MUSIC OF COLOMBIA – CARIBBEAN
Like the brilliantly coloured tropical flowers that lace the Caribbean, the culture of this region of Colombia is woven from the multi-coloured threads of several European countries.
It is difficult to imagine Colombia without music, as in Colombia, music is passion. It is a sensory experience. Music is in the blood or as they say, “llevamos la música en la sangre”.
No trip to Colombia is complete without hearing some of the country’s celebrated music. In Colombia, they do not just hear the music, they feel it, breathe it, live it. They do not tell stories, they sing them with the sound of accordions.
Music is such an important part of Colombian culture. It is a way of expressing emotions, sharing feelings, or showing love to friends and family. It is a way for Colombians to demonstrate pride for their roots and a way of living in the moment.
A drumbeat runs throughout Colombia, finding new rhythms to tap to as it flows from region to region. In the Caribbean, African beats and indigenous sounds blend, drawing participants into seductive turns and poses.
This passion for music and the love for dancing is actually a major factor that endears others to Colombia. Without doubt, Colombia’s best-known musical export is pop singer Shakira, who hails from Barranquilla.
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No trip to Colombia is complete without hearing and enjoying some of the country’s most celebrated music.
CUMBIA
Cumbia, now global, is believed to have originated in Colombia’s Caribbean Magdalena department. This is where indigenous Colombians, African slaves, and Spanish colonialists mingled.
Famous for its signature rhythm, Cumbia began as a courtship dance practiced among the African slaves and later mixed with Amerindian steps and joined by European and African instruments with their musical characteristics.
Cumbia has, over time, fused African percussion with indigenous wind instruments, resulting in infectious rhythms that bring you to your feet.
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Initially, Cumbia was performed using only drums and claves. Then, as time progressed, it incorporated other influences from the indigenous Kogui and Kuna tribes with flutes and percussion. Not stopping there, a Spanish element evolved through the addition of European guitars and accordions from the Germans.
A diverse and flexible genre, cumbia in Colombia has developed along two distinct strands, the more traditional porro, and a modern variant.
Cumbia has spread to other Latin American countries, including Argentina, Mexico, and Peru, where it has deviated significantly from its original sound and blended with the local genres and modern sounds of each respective area. Even if you have not yet visited Colombia, you have probably heard cumbia beats and seen cumbia dance.
The aforementioned Shakira, one of the country’s most recognized artists, has been a great ambassador of this genre.
So popular in Latin America and across the globe, the hypnotic sounds of cumbia bring alive the rhythm of Colombia.
FAMOUS CUMBIA SINGERS AND THEIR SONGS
Colombia Tierra Querida, La Pollera Colora, and La Piragua are three particularly well-loved and popular songs in the cumbia genre.
There are too many to name all of them when it comes to famous singers. However, among the most appreciated is Juanes, a massively popular Colombian singer throughout Latin America. Juanes mixes cumbia and vallenato with pop and rock.
Carlos Vives from Santa Marta, is a Colombian legend whose career has spanned over 30 years and has had many hits singing cumbia and vallenato songs.
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Totó la Momposina is a Colombian singer of Afro-Colombian and Indigenous descent and is considered one of the most important and influential artists in Latin American music. She is also known as the original Queen of Cumbia.
La Sonora Dinamita is one of the first popular cumbia music groups. La Sonora Dinamita has featured many women lead vocalists, including Vilma Díaz and Mélida Yará.
ADDITIONAL LINKS TO CUMBIA MUSIC
VALLENATO
Vallenato originated in the Upar valley between the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains and the Venezuelan border. It is traditionally played with an indigenous gaita flute, a caja drum, and a scratchy-sounding guacharaca percussion instrument.
Perhaps the most famous genre in Colombia, older vallenatos typically tell a story or relive a legend, while modern vallenato songs are about the love of a woman, be it one lost or one seen to be attractive. It is believed that apart from its ceremonial and entertainment value, vallenato grew out of an oral tradition that brought news from village to village.
The music of vallenato, whose meaning is literally “from the valley” in Spanish, comes from the northern coast of Colombia, specifically the valley between the mountains of Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and Serranía de Perijá in the northeast, near Venezuela. It has its roots in Spanish and West African rhythms, and its signature accordion sound comes from European immigrants to Colombia.
Vallenato was originally considered the music of the lower classes and farmers. However, during the mid-20th century, it gradually started penetrating every social group. Vallenato artists tell everyday stories of love and loss. In recent years, artists like Carlos Vives have begun mixing vallenato with more popular music for a modern variant.
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Along with cumbia, vallenato is one of the most loved Colombian music genres. This genre is characterized by its literary content and narrative style.
FAMOUS VALLENATO SINGERS AND THEIR SONGS
Diomedes Díaz
The biggest record seller in vallenato history, selling more than 20 million records. He won a Latin Grammy in 2010 in the Cumbia & Vallenato category.
Alejandro Duran
A composer, singer, and recording artist who won the first Festival Vallenato. He composed some songs with a left-wing political tone, which was rare for the genre.
Rafael Escalona
A renowned Colombian artist who was a major instigator of the vallenato music air in the 1930s.
Binomio De Oro
A Colombian music group known for their upbeat, accordion-heavy sound that draws from the traditional style of vallenato.
Totó la Momposina
A highly respected singer and dancer whose work draws on the music and dance of the Colombian Caribbean.
