Yotuel Omar Manzanarez Romero (born October 6, 1976), mononymously known as Yotuel, is a Cuban singer, actor, and current lead singer and co-writer of the 2003 Latin Grammy Award-winning Platinum album-selling rap group Orishas. Among other recordings, Emigrante won the 2003 Latin Grammy Award for Best Rap/Hip-Hop Album. This same album was also nominated for the 2003 Grammy Award for Best Latin Rock/Alternative Album.
Yotuel was born in Havana into an Afro-Cuban family. His name is a combination of three Spanish pronouns yo, tú and él (I, you, and he). His parents could not agree on a name so they decided to combine all 3 pronouns.
Yotuel began performing rap music early in life. When he was 18 years old he got together with his friend Hiram Riveri (aka Ruzzo) and Joel Pando and all three started a rap group called Amenaza (Menace). Having any success as a rap artist in Cuba proved difficult so he also started acting in theatre and television and doing some modelling work. During the year 1996 Liván Nuñez, a Cuban singer who lived in France, visited Cuba and told the struggling Amenaza group about his interest in recording some songs with them. In 1997 they won the first prize in the 3rd edition of the underground Cuban Rap Music Awards, later on that year they would record a demo produced by X Alfonso. This first group had a very good acceptance and a lot of radio play in Cuba and some national television appearances in Cuba. From all this found fame they meet Petra Morales a representative of a French non-profit organization called ADHESIF, she liked their work so she arranged for them to travel to France from Cuba to do a cultural exchange program and to promote them outside Cuba.