Fito Blanko looks to follow in Drake's footsteps In the summer of 2009, Drake was well into his rocket ride to worldwide fame and quickly becoming the most popular urban crossover star in pop music. But he still made time to record a single titled "Mambo" with longtime friend Roberto Testa, who performs under the stage name Fito Blanko. Drake was familiar with Blanko's unique brand of music â€" a Spanish-language hybrid of reggae, hip hop and techno suffused with traditional Latin American sounds â€" and knew Blanko would find a market for it once he got his career back on track. "You're better than a lot of the guys out there doing it," Drake told him. "So do it." Blanko spent 2011 doing it, placing multiple singles on Billboard Magazine's Latin charts in the US In 2012, he plans to do it even bigger, with an album set for a winter release and a growing network of connections among Latin music's heavy hitters south of the border. While Drake is the latest in a long line of ! Canadians to find US success in urban and rock music, Blanko, 28, is set to join the few with a significant impact in a Latin music market that's rapidly growing in the US In 2010, British Columbia's Alex Cuba won the Latin Grammy for Best New Artist, blazing a trail the Panama-born Blanko hopes to follow. "This is completely attainable," says Blanko, who lived in Montreal before moving to Mississauga at 13 (he's a graduate of John Cabot Catholic Secondary School). "Being Latino and from Canada is a ...
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