Totó la Momposina
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Biography
Totó la Momposina was a Colombian singer, dancer, and folklorist, born Sonia Bazanta Vides on August 1, 1940, in Talaigua Nuevo, BolÃvar, Colombia. Raised in a family of musicians from the Mompox region, she began performing in the 1960s with her family ensemble and built her work around the Caribbean Colombian traditions of cumbia, bullerengue, porro, mapalé, chalupa, sexteto, and tambora. After representing Colombian culture at the 1982 Nobel Prize ceremony for Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez, she spent time in Paris, studied music and dance, and recorded her first album with Totó La Momposina y Sus Tambores in the mid-1980s. Her international breakthrough came with La Candela Viva, released by Real World Records in 1993 after sessions connected to Peter Gabrielâs WOMAD/Real World circle. Songs such as âEl Pescador,â âLa Candela Viva,â âDame la Mano Juancho,â âCurura,â and âLa Verdolagaâ helped present the Afro-Colombian and Indigenous roots of Caribbean Colombian music to a global audience. She followed with albums including Carmelina, Pacantó, Gaitas y Tambores, La Bodega, and El Asunto, and collaborated with artists such as Calle 13, Lila Downs, Celso Piña, and Jorge Celedón. Her appearance on Calle 13âs âLatinoaméricaâ won Latin Grammys for Record of the Year and Song of the Year in 2011, and she received the Latin Recording Academyâs Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013. In 2015, she revisited the La Candela Viva sessions on Tambolero, and in 2022 her family announced her retirement from the stage. Later archival and heritage releases included Totó La Momposina y Danzas Patrimoniales in 2023 and the remastered EP Mono Colorao in 2025. Totó la Momposina died in Mexico in May 2026 at the age of 85.
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Albums
Top Tracks
- Track Popularity
- Agua
- Millo Son
- El Piano de Dolores
- Oye Manita
- La Maya
- Las Cuatro Palomas
- Rosa
- Danza de Indios
- Hacha Machete y Garabato - La Tres Puntá
- El Manduco
- Mojana
- Espiritu featuring Totó la Momposina
- El Tigre
- Margarita
- Tres Golpes
- Aguacero de Mayo
- Cosas Pa? Pensar
- La Remontada by Totó la Momposina
- Ven Pronto
- La Ceiba
- Porro Magangueleño
- Mami Wata
- La Paloma
- Repárala
