Vallenato
Encyclopedia
Vallenato, along with cumbia
, is currently a popular folk music
of Colombia
. It primarily comes from the Colombia's Caribbean region. Vallenato literally means "born in the valley". The valley influencing this name is located between the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta
and the Serranía de Perijá in northeast Colombia. The name also applies to the people from the city where this genre originated: Valledupar
(from the place named Valle de Upar - "Valley of Upar"). In 2006 Vallenato and cumbia were added as a category in the Latin Grammy Awards
.
n-inherited tradition of griots (African version of juglar), who used to travel through the region with their cattle in search of pastures or to sell them in cattle fairs. Because they traveled from town to town and the region lacked rapid communications, these farmers served as bearers of news for families living in other towns or villages. Their only form of entertainment during these trips was singing and playing guitars or indigenous gaita
flutes, known as kuisi
s in the Kogi
language, and their form of transmitting their news was by singing their messages.
The first form of Vallenato was played with gaita flute
s, guacharaca
, and caja, and later adopted other instruments like guitar
s. These troubadors were later influenced by Europe's instruments: piano
and accordion
. Shocked with the sound from the accordion, troubadors probably obtained later on accordions from Aruba
and Curaçao
. Vallenato was considered music of the lower class and farmers, but gradually started penetrating through every social group during the mid-20th century.
Don Clemente Quintero—a prominent member from the region's elite—was a lover of this music, usually accompanied by liquor, was a form of entertainment for this almost isolated region. He then decided to start a parranda (party) inside the very strict Valledupar Social Club with friends. This triggered an acceptance for the music and it became a regular feature at parties, carnivals and reunions, not for dancing, but for listening to these juglares stories .
Alfonso López Michelsen
, a prominent Colombian politician, showed interest in the region as his ancestors and wife were born there. While a Senator
, he pushed for the creation of the Department of Cesar and became, in 1966, its first governor. Once in office and together with writer and reporter Consuelo Araújo Noguera and vallenato composer Rafael Escalona, they created the Vallenato Legend Festival
.
) is celebrated. During the festival a contest takes place in which the best vallenato interpreters fight for the title of Rey Vallenato (Vallenato accordion King), "verseadores", new song composers, "guacharaqueros" and "cajeros" are also awarded within three categories; professional, aficionado and infant. The festival also includes record industry's orchestras shows.
Accordions' Cradle Festival: (Festival cuna de acordeones) This festival is celebrated every year since 1979, in Valledupar's neighboring town of Villanueva
, in La Guajira. The Festival is similar to the Vallenato Legend Festival format, but also includes a category for the elderly accordion players over sixty years old.
Other Vallenato festivals:
, "Escalona", based on the life of Vallenato composer, Rafael Escalona was aired on national television (with vallenato superstar Carlos Vives
as Escalona), Vallenato became widely known in Colombia and internationally. Some renowned traditional vallenato performers are Guillermo Buitrago
, Alejo Duran
, Enrique Díaz, Emiliano Zuleta
, Luis Enrique Martínez, Abel Antonio Villa and Lorenzo Morales. Other important characters such as Tobías Enrique Pumarejo and Rafael Escalona
never played any instrument, but were important writers of very well known songs across Latin America. Other well-known Colombian musicians who sing vallenatos are Diomedes Díaz
, Jorge Oñate
, Ivan Villazon
, Nicolas "Colacho" Mendoza (accordion player and composer), Juan Humberto "Juancho" Rois (accordion player and composer), Omar Geles (accordion player and composer), Israel Romero, Peter Manjarrez, Silvestre Dangond
, Rafael Orozco, Los Gigantes Del Vallenato and Lisandro Meza among others.
The current ambassador of the genre is multiple-time Grammy Award
-winner Carlos Vives
, who has progressively helped vallenato gain popularity worldwide by combining traditional vallenato music with pop/rock music, subgenre that has come to be known as "vallenato-pop".
