Born in Montevideo in 1964, his career got underway in 1991 when he won a prize at the First Montevideo Unreleased National Song Competition. He then recorded his first album, La luz que sabe robar. He performed his first headline concerts in Spain in 1995 and later, with the success that singer-songwriters enjoyed at that time, his career was unstoppable. He worked with major artists and composed for films, such as Lope, for which he won a Goya for Best Original Song (“Que el soneto nos tome por sorpresa”) and The Motorcycle Diaries, for which he won an Oscar for Best Original Song (“Al otro lado del río”). His latest album is Salvavidas de hielo, which was released in 2017.