SANTO DOMINGO. – The icon singer songwriter Luis ‘Terror’ Dias passed away at 10:45 a.m. Tuesday in the CEDIMAT medical center, where he was hospitalized Sunday when he suffered a heart attack.

The medical report said the performer had two subsequent heart attacks Tuesday morning, after he was diagnosed with renal complications, hepatic deficiency and pulmonary edema.

Dias, 57, began his career in the 1970s with the folk group Convite, and had composed numerous songs popularized by other performers.

Considered a symbol of Dominican pop music, fusing folk with rock, Terror dedicated part of his life to teaching music to Dominican children, and obtained funds from the Spanish Cooperation Agency in that effort.

Among his compositions are “Guardia del Arsenal" (Guard of the Arsenal), "El Guachiman" (The Watchman), "Los Guloyas," about the carnival figures from Santo Pedro. The singers Sonia Silvestre, Fernando Villalona, among others performed his songs.

His most notable contribution is the song “Baila en la Calle” (Sing in the Street), adopted as the theme tune of the Santo Domingo Carnaval, and part of which the Colombian singer Shakira used in her latest production.