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Ready for another excelente “El Headliner?” The fans have spoken yet again and this month, they’ve crowned Miami local Xcelencia as their winner. And the reggaeton roof raiser seemed very touched by the honor, as he told us in an exclusive interview. “It felt great learning that I had been chosen as ‘El Headliner’,” he explained. “I hope to use this success to my advantage and help spread the word about my music. The goal of my music is to Americanize reggaeton. I want to help bring respect to the genre and I want people to see what a great genre it is.” Clearly Xcelencia takes his music very seriously. The half-Cuban, half-Puerto Rican maestro has been creating original sounds for years, first as a DJ and later as a one-man reggaeton band.

“I started out in music when I was very young,” he said. “At first I was interested in DJ’ing, but then I became fascinated by production and creating my own original songs. I also love the fact that I can express myself through my lyrics.” Xcelencia was actually born in Puerto Rico and divided younger years between the island and Orlando. Growing up amid two cultures, he was able to incorporate quite a lot of flavor into his songs. “Being raised between the states and Puerto Rico, I was exposed to a lot of great music,” he added. “I’ve been influenced by everything from hip/hop, to pop, to R&B and reggaeton. Artists like Daddy Yankee and Don Omar were huge influences.” And clearly Xcelencia wasn’t just enamored with performers. He told us music production is a passion of his too and he was able to implement it into his latest single, “Gravedad.” “I’m really proud of ‘Gravedad’ because I was involved in the whole process of the song. I wrote it, I produced it, everything to do with that project came strictly from me.” He went on to add how his passion for excellence helped garner him his now famous stage name.

“It’s funny, people in the studio started calling me Xcelencia,” he told us. “The ‘X’ part of it sounded cool, so I went with it and it stuck!” And as far as Xcelencia’s future is concerned, he’s confident that he will be an “El Headliner” to remember. Currently he’s working on his first full-length album, followed by high concept videos and a live show. You can follow Xcelencia’s happenings but keeping up with his official website. Have you heard “Gravedad” yet? Sound off in the comments or @MTV3.