Omar Ruben Rada Silva (born 16 July 1943, Montevideo, Uruguay) is an Uruguayan musician, singer, songwriter, percussionist, and actor. Widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in Uruguayan popular music, he is known for blending Afro-Uruguayan traditionsâÂÂparticularly candombeâÂÂwith rock, soul, jazz, and funk.
Rada began his career in the 1960s and co-founded the band El Kinto with Eduardo Mateo. The group is recognized for pioneering candombe beat and for being among the first South American rock bands to sing in Spanish while incorporating Latin percussion into a rock format. In the early 1970s, he formed Totem, noted for its fusion of Afro-Uruguayan rhythms with rock influences. Rada later collaborated with Hugo and Osvaldo Fattoruso in the United StatesâÂÂbased jazz fusion group Opa, contributing significantly to the album Magic Time (1977).
In the 1980s, Rada relocated to Buenos Aires, where he led an ensemble featuring both Uruguayan and Argentine musicians. The group produced a series of recordings that combined candombe, jazz, and rock, a period often considered among the most significant in his career.
During the 1990s, he lived in Mexico, working as a sideman with various artists, including Tania Libertad. He also recorded three albums in the United States during this period: Montevideo (1996), Montevideo II (1999), and Rada Factory (unreleased).
Rada returned to Uruguay at the end of the decade, entering a period of broad recognition and commercial success throughout the 2000s in Uruguay, Argentina, and other parts of Latin America.
In 2011, he received the Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his influential career and his contributions to the fusion of candombe with jazz, funk, soul, and other genres.
In 2013 Rada received BerkleeâÂÂs Master of Latin Music award from the Berklee College of Music.
In 2020, his song âÂÂEl ÃÂmnibusâ was sampled by Freddie Gibbs and The Alchemist in the track 1985.
In 1965, he and Eduardo Mateo formed the band . This was the first group in Uruguay to create the beat genre in Spanish and to fuse rock with Latin American musical styles. In 1969 the success of his Candombe song "Las Manzanas" ("The Apples") led to his first solo album and participation in the Festival of Popular Music in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A year later he formed the band Tótem. He has recorded more than thirty albums.
In 1977, he traveled to the United States after an invitation by the Fattoruso Brothers to play with the group OPA. Over the next year, he performed with Tom Scott, Ray Barretto, Hermeto Pascoal, and Flora Purim.
Between 1991 and 1994, he settled in Mexico, where he worked as a composer and arranger for local musicians such as Mijares, Eugenia León, Stephanie Salas, and Tania Libertad. In 1994 he shared the spotlight with Sting and UB40 at the Palacio de Deportes in Mexico City.
Rada has achieved renown outside the country and recorded under international labels, including EMI Latin and Universal Records. His songs are played worldwide and have been recorded by Milton Nascimento, Herb Alpert, and Lani Hall. He was invited by Jon Anderson and Joan Manuel Serrat to appear on their albums Deseo and UtopÃÂa, respectively. British singer Paul McCartney and Brazilian singer Milton Nascimento are among his admirers.
His albums Montevideo (1996) and Montevideo II (1999) were recorded in New York City with Hiram Bullock, Anton Fig, José Pedro Beledo, Hugo Fattoruso, Bakithi Kumalo, and Ringo Thielmann. Montevideo reached platinum sales in Uruguay
He voiced the part of Lucius Best/Frozone in the 2004 Argentinian dubbing of The Incredibles. He has directed radio and TV shows, such as Radar (radio) and El Teléfono (TV). Beginning in October 2007, he starred in the television sitcom La Oveja Negra (The Black Sheep).
In April 2010, the third round of the series LifeLines at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin paid tribute to Rubén Rada. Three days of concerts and discussions took place about his life and career as part of the Bicentenario, focusing on 200 years of independence movements in Latin America.
Also in 2010, Rada recorded a show in the Argentine program Encuentro en El Estudio, which is run by that country's Ministry of Education.
Rada, an Afro-Uruguayan, is of partial Brazilian descent through his mother.