La Ley

La Ley (Spanish for "The Law") was a Grammy Award and two-time Latin Grammy Award-winning Chilean pop rock band formed by Andrés Bobe and Rodrigo Aboitiz with Mauricio Claveria, Beto Cuevas and Luciano Rojas in Santiago, Chile. They were originally formed in 1987, and was meant to be a techno/new rave band led by a female vocalist. The original vocalist of the band was Lucía "Shia" Arbulu, female singer that returned to her hometown, Spain, in 1988, shortly after the release of the first EP of the group, which was entitled La Luna. This release that was later not considered part of La Ley's discography. Some time after Beto Cuevas joined as the new vocalist, and after a failed first album, Desiertos (1989), they released Doble Opuesto (1990), which appears as the official first album of the band. Singles like "Desiertos," "Tejedores de Ilusión," and "Prisioneros de la Piel" made them popular in Chile, Argentina and Mexico, especially after the release of La Ley, their second recording (1992). After Bobe's death in 1994, La Ley continued with a new guitarist, Pedro Frugone, and released two more albums, Invisible (1995) and Vértigo (1998). Before the release of Vertigo, Rodrigo Aboitiz left the band, and in 1999, in the middle of the tour, bassist Luciano Rojas, left the band. They went on to form a new group named Saiko with former La Ley member, Ivan Delgado. Their music became more pop and less experimental, and the musicians dropped their dark image. Not all of their fans were on board with the new style, but the album, Uno (2000), showed their maturation as a band and as a group. The band also became a trio after the departures of Rodrigo Aboitiz and Luciano Rojas. The album won the Grammy Award for Best Latin Rock/Alternative Album. La Ley also performed on MTV Unplugged in 2001, and released an album of the performance, which went on to win a Latin Grammy award. Libertad (2003) is La Ley's last official album, also earning them their second Latin Grammy. In 2004, they released a greatest hits compilation (featuring three new songs: Mírate, Bienvenido al Anochecer, and Histeria) titled Historias e Histeria. In 2005 Rodrigo Aboitiz and Luciano Rojas performed with the band at the Viña del Mar International Song Festival (Spanish: Festival Internacional de la Canción de Viña del Mar) and after a tour around Latin America, the band said goodbye in Buenos Aires on September 29 of the same year, to work in their personal projects. They left open the possibility for a come back of La Ley in the future though.