Kevin Johansen (born 21 June 1964) is an American-born Argentine musician and

singer-songwriter A singer-songwriter is a musician who writes, composes, and performs their own musical material, including lyrics and melodies. In the United States, the category is built on the folk- acoustic tradition with a guitar, although this role has ...

. He is known for mixing several rhythms and languages in his musical work.

Biography

Kevin Johansen was born on June 21, 1964, in

Fairbanks, Alaska Fairbanks is a Municipal home rule, home rule city and the county seat, borough seat of the Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska, United States. Fairbanks is the largest city in the Interior Alaska, interior region of Alaska and the second la ...

, to Marta Gloria Calvet and Kent Johansen. Marta Calvet was an Argentine feminist and polyglot; she met Kent Johansen while studying in

Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

. They moved to Alaska and lived there until Kevin was 5 years old. In 1969, they moved to Phoenix where his sister Karina was born. His parents got divorced soon after, and the mother and children moved to

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. His mother remarried a Mexican painter, but in time the relationship became abusive and she decided to leave her husband and the US in 1976. Johansen spent his teenage years between

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

and

Montevideo Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

. In 1990 he married an Argentine ballerina in Buenos Aires, and the young couple moved to New York so she could continue her dance studies. Johansen worked as a waiter, tourist guide and translator, until he got a chance to start performing regularly at

CBGB CBGB was a New York City music club opened in 1973 by Hilly Kristal in the East Village, Manhattan, East Village in Manhattan, New York City. The club was previously a biker bar and before that was a dive bar. The letters ''CBGB'' were for ''Cou ...

and get his musical career on track.

Career

He started to play guitar and write lyrics at 14, and by the end of high school he decided to become a musician. Johansen made a brief appearance in the local rock scene with the band ''Instrucción Cívica'' with Julian Benjamin in the 80s they released two albums: ''Obediencia Debida'' in 1985 and ''Instrucción Cívica'' in 1986. In 1990 he moved with his girlfriend of that time to

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. He had several jobs unrelated to music, until

Hilly Kristal Hillel Kristal (September 23, 1931August 28, 2007) was an American club owner, manager and musician who was the owner of the New York City club CBGB, which opened in 1973 and closed in 2006 over a rent dispute. Early years Kristal was born in ...

heard him sing and invited him to perform at his club

. He played at CBGB for several years, until he created the group ''The Nada'', and in 2000 recorded the album with the same name, which consists in a mix of different Latin sounds with modern pop,

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

and rock. By the end of 2002 Johansen delivered the album ''Sur o no Sur'', which was released by the label Los Años Luz in Argentina and by

Sony Music Sony Music Entertainment (SME), commonly known as Sony Music, is an American multinational music company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony Group Corporation. It is the recording division of Sony Music Group, with the other half being the ...

in the rest of the world. During 2003 Johansen achieved greater success in Argentina, playing in June of that year at the Gran Rex Theatre, the largest

hall. Touring in Spain, he promoted his new album with concerts in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

and

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, this time with bigger audiences. He also performed at the

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

Latin Awards, from where he continued a series of concerts in Miami, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco, prior to the release of ''Sur o no Sur'' in United States. In 2010 he returned to Argentina, where he currently lives. In that same year he released the live album ''Kevin Johansen + The Nada + Liniers = Vivo en Buenos Aires'', published again by Los Años Luz. It led to Johansen and the group going on tour as far as Spain (the album was edited there by ''K Industrias''). He has performed in countries such as Mexico, Chile and Belgium. Spain, and also Colombia, are among the countries with positive response from fans and the media. At the Latino

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

s, 2002's ''Sur o no Sur'' was nominated for "Album of the year", "Song of the year" ("La Procesión") and "Best Music Video" ("La Procesión"). For about 15 years, most of the visual arts of his music was done by the Cartoonist Ricardo Siri Liniers. They went on several tours together, where Liniers would draw along to Johansen music while the latter's sketches were projected in the back of the stage. They have also published a book together, titled ''Oops!''. In 2024, Johansen acted alongside Sofia Gala for the first time in a feature film called ''Underground Orange''.

Personal life

Johansen divorced his first wife and he remarried in 2006 to María Laura Franco. He currently lives in Buenos Aires with Maria and his four children: Miranda (who is also in the music business), Kim, Tom and Roy.

Critic reviews

Newspapers from different countries have highlighted Johansen's combination of musical styles and languages. He naturally switches from English to Spanish, or from cumbia to rock. He is seen as an artist who is not afraid to experiment. Since he has not settled on one genre, he usually calls his work “''de genre-ate''”.

Discography

*''The Nada'' (2000) *''Sur o no Sur'' (2002) *''City Zen'' (2004) *''Logo'' (2007) *''Kevin Johansen + The Nada + Liniers = Vivo en Buenos Aires'' (2010) *'' Bi'' (2012) *''Kevin Johansen + The Nada + Liniers: (Bi)vo en México'' (2014) *''Mis Américas'' (2016) *''Algo ritmos'' (2019) *Tú Ve (2022)

References

External links

Official Site
(English and Spanish)

Csmonitor.com (English)
Kevin Serenades Luz Prieto in LAN Marketing Stunt
Buuteq (English and Spanish) {{DEFAULTSORT:Johansen, Kevin 1964 births Living people Argentine musicians American emigrants to Argentina Wrasse Records artists People from Fairbanks, Alaska American expatriates in Argentina Argentine people of American descent American people of Argentine descent Latin music songwriters