Gustavo Adrián Cerati (11 August 1959 – 4 September 2014) was an Argentine musician, singer-songwriter, and record producer, who gained international recognition for being the leader, vocalist, composer, and guitarist of the rock band Soda Stereo.

[1] Influenced by The Beatles and The Police, Cerati joined various groups during his adolescence, and in 1982 he founded the Latin rock band Soda Stereo.

Leader and main composer of the group, from Signos (1986) his way of making songs began to mature, and his consolidation reached it at the beginning of the 90s with Canción Animal (1990), in which he returned to the roots of Argentine rock from the 70's.

After the separation of the band, he released Bocanada (1999) and Siempre es hoy (2002), where he showed his interest in the genre more than he freely manifested in his alternate projects Plan V and Ocio.

He returned to the rock style with his fourth album, Ahí vamos (2006), which received acclaim from the public and critics, and which contains some of his greatest solo hits, such as "Crimen" and "Adiós".

Throughout his solo career, he has sold more than 10 million records and won numerous awards, including the Latin Grammy, MTV, Konex, and Gardel.

By the age of 13, he formed a trio and started playing at house parties and in the local Catholic school, where he eventually joined the choir.

At the Universidad del Salvador, a Jesuit university in Buenos Aires, he met Héctor "Zeta" Bosio, also a marketing student.

In 1982, after various lineup changes that included Richard Coleman, Daniel Melero, and Andrés Calamaro as well as others, Bosio and Cerati recruited Charly Alberti as their drummer, thus forming Soda Stereo.

[10] In 1999 Cerati formed the electronic duo Ocio with longtime Soda Stereo collaborator and trumpeter, Flavio Etcheto, releasing Medida Universal.

The recording of the concert was released as 11 Episodios Sinfónicos ("Eleven Symphonic Episodes") and consisted of seven arrangements of Soda Stereo classics and four of his solo songs played entirely by the orchestra.

Cerati took 11 Episodios Sinfónicos on the road, playing Mexico City, Caracas, Santiago, and finishing it off with three shows at the Gran Rex theater in Buenos Aires.

Cerati enlisted the help of producer/ engineer Sacha Triujeque and Antonio "Toy" Hernández of the Mexican Hip hop group Control Machete.

[16] Simultaneously, Cerati teamed up with longtime collaborator Flavio Etcheto, and Leandro Fresco to form the self-described "power laptop trio" Roken, which he played concurrently during the Siempre es Hoy tour.

[17] In 2004 "Canciones Elegidas 93-04" ("Selected Songs 93-04") a double album compilation of Cerati's solo work was released simultaneously in Spain and Argentina.

Co-produced by longtime Soda Stereo collaborator Tweety González, Ahí Vamos marked Cerati's triumphant return to guitar rock.

The album was mixed by Héctor Castillo, a prolific engineer whose credits include David Bowie, Lou Reed, and Aterciopelados, to name a few.

[8] Cerati closed the Ahí Vamos tour with a massive open-air show in Buenos Aires, held on the corner of Avenida Alcorta and Pampas.

The subsequent comeback tour Me Verás Volver ("You will See Me Return") consisted of 22 concerts in nine countries: Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico the United States, Colombia, Panama, Venezuela and Peru.

Besides working with Shakira, Cerati contributed to, Argentinian producer, musician, and two-time Oscar winner, Gustavo Santaolla's album Mar Dulce ("Sweet Sea").

Cerati sang on "El Mareo" the second single on Santaolalla's Mar Dulce which was recorded at Electric Lady Studios in New York City.

[20] In 2008, Cerati released a DVD version of Ahí Vamos and performed in various festivals throughout Latin America alongside, Shakira, Fito Páez, and Gustavo Santaolalla.

[22] Similar observations were made by Mariano Prunes writing in AllMusic, "Fuerza Natural has a curious sequencing structure, as it seems to be organized in stylistic batches.

It begins with a trio of bona fide Cerati hits in that suave, effortless manner that always suited him so well; it then switches to a surprising but rather unsuccessful bluesy/folksy diptych.

Cerati played Stadiums and large venues in Mexico, Argentina, Peru, Chile, The United States, Uruguay, Colombia and Venezuela, 21 shows in total.

After his divorce from Cecilia Amenábar, Cerati dated the Argentine model Deborah del Corral,[24] ex-girlfriend of Soda Stereo drummer Charly Alberti in the 1990s.

Due to work obligations, Bello left his side before Cerati traveled to Caracas, where he suffered a stroke that led to a coma, complications from which eventually cost him his life four years later.

[33] While performing at Rock in Rio Madrid on 5 June 2010, Colombian singer Shakira dedicated her song "Sale el Sol" to Cerati.

[35] Swedish rockers Roxette performed the intro of "De Música Ligera" before their song "Joyride" in one of their Travelling the World Tour shows in May 2012.

[37] British rock band Coldplay paid tribute to Cerati by performing "De Música Ligera" on the final concerts of their A Head Full of Dreams Tour in La Plata, Argentina, on 14 November 2017.