Gustavo Cerati

Profile Overview

Gustavo Adrián Cerati Clark (11 August 1959 – 4 September 2014) was an Argentine musician and singer-songwriter who gained international recognition for being the leader, vocalist, composer, and guitarist of the rock band Soda Stereo. He is widely considered by critics and musicians as one of the most important and influential artists of Latin rock.
Influenced by the Beatles and the Police, Cerati joined various groups during his adolescence, and in 1982, he founded Soda Stereo. As the band's leader and main composer, Cerati's songwriting matured with Signos (1986), Canción Animal (1990) and Dynamo (1992), all of which received near universal acclaim. Parallel to his career with the group, in 1992 he released the collaborative album Colores Santos with Daniel Melero, credited with popularising electronic music in South America.
Following the initial separation of Soda Stereo, he released the critically acclaimed solo albums Amor Amarillo (1993), Bocanada (1999) and Siempre es hoy (2002), the latter two drew inspiration from dream pop, trip hop and downtempo. He returned to rock with his fourth album, Ahí vamos (2006), containing some of his best-selling solo songs, such as "Crimen" and "Adiós". In 2007, he reunited with Soda Stereo after ten years on a tour that sold over a million tickets. A prolific session player, he was a guest guitarist on songs by Caifanes, Babasónicos and Los Brujos, and he collaborated on songs with Charly García, Andrés Calamaro, Fito Páez, Shakira, Andy Summers, Roger Waters and Mercedes Sosa, among others.
In 2010, Cerati became comatose after suffering a stroke, proceeding a concert in which he promoted his latest album, Fuerza Natural (2009). Four years later, on 4 September 2014, Cerati died of cardiac arrest in Buenos Aires aged 55. In 2023, Billboard magazine ranked Cerati as the 33rd best rock singer of all time. In 2012, Rolling Stone ranked Cerati seventh among the 100 best Argentine rock guitarists. Throughout his solo career, he sold more than 10 million records and won numerous awards, including the Latin Grammy Awards, MTV Awards, Konex Awards, and Gardel Awards.