. Miami station WXDJ even added the word "bachata" to its slogan. They were the first bachata act to perform on the show Sabado Gigante in April 2001, after their single "Hoja en Blanco" began to finally climb the Billboard charts in the US.
According to Monchy, the duo waited two years before releasing their next album in order to "put out something superior to Hoja en Blanco". Label executives from J&N worked to improve the odds for commercial success for the sophomore album. Their marketing efforts included a $300,000 national TV advertising campaign for Puerto Rico and the U.S. (consisting of 30- and 60-second spots) and a $17,000 video filmed in Miami. This marketing campaign was the first such for a bachata group; prior to that, all marketing had been directed at compilation albums. The album was released on March 5, 2002. The album's lead single "Te Quiero Igual que Ayer" was written by the same composer, Wilfan Castillo, that penned "Hojo en Blanco." The song peaked at number 23 on Billboard's Hot Latin Tracks, and reached number four on Billboard's Tropical/Salsa Airplay chart.
In 2005, the duo performed with Salvadoran singer Álvaro Torres, He Venido A Pedirte Perdon, on an album contributing to Mexican singer, Juan Gabriel.
On September 15, 2008, Monchy announced that the group would be be breaking up. He attributed the decision to split solely to Alexandra saying "The decision was Alexandra's. I still don't know the reasons why, only that when I was informed about this, the reasons were not explained to me and that this occurred while we were on a European tour, specifically, in Milan, Italy." He disputed rumors that the split was over money.