Julissa.

Julissa Arce Rivera was born in Chicago in 1976, into a Puerto Rican family. She began singing at age twelve in her church choir, and by sixteen she was already recording with the group Generación Escogida, where she met producer Mike Rivera, her collaborator ever since. In 1998 she released her first solo album, Regresará por Mí, on her own label.

From there came a career spanning more than 25 years: her first live album, Admisión General (2002); Corazón Latino (2003), where she brought merengue and salsa into the Christian repertoire and recorded with Funky and Ricardo Rodríguez; Inolvidable (2006), with contemporary versions of classic hymns; El Ritmo de la Vida (2007), which came with a book of her own; Metamorfosis (2012), led by «El Gran Yo Soy»; Me Vistió de Promesas (2015); and Llueve (2019), recorded live to celebrate twenty years of ministry.

Her name also appears on award shortlists: nominations for the GMA Dove Awards for Mi Propósito (2006), El Ritmo de la Vida (2008) and Adorándote (2010), and one at the 2022 Arpa Awards in the Best Female Vocal Album or Track category for «Creemos Que Lo Harás».

In recent years her music took a symphonic turn. «Un Viaje Sinfónico de Fe y Esperanza» was recorded live at the Teatro Martí in Havana and brought those songs together on the album Memorias (2025); in 2026 she released «Fueron Tus Manos» in a mariachi version, alongside Ricardo Rodríguez. Julissa sings for the church —hymns, choruses and Spanish-language worship— for an audience that lives between two cultures and follows her from the United States to Latin America.