CHAMPETA
This is a lively style of dance and music that was born in the 1970s by Afro-Colombians living in the Atlantic coastal regions around Cartagena, Barranquilla and Palenque. The dance is characterized by rapid hip movements and the music seamlessly blends vocal, percussion, bass and electronic instruments, making it easy to catch the rhythm.
This genre was rejected by mainstream culture for many years, categorized as the music of gangsters, just as rap in the United States experienced the same treatment. Attitudes have since evolved and now it is common practice to hear champeta featured in many locations. The lyrics celebrate the unshakeable spirit of Afro-Colombians and remind listeners of the genre’s once-controversial roots.
Champeta is more than a music genre or a dance; it is a movement. It began in the early ’80s among Afro-Colombians, mainly around Cartagena de Indias.
The word champeta originally denoted a kind of knife used in the region for work, in the kitchen or even sometimes as an offensive weapon. The term champetudo then started to be used by the elites of the city to refer to those residents of the more outlying districts of Cartagena, who tended to be poorer and of African descent.
Champeta is a fusion of rhythms from Africa (soukous, mbaqanga, juju), the Antilles (ragga, compás haitiano) and music of Indigenous and Afro-Colombian origins (bullerengue, mapalé, zambapalo and chalupa).
A trip to Palenque, the first free Black community in the Americas, provides a glimpse into Colombia’s African history, and visitors are often treated to live performances where champeta takes centre stage. The popular Bazurto Social Club in Cartagena offers weekly live champeta performances.
Champeta has evolved during the last decades, passing from being a music genre and dance of the so-called poor, to being one of the favourite music genres of the middle and upper classes in Bogotá.
FAMOUS CHAMPETA SINGERS AND THEIR SONGS
Kevin Flórez
A Colombian singer-songwriter, for his work in the urban champeta genre, he has won several local and national awards. He is best known for songs like La Invité a Bailar, Con ella, and La Pikotera.
Tribu Baharú
Born in the Colombian capital of Bogotá, far from the traditional heartland of champeta music. However, other members of the group mostly hail from the Caribbean coast.
Steeped in the traditional sounds and rhythms of champeta, the band has suggested that, as with many classic champeta bands, the majority of their influence stems from the soukous they would hear at parties when they were younger.
Viviano Torres
One third of the so-called Holy Trinity of champeta music, with two other artists, Viviano Torres, was born in Palenque and was an original member of Son Palenque.
Subsequently, he formed the band Anne Swing, a group that many experts have claimed essentially gave birth to champeta as a genre.
As the oldest of the famous trio, Viviano Torres is perhaps the single most influential figure in champeta’s history.
Charles King
A famous Colombian singer who helped develop the genre of champeta, the style of Afro-Colombian music that blends guitar and drum sounds with African rhythms.
Abelardo Carbonó
Often called the Godfather of Champeta, Abelardo Carbonó, from the small coastal town of Cienaga, started playing guitar when he was very young. His pulsating tracks and searing guitar sound, inspired by the African records played in Barranquilla at the time, have made him one of champeta’s most iconic stars.
Wganda Kenya
A band that embodies the essence of champeta music, Wganda Kenya was formed by legendary salsa musician Fruko. Several of their well-known tracks reference and recompose classic champeta music, with their classic track Shakalaode.
Justo Valdez
He is a founding member of Son Palenque, arguably the most influential Afro-Colombian band of all time. Born in the small Caribbean village of San Basilio de Palenque, which is generally considered the spiritual birthplace of champeta, alongside Barranquilla.
His band was instrumental in shaping the future sounds of champeta, and many of their classic tracks carry all the hallmarks of the genre. As a solo artist, however, he recorded his purest champeta tracks.
PORRO
A tropical music genre, porro comes from the Caribbean coast, but has spread right across the country. It is a joyful style of music danced by couples and closely aligned with cumbia, but somewhat faster. Played mostly by brass bands or orchestras, it is performed with clarinets, flutes, drums, trombones, trumpets, and tubas.
According to some accounts, the origins of porro date back to the 16th century and have seen a resurgence in recent years in Medellín. Hailing from the Sinu River area of the Caribbean coast, porro, a sub-genre of cumbia, lends itself to ballroom dancing. This orchestral style was favoured by popular Latin American bands in the 1960s and while some say its popularity peaked during that era, a new movement is reviving it to its former glory.
A large bombo drum guides the dance’s rhythm. Nowadays in Medellín, porro has been embraced by the younger generation and is even taught in local dance schools.
The city hosts an annual Festival del Porro in the restored La Comuna 13 neighbourhood, inviting visitors to practice their moves and keep the tradition alive. The National Porro Festival takes place in San Pelayo, Cordoba and brings together the most celebrated porro bands.
FAMOUS PORRO SINGERS AND THEIR SONGS
Systema Solar
A colourful Colombian band, formed in 2006 by artists who wanted to bring Colombian sounds to the world. The band has a strong Afro-Colombian influence and combines dance, hip hop, and breakbeat with rhythms including cumbia, champeta, and porro, which have indigenous origins.
Maria Mulata
Singer Maria Mulata was born high in the Andes, a few miles from the Magdalena River, where she was raised on bambuco, cumbia, porro, and vallenato. She has recorded four critically acclaimed albums, including Los Vestidos de la Cumbia and De Cantos y Vuelos. She sings in Spanish, Palenque, Creole from San Andres, and various indigenous languages.
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