Manuel Jimenez El Niño

Who is Manuel Jimenez El Niño?

Manuel De Los Santos Jimenez was born on April 22nd, 1957 in Juan Barón in Sabana Grande De Palenque, Dominican Republic to Grabiel De Los Santos Guzman, and Eluzpina Jimenez Figuereo. Also known as Manuel Jimenez El Niño, is best known for being the original artist and songwriter of the famous merengue titled "Abusadora" that was recorded with El Conjunto San Juan in March of 1981, that soon after was recorded by hundreds of different artists worldwide.

Manuel wrote Abusadora in 1979 and it was after a party in a field known as Los Aguacates in the Dominican Republic. A gentleman took out an accordion with a melody similar to Cheche Abreu's merengue titled "Canto A Santo Domingo" Manuel was left with two words that the accordionist chanted, "que hiciste!" Later, Manuel had an idea and put "Que hiciste abusadora" on it, and later he put on the improvisation. "La mujer que quise me dejó y se fue. Y ahora ella quisiera volver" (Manuel). ("Ahora tú quieres, que vuelva contigo. Pero es que yo, no quiero ser tu amigo." ((This stanza is by Miguel Figuereo and it was because of a chancletera that he had in La Romana that without knowing it, she sugared him out. And the chancletera left with everything that he had. Later, it seemed that the chancletera wanted to go back with him and he didn't want to. Then he told Manuel that he had a verse for the merengue.)) "Cuando me dejaste, tú no me querías. Y yo sufriendo, de noche y de día." (Manuel) After Manuel wrote it, he took the paragraphs to Fausto Sanchez, when there was a club called "Club Quisqueya" and he had a keyboard machine that edited it and put it as it is. One night, Manuel surprised Miguel Figuereo and told the boys that when he started with the song "Canto A Santo Domingo", also known as "Que Lindo Es Santo Domingo", Manuel was going to improvise "que hiciste", and to respond "abusadora". Even Miguel was initially bothered, a manager at that time named Rudy Ortiz, who was looking for parties and had good vision, told them one day that "Abusadora" and the theme of "David" was bad and that he was looking for a way to record it, because He saw that people get up from their table when they play those merengues and that's when he was motivated to record it. When they were at Fabiola, the recording studio, Rudy didn't go for the recordings and he was the only one who knew how to deal with the studio for personal reasons. When they gave the data for the merengues, David was on side A, sung by Manuel Jimenez "El Niño" and his Conjunto San Juan, authored by Manuel Jimenez. It was on side A due to Cyclone David that passed in the year (1979). And they put it that way because they thought it was going to tie because of the cyclone. Then, on side B, there is Abusadora, sung by Manuel Jimenez "El Niño" and his Conjunto San Juan, written by Manuel Jimenez. It was recorded in the month of March of 1981.

Currently, Manuel is working on his newest album release with La Roka Típica titled "Mujer Chiflera" in Merengue Típico.