Willie Colón

William Anthony Colón Román was born on 28 April 1950 in the South Bronx, New York City, to Puerto Rican parents. Spanish language Wikipedia notes that he had a younger sister, Cynthia, known as Cindy (1953 to 1980), and that his grandmother and aunt raised him on traditional Puerto Rican music, Cuban son and tango. He spent summers at a relative's farm outside Manatí, Puerto Rico, on the road to Ciales. As a young teenager in mid 1960s New York he absorbed R&B, rock and jazz alongside the Puerto Rican folk music he heard on the island. He started on the trumpet at about 12 and switched to the trombone after hearing the trombone led bomba and plena of Mon Rivera and the playing of Barry Rogers.

Colón was largely self taught as a teenager and was making records by 17. After his band with Héctor Lavoe split in the mid 1970s he took formal lessons in music theory, composition and orchestral arranging, studies that fed directly into the orchestral and symphonic writing of El Baquiné de Angelitos Negros (1977) and Solo (1979). He later served as a visiting professor and received honorary degrees in music and humane letters from several universities.

Colón signed with Fania Records as a teenager and released El Malo in 1967, with Héctor Lavoe on vocals at Johnny Pacheco's suggestion. The pair recorded The Hustler (1968), Guisando (1969), Cosa Nuestra (1970), Asalto Navideño (1971), La Gran Fuga (1971), El Juicio (1972), Asalto Navideño Vol. II and Lo Mato (1973), with hits including "Che Che Colé", "Calle Luna, Calle Sol", "La Murga", "Aguanilé" and "Juanito Alimaña" (on the 1983 reunion album Vigilante).

From 1975 he worked as a producer and arranger, overseeing Lavoe's solo albums La Voz, De Ti Depende and Comedia, recording Se Chavó el Vecindario with Mon Rivera, and making Only They Could Have Made This Album (1977) and Celia y Willie (1981) with Celia Cruz. With Rubén Blades he made Metiendo Mano! (1977), Siembra (1978), Canciones del Solar de los Aburridos (1981), which was nominated for a Grammy, and The Last Fight (1982). He also produced Blades's Maestra Vida, Ismael Miranda's Doble Energía and Soledad Bravo's Caribe.

His solo career as a singer began with Solo (1979), which went gold in three weeks, followed by Fantasmas (1981), Corazón Guerrero (1982), Criollo (1984), Tiempo Pa' Matar (1984), his farewell to Fania at the time, and an album for the Venezuelan label Sonográfica in 1986. Top Secrets (1989) brought "El gran varón". Later albums included Color Americano (1990), Honra y Cultura (1991), Hecho en Puerto Rico (1993), Tras la Tormenta (1995) with Blades, Y Vuelve Otra Vez (1996), Demasiado Corazón (1998) and El Malo Vol. II: Prisioneros del Mambo (2008). He toured for his 50th anniversary in 2016 and with the Rumba del Siglo tour from 2018.

Colón campaigned for and then worked as a special assistant and spokesperson for New York Mayor David Dinkins from 1989 to 1993. In 1994 he challenged Representative Eliot Engel in the Democratic primary for New York's 17th congressional district and lost 62 percent to 38 percent. In 2001 he ran for New York City Public Advocate and received 101,393 votes. He spent about twelve years as Mayor Michael Bloomberg's liaison to the Latin Media and Entertainment Commission, endorsed Hillary Clinton in 2008 and performed at the 2010 Earth Day Climate Rally on the National Mall.

He served on the Latino Commission on AIDS, led the Arthur Schomburg Coalition for a Better New York, sat on the board of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute and chaired the Association of Hispanic Arts. In 1999 he was part of the Jubilee 2000 delegation to the Vatican on developing world debt relief, alongside Bono, Quincy Jones and Jeffrey Sachs. On 26 May 2014 he graduated from the Westchester County police academy and was sworn in as a deputy sheriff with the county Department of Public Safety, becoming a deputy lieutenant on 13 December 2017. NPR reported that he served part time for eight years before resigning his rank in 2022.

Colón was married for 49 years to Julia Colón Craig, whom Spanish language sources say he met in 1976. They had four sons, William David, Adam Diego, Alejandro Miguel and Patrick Antonio, and at his death he had six grandchildren and three great grandchildren. Outside music his interests included sailing, flying (he held a private pilot's licence) and computer programming. On 20 April 2021 he and Julia were injured in a serious crash while driving a recreational vehicle through the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and he was taken to a hospital in Virginia with a head injury and lacerations. In December 2023 he had to stop a concert in Cali, Colombia, after feeling unwell.

Much of Colón's music explored what it meant to be Puerto Rican in the mainland United States, depicting the hardships of the diaspora while celebrating its culture. He argued that salsa drew on Cuban music but was not the same thing, a view summed up in his widely quoted remark that salsa is not a rhythm but a concept. Politically he moved from the Democratic causes of his early career to sharp opposition to Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, writing the 2013 campaign song "Mentira Fresca", and in the 2010s he became a vocal conservative on X, where he had more than a million followers.

Colón is widely described as one of the architects of urban salsa. NPR's Felix Contreras called him the sound of New York's Puerto Rican community finding its voice culturally and politically. Siembra, his album with Rubén Blades, is regarded as one of the best selling salsa records ever made, and his productions helped carry salsa to audiences in South America and Spain. Gerald Sloan of the University of Arkansas wrote in the International Trombone Association journal that Colón had probably done more than anyone since Tommy Dorsey to keep the trombone before the public. In 2015 Billboard named him one of the 30 most influential Latin artists of all time.

Chubb Fellowship, Yale University (1991). Member of the Jubilee 2000 delegation to the Vatican (1999). International Latin Music Hall of Fame (2000). Latin Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award (2004). International Trombone Association Lifetime Achievement Award (2010). Recognition from the Westchester Hispanic Law Enforcement Association (2011). Billboard's 30 Most Influential Latin Artists of All Time (2015). Ellis Island Medal of Honor (12 May 2018). Lunas del Auditorio award, Auditorio Nacional, Mexico City (31 October 2018). Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame (2019). Several honorary doctorates.

Colón acted in Vigilante (1983), The Last Fight (1983), the Miami Vice episode "Cuba Libre" (1987) and It Could Happen to You (1994). He was played by John Ortiz in El Cantante, the biopic of Héctor Lavoe starring Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez. He announced a memoir titled Barrio de Guapos (The Secret Life of Willie Colón) in 2017 and launched the label Willie Colón Presenta.

In May 2007 Colón sued Rubén Blades for breach of contract over a Siembra anniversary concert in Puerto Rico, beginning more than five years of suits and countersuits that ended in decisions in Blades's favour. He also publicly criticised record executives and the Latin Grammys, and his later right wing social media posts drew criticism from fans who contrasted them with the social themes of his classic records.

Colón died on Saturday 21 February 2026 at NewYork-Presbyterian Westchester Hospital in Bronxville, New York, aged 75. His family announced the death on his social media accounts, saying they grieved his absence but rejoiced in the timeless gift of his music. Reuters and the Associated Press reported that the cause was not disclosed, while The New York Times reported that he had been taken to hospital with breathing problems due to interstitial lung disease. His family asked that gifts in his name go to the interstitial lung disease program at Columbia University. Public visitation took place on 8 March 2026 at McMahon, Lyon and Hartnett Funeral Home in White Plains, and a public funeral Mass was held at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan on 9 March 2026, followed by a private burial.