Jean Carlos Centeno


Jean Carlos Jiménez Centeno, known professionally as Jean Carlos Centeno, is a Colombian vallenato singer and songwriter born in Venezuela. During his childhood, he emigrated to Colombia, where he obtained Colombian citizenship through naturalization and began his professional artistic career.
Centeno rose to prominence as a singer and songwriter during his tenure with the vallenato group Binomio de Oro de América, which he joined in 1993 and remained with until 2005. That year, he left the group to pursue a solo career alongside accordionist Juan Fernando “Morre” Romero. In 2006, Centeno and Romero released their first independent album, Ave Libre. Throughout his career, Centeno has released 17 studio albums. In 2022, he won the Latin Grammy Award for Best Cumbia/Vallenato Song/Album and had previously received a nomination in 2018.
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Early years

Centeno's parents are Evel Antonio Jiménez Centeno and Nidia María Centeno Gómez whom as a child, at only 3 months old of age, took him to Villanueva, La Guajira, in Colombia and left him with María Elena Jiménez Balcázar due to financial hardships. Centeno's grandfather Reynaldo was a musician, played the trumpet and the drums. At the age of 14 years financial hardships forced him to work on the streets selling snacks, worked as a farm boy and took care of kids to survive. He traveled around town in the Department of La Guajira also singing at parties. He dreamed of becoming a ballads singer or soap opera actor.
In 1992 participated along Poncho Cotes Jr. in a song contest in the Colombian town of San Juan del Cesar, in La Guajira. The song "Un ángel mas en el cielo" of his authorship was a dedication to his role model singer Rafael Orozco Maestre, then recently deceased, and lead singer of the Binomio de Oro de America vallenato group.
Israel Romero the accordionist from the Binomio de Oro de America became interested on Centeno's talent and hired him as backup singer for the group. Centeno sang the group hits "No te vayas", "Celos", "Manantial de amor", among others and also got to be recorded by the Binomio de Oro; "Volvió el dolor", "Me ilusioné", "Amigo el corazón" and "Me vas a extrañar".

Discography

With Binomio de Oro de América

  • 1993 - Todo Corazón
  • 1994 - De la Mano con el Pueblo
  • 1995 - Lo Nuestro
  • 1996 - A su Gusto
  • 1997 - Seguimos por lo Alto
  • 1998 - 2000
  • 1999 - Más cerca de tí
  • 2000 - Difícil de Igualar
  • 2001 - Haciendo Historia
  • 2003 - Que Viva el Vallenato
  • 2004 - En todo su Esplendor
  • 2005 - Grafiti de Amor
On December 31, 2005 Centeno decided to leave Binomio de Oro and joined initially accordionist Robert Urbina, but later teamed up with Israel Romero's nephew, Juan Fernando "El Morre" Romero to create their own vallenato group.

With Morre Romero and Ronald Urbina

  • 2006 - Ave Libre
  • 2008 - ''Inconfundible''

With Ronald Urbina

  • 2012 - Así Canto Yo
  • 2016 - Todas Son Mías
  • 2018 - De Parranda
  • 2022 - ''Feliz Aniversario''