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Born Yeifry Severino de la Rosa in 1998, Nino Freestyle is a Dominican rapper. He began to record and perform professionally in his mid-teens, eventually going viral at the national level via his postings on popular social media sites. In 2018 he broke a world record for most words rhymed in a rap song with "Jon Z Challenge," which earned him some international recognition, and released the EP El de los Códigos Virales. In the following years, Nino went on to become one of the leading urban Dominican artists, even if he stuck exclusively to singles -- almost a hundred released between 2018 and 2024, between solo tracks and collaborations. All of his biggest hits belong in this second category, among them "La Vuelta" (2018) with El Fecho and Secreto El Famoso Biberón, "No Hago Coro" (2020) with Ghetto and Farruko (as well as the 2021 remix of the same track featuring El Alfa, Bryant Myers, and Miky Woodz), "Hacerte Mía" (2021) with La Ross María, and "Mala" (2021) with Tokischa. His most recent output has included "Sin Tabú" (2023) and "Travesura" (2024), with Lenny Santos, Boy Wonder CF, Chelsy, and Divino. ~ Mariano Prunes

Nacho is the stage name of Venezuelan pop singer and songwriter Miguel Ignacio Mendoza Donatti. Until 2017, he was best known as half of the reggaeton/Latin pop duo Chino & Nacho. Possessed of a sweet tenor voice, his songs reflect everything from pop and R&B to hip-hop.

Nacho met his future duo partner Jesús Alberto Miranda Pérez (aka Chino) while they were members of the Venezuelan boy band Calle Ciega. Between 1998 and 2007, they released five albums and eight singles, several of which were written by Nacho. The pair split off and issued their debut duo album Época de Reyes for Universal in 2008. In 2010, Mi Niña Bonita won a Latin Grammy for Best Urban Album.

Nacho is also a political activist. In 2016 he denounced the Madura administration at the Venezuelan National Assembly, citing blatant mass corruption among political and military officials as the poor starved during the worst economic crisis in the nation's history. Nacho was supposed to travel from Miami to Maiquetía, but his passport was canceled by the Administrative Service of Identification, Migration and Aliens (SAIME).

The following year, after a decade together, Chino & Nacho announced an amicable split. Nacho wasted no time. Along with Wisin, he was a featured guest on Sebastián Yatra's platinum single and massively successful video "Alguien Robó." In April, he issued "Bailame," his debut solo single. It reached a million views the first day and racked up over 86 million views in total. The track reached the Top 20 on the Hot Latin Songs chart. He also performed the song at the annual Premios Juventud Awards show. Nacho followed it with "Valiente" in May. He also duetted with Spain's Dasoul on their charting single "Kung Fu," and he was a featured guest on 911's "Feid." In 2018, he paired with Manuel Turizo on the single "Déjalo." ~ Thom Jurek

Newcastle's The Chosen Few were a very good band that failed to connect, despite the presence of several prodigiously talented members who were to go on to much bigger success in groups like Lindisfarne and Ian Dury & the Blockheads. They were formed out of the remains of two earlier Newcastle bands, the Unknowns and the Cresters, and came along at around the same time that Eric Burdon, Alan Price, and company were forming up what would become the Animals. The Chosen Few were similar to the Animals in many respects, performing American-style R&B with an organ-and-guitar lead instrument pairing, and a charismatic lead singer -- their keyboard player, Mickey Gallagher, had even subbed for Alan Price on his exit from the Animals. They were also different from the Animals in that lead guitarist Alan Hull wrote original material that shared space in their repertory with covers of Tamla-Motown songs and other R&B from America.

The quintet recorded two singles for Pye, and got picked up for a publicity campaign by Hohner organs, but the records failed to sell, and they began breaking apart in 1966, after being dropped by their label following the failure of their second single, "Today Tonight and Tomorrow." The latter, written by Hull, was a beautiful, lyrical, almost pop-like number (ornamented by some gorgeous and not complicated guitar and organ flourishes by the composer and Gallagher), with catchy hooks and superb singing -- not sounding like the Animals or any other familiar band, but uniquely The Chosen Few.

Hull and bassist Alan Brown exited around this time in 1965, Brown out of music altogether while Hull moved into more of a folk music idiom and joined another Newcastle outfit, Downtown Faction (later the Brethren), which later became Lindisfarne, for a time one of the most successful rock bands ever to come out of Newcastle and one of the hottest groups in England.

Meanwhile, their replacements in the Chosen Few were John Turnbull (guitar) and Colin Gibson (bass). When vocalist Rod Hood departed, they and Gallagher, with drummer Tommy Jackman, reorganized the group under the name Skip Bifferty, a pop-psychedelic band who recorded for RCA. Gallagher and Turnbull later formed Arc, and Bell & Arc, played on Dana Gillespie's third album, and passed through a group called Loving Awareness, whose drummer and bassist, Charlie Charles and Norman Watt-Roy, formed the core of Ian Dury & the Blockheads, with Gallagher and Turnbull joining up on their second and third albums. As a solo guitarist, Turnbull also played with former Chosen Few guitarist Alan Hull during one of his solo career stints in the '70s, between his intermittent involvement with Lindisfarne. ~ Bruce Eder