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55 albums · 1954–2025

Music of Colombia, from cumbia and vallenato to salsa, Aterciopelados, Shakira, Bomba Estéreo and today

· 2 min read · by 1001 Albums

Cumbia dancers in red and white with sombreros vueltiaos at the Barranquilla carnival
Totó la Momposina in an orange headscarf and a blue shawl, smiling in the evening lightLiliana Saumet of Bomba Estéreo crouching at the front of the stage with a microphone and green headphones
A cumbiamba at the Carnaval de Barranquilla, 2024. Photo: Jdvillalobos, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. · Totó la Momposina in Bogotá, 2010. Photo: Francois Viguie, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. · Liliana Saumet of Bomba Estéreo at Austin City Limits, 2011. Photo: Earl McGehee, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Colombia's popular music has the Caribbean coast at its root, Lucho Bermúdez's cumbias and porros, Pacho Galán's merecumbé and Los Corraleros de Majagual, the vallenato of Valledupar in Alejo Durán, Diomedes Díaz, Binomio de Oro and Carlos Vives's Clásicos de la Provincia, Totó la Momposina's drums and gaitas, the salsa of Fruko, Joe Arroyo and Cali's Grupo Niche, the currulao of the Pacific in Petrona Martínez and ChocQuibTown, the bambuco of Garzón y Collazos, the rock of Kraken and Aterciopelados's El Dorado, Shakira's Pies Descalzos, Juanes, Bomba Estéreo's cumbia, the hip hop of Alcolirykoz, and J Balvin, Karol G, Ela Minus and Lido Pimienta today, with the Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá for a nod to the concert hall. The list has 55 records from 1954 to 2025, one or two by each of the names above and only a small part of what they made, Lucho Bermúdez, Alejo Durán and Garzón y Collazos as the collections Deezer has of them, dated by their recordings, and Lido Pimienta counted as Colombia's from Toronto; the gaita groups and the carnival bands of Barranquilla, the joropo of the llanos beyond Cholo Valderrama, the bambuco beyond a few, champeta and most of the classical tradition would each need a list of their own. About 43 hours of music, 5 days of a few records each.

By genre

Latin 12%Rock 7%Pop 6%Other 75%
  • Latin 12%
  • Rock 7%
  • Pop 6%
  • Other 75%

The genres named most: colombian, cumbia, vallenato, pop, rock, hip hop.

The colours of the covers

A stripe for each cover, in the colour Tidal picks from it, sorted by hue; the greys at the end.

Where the music comes from

Music from 1 country: Colombia 55. The deeper the colour, the more albums: one, two to four, five to nine, ten and more.

The 1950s

The 1960s

The 1970s

The 1980s

The 1990s

The 2000s

The 2010s

The 2020s

More lists

Lists of Countries first, then others; all of them on the blog. The blog.