Carlos Santana is a Grammy Award-winning Mexican-American Guitarist, songwriter, and bandleader. He is best known for combining rock and jazz rhythms with Latin sounds. His discography includes Abraxas, Supernatural, and Shaman.

carlos santana biography

Carlos Santana born as Carlos Augusto Santana Alves on 20 July 1947 – Autlán de Navarro, Jalisco, México, is a Mexican rock guitarist. Santana became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana, which pioneered rock, salsa and jazz fusion. The band’s sound featured his melodic, blues-based guitar lines set against Latin and African rhythms.

Santana continued to work in these forms over the following decades. He experienced a resurgence of popularity and critical acclaim in the late 1990s. In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine listed Santana at number 15 on their list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. He has won 10 Grammy Awards and 3 Latin Grammy Awards.

his career

Santana began playing the violin at age five; by age eight, however, he had switched to the guitar. As a teenager, he played in bands in Tijuana, Mexico, where he was exposed not only to the local norteno music but to blues, especially to guitarists T-Bone Walker and B.B. King.

Although his family moved to San Francisco in the 1960s, Santana returned frequently to Tijuana. Influenced by the San Francisco Bay Area’s burgeoning rock scene, in 1966 he formed the Santana Blues Band, which came to the attention of rock music impresario Bill Graham. The band began performing at the legendary club Fillmore West, and, though largely unknown, it triumphed at the Woodstock Festival in 1969.

Signed to Columbia, Santana’s band—by then known as Santana, “Blues Band” having been dropped from the name—released a series of hit albums that infused rock with a Latin feel rooted in Afro-Cuban rhythms and that centred on Carlos’s extraordinary lead guitar playing, characterized by the distinctive sustaining of individual notes that became his trademark. 

Santana, featuring the top-10 hit “Evil Ways,” peaked at number four on the album charts in 1969. Abraxas, with the hits “Black Magic Woman” and “Oye Como Va,” reached number one the next year. Santana III (1971) and Caravanserai (1972) followed.

Over the next two decades, however, the group’s output was more uneven—and less commercially successful—as Santana led ever-shifting personnel toward a jazz-rock fusion that reflected his admiration for Miles Davis and John Coltrane and resulted in collaborations with jazz artists such as Buddy Miles, Stanley Clarke, and John McLaughin.

Having earlier shown an interest in spirituality, particularly the philosophy of Sri Chinmoy, Santana became a born-again Christian in 1992. Meditation and mysticism became central to his life, and he began to see himself as a musical shaman whose pursuit of songs that offered hope and healing culminated in Supernatural (1999). 

Supernatural—crafted with the support of such notable collaborators as pop rocker Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty, hip-hop luminary Lauryn Hill, fellow guitar legend Eric Clapton , and former Arista Records head Clive Davis—helped Santana launch an important comeback.

In 2000 he won three Latin Grammy and eight Grammy awards—including album of the year for Supernatural and song of the year for “Smooth.”

Santana’s lasting contribution was marked by his group’s induction (1998) into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2013 he was named a Kennedy Center honoree.

carlos santana net worth

Santana has an estimated net worth of $120 million.

Carlos Santana Popular Songs

Below are Carlos Santana popular songs of all time:

1. Santana Celebration

Santana Celebration is the second track on Santana’s most recent album, Blessings and Miracles, and it is a guitar-driven song that will make you turn your lid.

2. Smooth

Perhaps the first song people think of when they contemplate Santana today, “Smooth,” was everywhere in 1999 and for several years after. The song, which featured Rob Thomas of the rock band Matchbox Twenty, was featured on Supernatural. Additionally, it topped the Billboard Hot 100 for twelve consecutive weeks.

3. Everybody’s Everything

Everybody’s Everything was the first single from the album Santana III, released in 1971. The single reached number twelve on the Billboard Hot 100.

4. Winning

Winning was written by Russ Ballard for his 1976 album, Winning, and was later included on the 1981 album Zebop! Santana’s song rendition reached No. 2 on the Mainstream Rock Chart and No. 17 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.

5. Maria Maria

This song was composed by several artists, including Wyclef Jean, Herry Duplessis, Santana, Karl Perazzo, and Raul Rekow, who sampled the Headhunters’ “God Make Me Funky.” The composition earned the Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals Grammy in 2000.

6. Soul Sacrifice

Soul Sacrifice was performed instrumentally at Woodstock in 1969. It was an audience fave at the renowned music festival. This track is from the artist’s 1969 self-titled debut album.

7. Love of My Life

Love of My Life is the second track from Santana’s 1999 blockbuster album Supernatural and features Dave Matthews. As the title suggests, it is a love ballad performed with sultry vocals by Matthews.

8. Evil Ways

Another song made famous by Satana, “Evil Ways”, was the artist’s first success, appearing on his 1969 self-titled debut album. Clarence Henry originally wrote the composition, which Willie Bobo recorded in 1967. The song was Santana’s first top 40 success, peaking at No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100.

9. Oye Coma Va

Also published in 1970 by Santana on Abraxas, Tito Puente’s “Oye Como Va” reached No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100. In 2002, it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Black Magic Woman

Black Magic Woman was written by British musician Peter Green and first appeared on Santana’s 1970 album Abraxas. It was published by Fleetwood Mac in 1968. With the assistance of vocalist Gregg Rolie, Santana made it his own. The song reached No. 4 in the United States.

FAQs About Carlos Santana Net Worth

Below are a few frequently asked questions about Carlos Santana net worth I have answered for you