His career began in 1996 as a member of various bands in the Dominican Republic. During that time Santacruz found to have writing skills and bought his first guitar. In this period he also participated in studio recordings as a background singer for other artists, and also for radio and TV commercials. In 2000 he was part of the MQV Church choir for two years next to Juan Luis Guerra, who is the musical director of the church. In 2003 together with Ambiorix Francisco, Santacruz produced his first solo album: Por un beso, earning a nomination for Premio Lo Nuestro as Best New Artist. From 2004 to 2007 Santacruz took a break from the stage and started writing and producing for other artists. At the end of 2008 his second album Radio Rompecorazones is released, produced by himself with Alejandro Jaen. The single "Adónde va el amor?" along with the album achieved two Latin Grammy Award nominations in 2009, Best Contemporary Tropical Album and Best Tropical Song. Both the single and the album received an incredible support in the United States, Latin America and Europe. History repeats itself in 2011 when his third album Bachata Stereo produced again with Jaén in collaboration with Richy Rojas, with just two months on the market receives again a nomination in the Latin Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Tropical Album His song "Lento", a sensual Kizomba fusion which has a video with the Kizomba dancer sensation: Sara Lopez is one of Daniel's biggest hits. To the date Lento has more than 100 million views in Youtube. In 2016 his album "Toda La Vida" got a nomination for The Latin Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Tropical Album and the song "La Carretera" co-written with Prince Royce got a nomination as well for best Tropical song.
Songwriter
Daniel Santacruz is considered a hit maker, since 2004 Santacruz has written top charting songs for artists such as Prince Royce, Shakira, Ha-Ash, Hector Acosta, Toby Love, Reik, Monchy y Alexandra, Leslie Grace, Victor Manuel, Charlie Cruz, José Feliciano, Milly Quezada, Andy Andy among others. Since 2004, Daniel has received 12 ASCAP awards, 3 Billboards, 2 Latin American Music Awards, and 3 Premio Lo Nuestro for the songs "Perdidos" and "No Es Una Novela", and "Soy El Mismo" performed Prince Royce besides 6 Latin Grammy nominations for 3 of his own albums and some of his songs. In 2018 Santacruz received the Dominican Republic Soberano Award for Songwriter of the Year for second time in a row.