On Jan. 7, Dominican superstar El Alfa posted a grief-stricken message on Instagram following the death of his grandmother Ramonita, and ended with a message of retirement for his nearly two-decade career.
“I know life goes on, but my feelings don’t go unnoticed. My grandmother taught me to love God above all things; therefore, I will mourn her in memory,” he expressed in the Instagram post. “Her happiness was to see me succeed, but I can’t even stay awake! I could have spent more time with her, but my work didn’t allow it. The days of my retirement are getting shorter. On December 18th of this year, I will never sing again. Rest in peace, Grandma. I love you.”
El Alfa, born Emanuel Herrera Batista, then followed up with the announcement of his farewell tour, El Último Baile (The Last Dance), which included a sold out stop at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on Friday, Oct. 17. “El Rey del Dembow” (The King of Dembow) brought his signature energy that on one hand flowed with a celebratory spirt but on the other, held a bittersweet realization of nearing expiration date for the career of a star who stepped up as dembow’s global ambassador.
Although the show began later than scheduled, at nearly 9:45 p.m., it didn’t stop fans from making the most of it beforehand thanks to the hype-men DJs who kept the crowd warm before El Alfa’s debut. The pair played a variety of reggaeton, dembow, and other Latin dance mixes, which had fans singing in unison and perreando in the theater aisles and in front of the stage. The appetite for El Alfa grew with every passing minute and song, and when the DJs announced that he was in the building, the theater roared with cheers.
A few minutes later, the lights went out, and a video monitor played an animation sequence that displayed “Jefe Records” in the same font and style as the 21st-century Fox introduction. A video followed, with El Alfa’s voice-over and an animation that was a throwback to his “El Hombre” album in which he spoke about his determination and his faith, and thanked God for his achievements, before the words “El Mejor del Planeta,” a nod to last year’s tour, filled the screen as he ran out on stage in front of four back-up dancers.
The performance lived up to El Alfa’s captivating showmanship, whose explosive energy went off like a fuse from start to finish. Throughout his set, which lasted a little over an hour, his fuego didn’t falter, bolting back and forth onstage as he commanded the crowd to dance, jump, and sing along to his expansive catalog.
He kicked off the night with “4K,” a 2020 dembow hit that’s one of his most popular, and followed up with a few of his major collaborations, including “La Romana,” a half-trap, half-dembow song featured on Bad Bunny’s “X 100PRE” album. Another collaboration track in his set included the summertime jam “Fulanito” with Becky G, prompting the crowd to cheer in anticipation that she’d join him live, only to settle down when they realized she wasn’t coming out.
However, fans were treated to special guests, including Puerto Rican rapper Jon Z, who joined El Alfa for performances of “Yo No Cojo Fiao” and “Acapella.” Throughout the night, he asked fans who were proud to be Latino to raise their hands, which they happily obliged. At one point, he followed up by asking each person to raise their hands when he called out the Latin American country they represented. When he got to Mexico, the loudest cheers rang out, and most hands went up in the theater.
“Mexico, I have something special for you that I couldn’t have done without you,” he said before welcoming Fuerza Regida’s Jesús Ortiz Paz for a performance of “Tacata.” Paz took over one side of the stage while El Alfa dominated the other, which proved to be one of the most lively songs of the night. The welcoming of one of the most prominent regional Mexican music acts was just another example and reminder of how El Alfa’s willing embrace of other Latin music and artists is a staple of his legacy.
Since his debut in 2008, El Alfa has built a career in which he elevated Dominican dembow to the global stage, a genre that, until this past decade, wasn’t fully recognized outside its underground roots. Dembow hails from the Black and working-class neighborhoods outside of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, and its name refers to a tremendously popular rhythm sped up by a core percussion element and reimagined from Jamaican dancehall.
Its origin can be traced back to Bobby Digital, a producer who recorded a single titled “Dem Bow” with the Jamaican singer Shabba Ranks in 1990. While the same dembow beat is present in its genre sibling, reggaeton, that sound is slower and softer, whereas dembow is brisk in tempo, sharp in its rap bars, and produces a sticky catchiness.
Although there’s been a more recent embrace of dembow, it has historically drawn ire from within its home. In 2018, the Dominican Republic went so far as to implement a ban on eight urbano songs deemed too explicit for radio and TV, including “Lo Que Diga Yo,” a collaboration between El Alfa, Jon Z, Farruko, Bad Bunny, and Miky Woodz.
Yet over the course of its existence, dembow thrived in the underground, proudly aligning itself with DIY promotions and earning its credibility on the streets. The suppression of the genre may have worked at a time when gatekeepers had their clutches on the airwaves, but in the age of streaming, where Latin music is consumed worldwide, dembow has flourished without constraint.
Part of that success is no doubt thanks to El Alfa, whose collaborations with several Latin superstars, including Bad Bunny, Peso Pluma, Kali Uchis, and Cardi B, have forced the music industry to take notice of dembow’s prowess. In 2021, El Alfa made history as the first dembow artist to sell out a headlining concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City, a state that houses the largest Dominican population in the U.S.
The legacy El Alfa built throughout his career wasn’t just for the people of the Dominican Republic, but also for the Latin American diaspora, whom he continues to uplift and to whom he attributes his successes. From the beginning to the end of his performance, El Alfa made clear that his last show in Los Angeles wasn’t just a festivity of gratitude, but an affirmation of why he rocks the dembow crown.