New York, Aug 3 (IANS/EFE): Former Miss Universe Amelia Vega will be releasing her debut album "Agua dulce" in August.

Vega does not hide her happiness when she speaks about her musical project, two years in the making, which will hit store shelves Aug 30 and includes various musical genres and even a duet with merengue icon Johnny Ventura.

"I'm very grateful to him. For me it's an honour that he agreed to record with me," the Dominican beauty said in an interview with EFE.

"Agua dulce", which Vega produced along with Venezuela's Archie Pena, who has worked with the likes of Madonna, Shakira and Ricky Martin, has 10 songs.

The 2002 Miss Universe said that the variety of genres on her album comes in response to having been raised within a family of musicians, among whom were a grandmother who played the piano and accordion, a great-grandfather who sang opera and a female cousin who did the same.

"I wanted to combine those generations of musical tastes with my own. It took me a lot of time to create that musical identity and to give it coherence but (make them) different. They can have a marriage, they have a sound that unites them," she said.

"Agua dulce", recorded in the Dominican Republic and Miami, includes the talents of four members of 4.40, Juan Luis Guerra's band.

"It was an honour to share with him, to listen to the anecdotes of someone so talented, about his beginnings, about how someone struggles to be someone in music, about the discipline to get where he is," Vega said about working with her uncle.