Totó La Momposina

Totó La Momposina

Totó La Momposina is a Colombian singer from Bolívar, Colombia. She performs with Totó la Momposina y sus Tambores and is associated with bullerengue, cumbia, cumbia colombiana, latin and porro. Her work draws on Afro-Colombian, Indigenous and wider Afro-Caribbean traditions.

Background

Born Sonia Bazanta Vides, she is from the northern village of Talaigua on the island of Mompós. Her music reflects the mixed cultural history of Colombia’s Caribbean coast, combining pre-Columbian flutes, African drums and guitar-based traditions that connect to Spanish and Moorish influences.

Style and repertoire

Her repertoire brings together porro, puya and gaita with Afro-Latin cumbia, mapalé and sexteto. She describes this music as living tradition rather than folklore in a museum sense, and her performances are known for strong vocal delivery, flute and percussion-led arrangements, and brass and guitar-driven cumbias and sextetos.

Career

She reaches international attention with the 1993 album La Candela Viva on Peter Gabriel’s Real World Records. The record helps establish her as a major figure in the revival of northern Colombia’s coastal music, and she continues to perform at major music festivals.

Awards and collaborations

Totó La Momposina receives two Latin Grammy Awards from four nominations for her collaboration with Calle 13 on the song “Latinoamérica”. She also receives a Latin Grammy lifetime achievement award in 2013.