“I kept working, but in a place where you couldn’t see me,” Vives says. “There had been a lot of new things going on in Colombia.”

Vives’ success and his music are deeply rooted in Colombia. He started as a soap-opera actor and moved on to romantic pop music, a typical path for a Latin entertainer. But in 1994 he released an album that would transform his career and Latin music.

Clasicos de la Provincia fused traditional, accordion-powered vallenato music from Colombia’s Caribbean coast, where Vives was raised, with pop and rock. It was joyful, infectious, authentic and different, launching Vives to international stardom. Its blend of traditional and contemporary sounds would help set a new template for artists ranging from Juanes and Shakira to Fonseca and Bomba Estereo.

Corazon Profundo continues in the same vein, and features Vives’ longtime band and his songwriting and producing partner, Andres Castro. Many of the songs have themes of rebirth and rejuvenation, including Volvi a Nacer (Born Again), which topped U.S. radio charts when it was released last fall. Vives got another boost from Telo, who was inspired as a child by his music and with whom he recorded another hit, the buoyant, sexy beach anthem Como Le Gusta a Tu Cuerpo.

Vives said the music came more easily this time.

“I think that on previous records we always tried so many things, and there was always something painful about it,” he says. “On this record it was like I had learned something from all the work I’d done before, and it just came out more easily and we enjoyed it more.”

His new manager, Walter Kolm, a former marketing vice president for Universal Latin Music who put the singer together with Sony Music Latino, thinks his client’s renewed energy will be key to his comeback.

“When I met with him I said, ‘Do you want to go back?’ and he said, ‘Yeah, let’s do it,’ ” says Kolm, who flew to Colombia last year to court Vives. “I think all this time away was good. He has a new family … he was helping many new artists. This comeback finds Carlos in a moment when he can take responsibility for an international tour.

“People like him because he’s real and they know that he’s real. Rockers respect him, pop artists respect him, everyone respects him.”

Leila Cobo, Billboard Magazine’s executive director for Latin music content and programming, says Vives’ stature and history should help bring back his longtime audience and attract new fans, even in a very different music world.

“His music is very unique. … You really can’t replace Carlos Vives,” Cobo writes in an email. “I think there is always a younger fan out there if their parents introduce them to the music. … Latin music is far more segmented now, so you can have Vives fans and [urban-bachata heartthrob] Romeo [Santos] fans co-existing.”

Vives says he’s ready to take on the music scene again.

“I took time to understand that a lot of things have changed, and you always have to adjust to changes,” he says. “It’s not easy for those of us who have a way of doing things, but it’s also difficult for new artists.

“But I think that at the end, while things may change, circumstances may change, there has to be a space for an artist to reach his audience and do his magic, do his work.”