The award-winning singer Marco Flores is a seasoned veteran of the music industry who was celebrated for a decade as a songwriter, producer, and bandleader before establishing his considerable reputation in front of the microphone. Flores has written over 400 songs -- both for himself and other artists -- and on his own, he's attained 14 platinum and 22 gold records. Flores was born in Mexico and was singing as a toddler -- it's as if he was born into the vocation. Underscoring this, he formed his first band, Hermanos y Amigos, when he was just nine. They won first place on the television talent show Nuevos Valores in 1971. Already a prodigy, Flores began his studies at Mexico City's National Conservatory of Music at ten and began writing in earnest at 16. Two years later he graduated with a Bachelor's degree in harmony and orchestral arranging and joined the studio staff of Mexican broadcasting giant Televisa. In addition to being a staff arranger, Flores continued going to school in graduate studies for orchestration. At 20, he debuted as an orchestra conductor at the OTI Festival, an all-Latin American music festival. He was immediately recognized by critics and festival organizers and attendees, and became the youngest conductor in the industry. Flores was ambitious and so began composing for the Mexican film industry. In 1983 the newspaper Heraldo de Mexico cited him "Composer of the Year" and thus began his mature professional career in composition and production. At 23, he relocated to Spain where, as a producer, he helmed recordings by artists such as Pandora, Yuri and Oscar Athie. Two years later he was back in Mexico working with television producer Luis de Llano and producing records for Timbiriche, Fresas, and Kabah. Flores also composed for television musicals and telenovelas. In just eight years, he produced 50 records (many of which he also wrote and arranged), and composed music for a dozen films and six television musicals. Flores then emigrated to Los Angeles where he signed a contract with Famous Music/Paramount and worked with artists ranging from Richard Marx, Selena, and Barrio Boyzz to Donna Summer, Toni Braxton, and Bonnie Raitt, to name a few. After his contract expired, he moved to Miami and signed with Estefan Enterprises, where he produced a wide range of Latin artists including Thalia, Gloria Estefan, Ricky Martin, Jose Feliciano, and others. In Florida he established the Moonlight Music Corporation that included Moonlight Music Production, and Moonlight Music Studios. Moonlight Music Studios was multidisciplinary. It created original music for artists, television, film, and commercials. It was also a grooming agency, preparing U.S. artists for entry into the Latin music industry, and acted as a scouting and A&R agency for new talent. All the while, Flores was producing and writing music. In 2003, he realized a lifelong dream. He shuttered the offices of Moonlight Music and signed a recording contract under his own name with Universal Latino. Produced by Roberto Livi (Julio Iglesias, Roberto Carlos), Flores' self-titled debut album delivered the single "Y Te Voy a Olvidar," a Billboard song of the year, even as he continued to be in demand as a songwriter and composer for film and television. Having attained his dream, Flores returned to Los Angeles to compose and arrange for television and film. In 2006 he signed a short-term contract with Univision Music Publishing, then joined forces with the Los Angeles-based Diverse Talent Group Inc. as head of its music division. That year he also produced, arranged, and composed Ancora, the number one charting record from Il Divo. Two years later, Flores diversified: he started Latin Beat, a multi-media company that focuses extensively on creating and producing music for film and television. In 2009, he was musical producer of the segment "Diva Latino" of Sabado Gigante. A year later he collaborated with Telemundo, producing all the music for the telenovela Aurora, which proved a critical and commercial success. This collaboration between the composer and Telemundo added extensively to Telemundo's catalog of soundtrack music, including the title theme song of Herederos del Monte, and the score for Flor Salvaje and the telenovela Una Maid en Manhattan, for which he won a BMI Music Award for best Musical Score in a Latin TV Series. In 2012, Flores handled the musical production and scoring for Rosa Diamante, another Telemundo hit, as well as composing and producing the album En Tu Camino for Eli. In 2013, Flores embarked on two Telemundo music productions simultaneously, Pasion Prohibida and El Señor de los Cielos. Two years later, the success continued with two more in En Otra Piel and El Señor de los Cielos 2. In 2015, he celebrated his 30th career anniversary with a greatest-hits compilation of his pop, film, and television music. Flores is a renaissance man as a producer, an artist, and a songwriter, and won the hearts of both U.S. and Latin audiences long before the term "crossover" existed. ~ Thom Jurek