Music City Guide: Bogotá

Over the years, LatinoLife has built up relationships with amazing DJs worldwide, whose passion, knowledge and dedication to music we admire. In the second part of our new series MUSIC CITY GUIDES, where we ask DJs from around Latin America for the songs that define the cities they play in, we travel to Bogotá. A country that has arguably become the Mecca of Latin music these days, every corner seems to produce their own sounds whilst embracing other sounds, its capital city has been the epicentre of the resurgence of Colombia as a music powerhouse. Here, top Bogotá DJ and music selector Puga gives us a flavour of his city through the music that Rolos have been partying to for the last 20 years!

by Puga

1. Festival en Guararé (Remix) - El Freaky

El Freaky collective represent the addictive weekend sounds of Bogota's underground: fiesta, carnival, party...this was an iconic song for more than 10 years and THE reference for Global Bass in Latin America .

2. Vivo en el Limbo - Kaleth Morales

in 2003 the New Wave (Nueva Ola) of Vallenato took place in Colombia and this song was the breakout hit. Alongside Silvester Dangond, it started a new era of traditional Colombian music being exported to the world. Sadly Kaleth died soon after finishing a promotional tour for this song.

3. La Pantera Mambo - Orquesta la 33

Salsa “Rola” (Salsa from Bogota) becomes known international at the the end of 2004. La 33 was comprised of outstanding professional musicians from the local conservatory and this tune kickstarted their great career as the band representing the capital city of Colombia

4. La Gota Fria - Carlos Vives

During the 90s, carlos Vives adventured into the fusion between folk music from the Colombian Caribbean and pop and rock sounds, creating along the way what would become known as Tropipop, which became the go to sound for future artists from the following decade. This sound became the sound of Bogota where it had it origins.

5. La Camisa Negra - Juanes

The new millennium arrived and Juanes and his "Camisa Negra” exploded in the capital. Mixing up the traditional rhythms of the Antoquia and Eje Cafetero regions and rock, this song charted for a very long time and gave a new identity to pop music in Colombia, and Bogotá, being the headquarters of that sound, embraced it fully!

7. Florecita Rockera - Aterciopelados

This song marked the beginning of Colombia's biggest Rock band. Aterciopelados were from Bogota and created their very own urban-punk style, loyal to their musical roots, this was their first big hit, from El Dorado album

8. Medley - Pandora

“Ironing” music came back with a vengeance to reclaim its throne in the noughties, and Pandora, the mexican girl band was the first acts to have an impact, with a tribute medley to the then deceased Juan Gabriel. Bogotá was the first big city to embraced the sound back and made it flourish!

9. Felina - Hector y Tito

Reggaeton as a proper music genre first happened in Colombia in 2002 with Felina. It took about 3 years to really establish itself in Bogota as a force, as it was frown upon by some area, as it was due to this song. The airwaves were dominated by mostly the leading Tropipop acts such as Bonka, Maurico & Palodeagua among others.

9. I Gotta Feeling - The Black Eyed Peas (David Guetta Remix)

With a new decade new fusions came to our capital, this time electronic music and hip hop creating the new pop with artist such as David Guetta, Bob Sinclair, Flo Rida and LMFAO who opened the door for a new party sound in Bogota which in time would evolve in what now EDM