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| Carlos Vives is one of the biggest names in Latin Music and is loved not only for his upbeat music, but also for his powerful stage performances. A native of Colombia, he has popularized the accordion-based Vallenato music blending it with elements of Rock & Roll. His sound is most popular in Latin America and Spain. Vives' first major hit was "La Gota Fria" a witty tune from his 1994 debut "Clasicos de la Provincia", which sold over a million albums. His second album "La Tierra del Olvido" (1995) was equally successful followed by "Tengo Fe" (1997). "El Amor de Mi Tierra" is the fourth album for Carlos Vives and one of his best, selling over 373,900 units in the U.S., 300.000 in Spain and 150.000 in Colombia. Of the eleven songs on this album, nine were written by Carlos with the help from his band La Provincia. Other collaborators include Martin Madera ("El Amor de Mi Tierra"), and Emilio Estefan, Jr. (Executive Producer) and Angie Chirino ("19 de Noviembre"). A truly international collection of songs, "El Amor de Mi Tierra" was released simultaneously in the U.S., Spain and throughout Latin America, followed by releases in other European countries.
Last year, Carlos Vives received a total of six nominations to the 1st Annual Latin Grammy Awards (LARAS):
Recording of the Year:
"Fruta Fresca"
Album of the Year:
"El Amor de Mi Tierra"
Song of the Year:
"Fruta Fresca"
Best Male Pop Vocal Performance
"Fruta Fresca"
Producer of the Year
He was also nominated last year for the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards for Best Traditional Tropical Performance for album "El Amor de Mi Tierra". On BILLBOARD's Hot Latin Tracks, Vives single " Fruta Fresca" spent a total of 6 weeks at #1 during a nine week period beginning January 8th and ending March 4th (totaling 26 weeks on the charts). The album "El Amor de Mi Tierra" was #2 on the Top 50 Latin Albums for the year.
Emilio Estefan, Jr. was also nominated for Producer of the Year for the Latin Grammy for several productions among the nominations was Carlos Vives' "El Amor de Mi Tierra".
Vives most recent album"DÉJAME ENTRAR" is a fusion of many variants and trends, including Andean sounds. An expression of ethnic diversity. Life and rhythm. Tropical pop. Solidity and heart. Tenderness that comes from an inner nostalgia, but also an explosive carnival. Titled “Déjame Entrar,” Carlos Vives’ new album belongs to Latin America’s pop culture, modern and renovated. Technically, it could be called many things. “But for me, it is just one type of music, one feeling; although if I had to classify it as something, I would say it is tropical pop,” says Carlos Vives. “My folklore is tropical. And my music, because it is a modern version of that folklore, it is pop at the same time,” adds Vives about an album that featured a team of talented producers such as Emilio Estefan Jr., Sebastian Krys, Manuel Riveira, Carlos Vives himself and Andrés Castro.
In this, his third album for EMI / Virgin, 10 songs are featured along with a bonus track (a second version of “Déjame Entrar”), to make up 11 in all. All of the songs were written by Carlos Vives, with some of his colleagues from La Provincia, and with his producers. An expression of his poetic and rhythmic quality, the album’s first single, ‘Déjame Entrar,’ which hit the number one spot in Billboard’s Hot Latin Charts ‘Déjame Entrar,’ a romantic pop song, joyful, danceable, boasts lots of drums and modern guitars. But due to its melodic and harmonious essence, it is also very representative of the vallenato genre and of Colombia’s Caribbean coast. All the new songs were conceived in a team-like fashion, except for ‘A Las Doce Menos Diez,’ with lyrics and music by Carlos Vives. Because of the warmth of its rhythm, the directness of its lyrics, and happy interpretation, ‘Luna Nueva’ is a musical feast of extraordinary collective strength. Rescuing the chronicle, which was used as a basic element in the musical traditions of his ancestors, the album’s most representative song of vallenato, ‘Carito,’ refers to a beautiful teacher who taught English in Santa Marta. Hailing from Boston, she is a real person, someone Carlos remembers “with great fondness.”
According to the artist, everyone in class was in love with her. “In my town, this blonde, white, blue-eyed woman from Boston, who did not speak Spanish, left her mark on us. It has been really wonderful to express these memories, paying tribute to North American culture without abandoning our own.” The ‘Carito’ song allows Carlos Vives to have fun with some phrases in English, experimenting somewhat with a language crossover, while vallenato remains the means of telling a story. In this same tradition, [Colombian music legend] Escalona sang to a Brazilian woman; and another Colombian composer to a Polish woman. “Songs are made everywhere,” says Carlos Vives. “Generally, however, we work more comfortably when we are in Bogotá or in Santa Marta.” There, for example, along with Bogotá musician and La Provincia guitar player Andrés Castro, Carlos wrote ‘Santa Elegía,’ a song about the terrible human consequences provoked by the violence that has befallen his country.
It is the album’s shortest song in terms of lyrics. “In that song, we try to show how valuable people’s lives are, keeping away from the more traditional motifs.” Regarding his motivations, Carlos Vives maintains that, for him, the genre of cumbia is like his blues, since both types of music originated around the same time, in the age of slavery. “The cumbia gave life to the vallenato, at a time when men were freer, when men worked the land and made the valley their home.” That’s the beginning of the concept of “vallenato,” the music that springs from the valley. Carlos tells of the time, around 1986, 1987, when guitar player Bernardo Velasco, from the group Distrito Especial, in Bogotá, and Ernesto Teto Ocampo, La Provincia’s lead guitarist, “discovered in Colombian music, through the electric guitar and the drums, a pattern for cumbia similar to rock. What they did was to rock the cumbia, but not borrowing any kind of pattern, but with its very own code.” This is another one of the influences of Carlos’ style; a musical search that has earned him nine Grammy nominations, including one for “Déjame Entrar” in 2002 & Latin Grammy Award for Best Tropical Album & best song, and many international awards. |
Leslie Ahrens
