Felipe Renán Peláez Rodríguez ( Maracaibo , February 7 , 1976 ) is a Colombian – Venezuelan singer and composer of vallenato and other musical genres. He began playing instruments such as the piano and the guitar in different activities related to his student life and social groups.

At the age of 16, he emigrated from his native Maracaibo to begin university studies in Bogotá . At first he studied mechanical engineering, then music and finally social communication, a career for which he obtained a professional degree. At the same time Felipe, inclined by his musical passion, was looking for opportunities in the bars of the city as a musician and singer; That was how the accordionist Rafael Ricardo heard him and invited him to be part of the musical group that formed with Otto Serge as a guitarist. With them, the singer-songwriter began to be part of the staff of artists and repertoire of Sony Music , the record label of the vallenatos who were precisely the ones who recorded Felipe’s first composition entitled ‘Soñando Contigo’.

The opportunity to sing came with ‘Los Amigos Del Sol’. Gaby García, who replaced Rafael Orozco in the Binomio de Oro , after his murder, and Victor “Rey” Reyes, signed him as second voice. Felipe immediately makes himself felt and his outstanding interventions are recognized by greats of our music such as Joe Arroyo , Los Betos , Diomedes Díaz , Jorge Oñate , Rafael Orozco among others, who decide to request his services as a guitarist and advisor for their musical productions. .

Then, driven by the encouragement he received from people who saw him sing at the parties, he decided to go further. It is when he is seduced by the microphone and launches himself as a singer, supported only by a few, but fueled by a lot of desire and plenty of talent, which allowed him to become known as a vallenato and tropical singer- songwriter .

In 2002 with the album ‘Felipe Peláez y son Guajira’, he opened up space in the tropical world as a soloist, however it was in 2006 when he launched as a vallenato performer, making ‘Borracha’ his first great success, which in 2007 was a song of the carnival of Barranquilla .

Since then, other titles such as “You have everything”, “Loco”, “Katapum”, with Eddy Herrera in Dominican merengue. “Amapola”, which was the bachata ballad recorded in homage to Juan Luis Guerra , “When you come back”, “I will walk”, “Only yours”, “I feel like it”, “The greatest love on the planet”, “Your man is me ”, “I’m going to drink”, “I love you and I love you”, “Tan natural” and ‘Vestirte de amor’, have led the music lists of the National Report and the Latino Monitor .

In addition to vallenato, he has interpreted pop, salsa, merengue, tropical, urban, among other genres. What makes him a versatile artist. In 2010 Pipe Pelaéz celebrated with Gilberto Santa Rosa the Latin Grammy for best salsa album for their work ‘Irrepetible’, in which they did a duet on the song titled ‘Ella’, and the following year, with this same production, they were nominated for a Grammy anglo .

In 2012, the Latin Grammy nomination came with the production ‘De otra manera’, a guitar CD praised by critics and audiences. “Diferente” can be considered, up to now, the most successful album of his career, since the Academy of Latin Recording Arts and Sciences ( Latin Grammy ) cataloged it in 2013 as the best in the Vallenato – Cumbia category. .

In terms of composition, Felipe’s lyrics have also been widely featured. Songs like “Who else loves you”, “Whenever you want I want”, “In the name of men”, in the voice of Iván Villazón ; “You were late”, with Jorge Oñate ; “She and You”, with Joe Arroyo ; “One like you”, from Binomio de Oro ; “The love of the two”, “The time has come” and “The father of loves”, with Peter Manjarrés ; “Half of my life”, Beto Zabaleta , have consolidated it as one of the most important in the country.

In January 2015, he presented the song Pero qué hago with which he entered the Top Latin Songs – Vallenato Colombia ranking of Monitor Latino where he climbed from 12th to 4th position in one week. In this same ranking, his song De ella Me caso contigo appears , where it has been for 30 weeks since its launch in August 2014, even occupying the first position. In 2016, he stood out in the group of the best music in Spanish by the hand of the Venezuelan band Guaco , with whom he recorded the song ‘Siento tu amor’ as a duet, included in the work ‘Continuous Present’, which competed for the gramophone for best tropical album.

Felipe is currently preparing his work number 12, presented with the single ‘Vestirte de amor’, which in less than a week was the leader in the Colombian music charts, which remained number one for eight weeks and later in the official top 20 from Latin America, held the same position. His family hails from the Colombian border city of Maicao , where his parents worked, and Maracaibo was the first choice for the birth of two of the five Peláez brothers. “At that time the best hospitals were in Maracaibo, that’s why my mother came here to give birth,” the singer explains the paternal reasons for such a decision. 

“We have always had a close connection with Maracaibo, as it is a very important point of reference, as it is the closest large city to Maicao. At that time we were permanently in both places. My parents moved to Maracaibo, we were born and later we they took Maicao,” he explains.  Those years in Maicao the Peláez Rodríguez family was always linked to Venezuela. Maracaibo has always been the city for family outings, and it has continued to be an important place for Felipe.