Latin Singer-Songwriter Ricardo Arjona Says He Is No Longer Touring

Ricardo Arjona, a prominent singer-songwriter who has produced some of Latin music’s most popular ballads for nearly four decades, announced he is hanging up the microphone following a successful “Blanco Y Negro: Volver” world tour.

The 59-year-old Guatemala native announced on social media Sunday that he will no longer perform live, citing back problems as the determining factor. According to an Instagram post written by Arjona, he received “six spinal infiltrations” in the past two months to “be able to remain standing during this farewell.”

Arjona has been on the road for the past two years promoting his albums Blanco and Negro, and his final concert was on Dec. 10 at Bicentenario La Florida Stadium in Santiago, Chile.

“To all the cities I performed in on this tour of 159 concerts, my eternal gratitude,” Arjona wrote. “To the doctors who put me on my feet so I could finish this journey by postponing an imminent surgery, thank you very much.”

Though the message was one of farewell, the word “retirement” was never mentioned in the message.

“I’ll have to disappear to invent a reason that’s bigger than this,” Arjona said. “If I can’t find it, I prefer not to come back.

“Life and people have been immensely generous to this Guatemalan from the barrio, a public school teacher, who by playing the guitar, adding a few words and trying a melody, achieved a miracle that I never suspected.”

Arjona, known for his melodic ballads and storytelling ability in his songwriting, released his 1986 debut album Déjame Decir Que Te Amo. Disillusioned with the process of recording the LP and its commercial failure, the Guatemalan began to teach at a public school. He returned to music in 1988 and broke into the Latin music mainstream with his second album, Jesús, Verbo No Sustantivo. Arjona has produced 17 LPs and sold more than 80 million albums. As of December, he has nearly 8.6 million monthly listeners on Spotify.

The Grammy Award-winner was just as successful on the road, selling out arenas in the U.S. and stadiums in Latin America. According to 236 headline reports submitted to the Pollstar Boxoffice since March 1999, Arjona, managed by Fenix Entertainment Group, has grossed $188,883,726 and sold 2,347,429 tickets. He ranked No. 54 on Pollstar’s 2022 Year End Top Tours Worldwide chart with a gross of nearly $36.7 million and was No. 91 on the 2023 chart, earning $33,349,457 off 36 shows reported.

Arjona closed out the U.S. leg of this year’s tour with three nights at Kaseya Center in Miami. The shows, which took place June 23-25 and were promoted by Loud And Live, grossed more than $4 million combined. The Guatemalan star also performed at Foro Sol in Mexico City on March 25, and the concert grossed nearly $2.52 million.