Best Local Songwriter

Beloved Dominican television host Rafelito Marerro began his career at age four, dancing rumba with the voluptuous starlet Tongolele in the Fifties. In the Sixties he earned the nickname "pampered child of Dominican society," for his talk shows featuring international stars. In the past decade, he made his way to the radio airwaves in Boston as a host. At his house there, a prominent composer visiting from Puerto Rico found one of his verses in a drawer and told him he must dedicate himself to song. The moving ballads he has composed since have garnered awards across the United States. He moved to Miami just in time to win the grand prize in the Latin category of the John Lennon Songwriting Contest 2000 for his tune "Anoche Soñé" ("Last Night I Dreamed"). Aptly Marerro's neoclassical love songs are the stuff dreams are made of.