Alejandro Sánchez Pizarro, better known as Alejandro Sanz (; born 18 December 1968), is a Spanish musician, singer and composer. Sanz has won 22 Latin Grammy Awards and four Grammy Awards. He has received the Latin Grammy for Album of the Year three times. The singer is notable for his flamenco-influenced ballads, and has also experimented with several other genres including pop, rock, funk, R&B and jazz. Born in Madrid to parents from Andalusia, Sanz began playing guitar at age seven, taking influence from his family's flamenco roots. Sanz released his debut album at age nineteen, although he did not gain commercial success in Spain until his second release, Viviendo Deprisa (1991). His next two records, Si Tú Me Miras (1993) and 3 (1995) also fared well commercially, but it was his 1997 breakthrough album Más that garnered international success. El Alma al Aire followed in 2000, selling more than a million copies in its first week. In 2002, he became the first Spanish artist to record an MTV Unplugged album. His collaboration with Shakira on the 2005 single "La Tortura" reached number one on several charts worldwide. He experimented with more diverse styles of music with the albums No Es lo Mismo (2003) and El Tren de los Momentos (2006), while his 2009 release, Paraíso Express served as a return to form for the musician. Sanz signed to Universal Music Group in 2011 and released his tenth studio album, La Música No Se Toca, in 2012, followed by Sirope in 2015. Early life Sanz was born in Madrid, Spain, on 18 December 1968, the youngest son of María Pizarro and Jesús Sánchez. He grew up in the neighborhood of Moratalaz in eastern Madrid. Sanz recalled that "Back then, kids grew up on the street...I was a bit like the group troubadour; the one who played the guitar and sang. That kept me out of a lot of trouble." Sanz's father, a door-to-door book salesman, played guitar professionally, which inspired seven-year-old Sanz to learn to play the instrument. He pursued the instrument with an intensity that eventually frustrated his mother, who broke his guitar one morning after his playing kept the family from sleeping. He was exposed to traditional flamenco music as a child while vacationing each summer in his parents' native Andalusia in southern Spain. Originally, Sanz intended to become a flamenco performer, but he found the music teachers