José Montserrate Feliciano García (Spanish pronunciation: [xoˈse feliˈsjano]; born September 10, 1945) is a Puerto Rican musician.

He recorded many international hits, including his rendition of the Doors' "Light My Fire" and his self-penned Christmas song "Feliz Navidad".

José Montserrate Feliciano Garcia was born on September 10, 1945, in Lares, Puerto Rico, the fourth child of eleven sons.

[4] When Feliciano was five, his family moved to Spanish Harlem, New York City, where he made his first public appearance at the Teatro Puerto Rico in The Bronx.

He would play his guitar by himself in his room for up to 14 hours a day and would learn by listening to 1950s rock and roll, records of classical guitarists, and jazz players.

As a teenager, Feliciano took classical guitar lessons with Harold Morris, a staff music teacher at The Light House School for the Blind in New York City.

This was the beginning of a series of successful singles, albums and gold records throughout Latin America and Hispanic communities in the United States where Feliciano revolutionized the sound of the bolero.

A year later, Feliciano was scheduled to perform in the United Kingdom but the authorities would not allow his guide dog, Trudy, into the country unless she was quarantined for six months.

Devastated by their actions, Feliciano wrote a song about his experience entitled "No Dogs Allowed" (becoming a Netherlands Top 10 hit in 1969), which told the story of this first visit to London.

He also guested on a popular British television show with Dusty Springfield and recorded a rare single for RCA in England called "My Foolish Heart / Only Once" which was played on London radio [clarification needed].

Feliciano's style was clearly defining itself by that time as that of an innovative crossover artist with soul, folk and rock influences, infused with a substantial Latin flair.

His personalized, slow, Latin jazz performance[7] proved highly controversial and damaging to Feliciano's career in the months, even years, that followed.

In 1969, Feliciano recorded two more albums with Rick Jarrard, 10 to 23 and the London Palladium double-disc LP, Alive Alive-O!, both of which were awarded gold discs.

He also worked with Quincy Jones on the Mackenna's Gold movie soundtrack, where he recorded the theme song "Old Turkey Buzzard" and appeared on numerous US television shows, performing duets with Johnny Cash, Bing Crosby, Glen Campbell, Andy Williams, and Diana Ross.

"Feliz Navidad" has been covered internationally by hundreds of artists, becoming a traditional part of the musical landscape around the world at Christmas time.

He has also been a guest performer on many albums by other artists, including Bill Withers's +'Justments, John Lennon's Rock 'n' Roll, Joni Mitchell's Court and Spark, Michael Nesmith's Tantamount to Treason Vol.

In early 1974, Feliciano performed behind the Iron Curtain in Prague, Czechoslovakia, sharing the stage there with Czech idol, Karel Gott.

A second album was green-lighted by Lasker, entitled Me Enamore with the same production team, which was an even bigger hit, and received a Grammy for Best Latin Pop Performance.

This television special (and its soundtrack) featured Feliciano and many Puerto Rican and international stars singing some of his most famous songs, along with his personal favorites from other artists.

On October 16, 2007, Feliciano appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman to perform "Old Turkey Buzzard", the theme song from Mackenna's Gold.

Requested to perform it by Harwell himself, before he died, Jose played it the way he had in 1968 with his acoustic guitar and his slow tempo, Latin jazz style.

Soon Feliciano appeared on a song with reggaeton artist Farruko called Su hija me gusta, where a young man tells a father I like your daughter.

[22] He also began recording sessions[23] with Producers Howard Perl,[24] Jon Guggenheim, Juan Cristobal Losada, Wyclef Jean, Plácido Domingo, Billy Ray Cyrus, and Frank Licari.

On Flag Day, June 14, 2018, Feliciano was the keynote address speaker for the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. where 19 new citizens pledged their allegiance to the United States.

The Tigers were facing the St. Louis Cardinals again and they wanted Feliciano to recapture the moment reminiscent of their own 50th anniversary of winning the World Series.

" José was joined onstage with Puerto Rico's hottest reggaeton and Latin trap singer, Ozuna, where together they performed their Island's sentimental anthem, "En Mi Viejo San Juan".

The Cuban Revolution exerted strict ideological control over cultural expression, leading to the censorship and banning of numerous musicians and artists, in the 1960s and 1970s, who were deemed counter-revolutionary or too closely associated with capitalist influences.

[29] Despite—or perhaps because of—these prohibitions, however, his music remained immensely popular in underground circles and private gatherings, where it was secretly shared and celebrated by those who defied the regime's cultural restrictions.

[31] In December 2009, a parody of "Feliz Navidad" titled "The Illegal Alien Christmas Song" was created by radio producers Matt Fox and A. J.

Feliciano released a statement on December 23 on his official website: This song has always been a bridge to the cultures that are so dear to me, never as a vehicle for a political platform of racism and hate.