, the congas drums, a Timbal
set, drum kit
, maracas
, guache, electric piano
, spanish guitars, tambourine
, cowbell, electric guitar
, Saxophone
, piano accordion
, violin
s, among others. These groups also started fusioning local genres to the vallenato, usually with cumbia
, porro
sabanero, gaitas (group of gaita flute interpreters), merecumbe and joropo
. Some groups seeking a wider audience started mixing vallenato with other international genres, like salsa
, merengue
, rock
, classical music, reggae
, reggaeton
, ranchera
, techno music, house music
. Some of these mixes didn't become very popular because of its awkward sound.
is considered leading artist of this young wave of vallenato musical groups, even after his sudden death in a car accident on August 24, 2005. The leader is now Silvestre Dangond, who won five awards in Premios Nuestra Tierra in 2009.
Cumbia
Cumbia is a music genre popular across Latin America. The cumbia originated in the Caribbean coast of Colombia, where it is associated with an eponymous dance and has since spread as far as Mexico and Argentina...
, is currently a popular folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
of Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
. It primarily comes from the Colombia's Caribbean region. Vallenato literally means "born in the valley". The valley influencing this name is located between the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta
Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta
The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is an isolated mountain range apart from the Andes chain that runs through Colombia. Reaching an altitude of 5,700 metres above sea level just 42 km from the Caribbean coast, the Sierra Nevada is the world's highest coastal range...
and the Serranía de Perijá in northeast Colombia. The name also applies to the people from the city where this genre originated: Valledupar
Valledupar
Valledupar is a city and municipality in northeastern Colombia. It is the capital of Cesar Department and was founded in 1550 by the Spanish conquistador Hernando de Santana. Its name, Valle de Upar , was established in honor of the Amerindian cacique who ruled the valley; Cacique Upar...
(from the place named Valle de Upar - "Valley of Upar"). In 2006 Vallenato and cumbia were added as a category in the Latin Grammy Awards
Latin Grammy Awards
A Latin Grammy Award is an accolade by the Latin Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry. Unlike the regular Grammy Award which primarily honors music produced in the United States, the Latin Grammy honors works produced anywhere around the...
.
Origins
This form of music originated from farmers who, keeping a tradition of Spanish minstrels (Juglares in Spanish), mixed also with the West AfricaWest Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...
n-inherited tradition of griots (African version of juglar), who used to travel through the region with their cattle in search of pastures or to sell them in cattle fairs. Because they traveled from town to town and the region lacked rapid communications, these farmers served as bearers of news for families living in other towns or villages. Their only form of entertainment during these trips was singing and playing guitars or indigenous gaita
Gaita
Gaita may refer to:Musical instruments*Various types of bagpipes common to Spain and Portugal such as:** Gaita asturiana, a bagpipe used in the Spanish provinces of Asturias, northern León and western Cantabria...
flutes, known as kuisi
Kuisi
A kuisi is a Native American fipple flute made from a hollowed cactus stem, with a beeswax and charcoal powder mixture for the head, with a thin quill made from the feather of a large bird for the mouthpiece...
s in the Kogi
Kogi
Kogi or Cogui may be:*Kogi State, Nigeria*the Kogi people, Colombia**the Kogi language...
language, and their form of transmitting their news was by singing their messages.
The first form of Vallenato was played with gaita flute
Flute
The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
s, guacharaca
Guacharaca
Guacharaca is a musical percussion instrument usually made out of the cane-like trunk of a small palm tree. The guacharaca itself consists of a tube with ridges carved into its outer surface with part of its interior hollowed out, giving it the appearance of a tiny, notched canoe. It is played...
, and caja, and later adopted other instruments like guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
s. These troubadors were later influenced by Europe's instruments: piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
and accordion
Accordion
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
. Shocked with the sound from the accordion, troubadors probably obtained later on accordions from Aruba
Aruba
Aruba is a 33 km-long island of the Lesser Antilles in the southern Caribbean Sea, located 27 km north of the coast of Venezuela and 130 km east of Guajira Peninsula...
and Curaçao
Curaçao
Curaçao is an island in the southern Caribbean Sea, off the Venezuelan coast. The Country of Curaçao , which includes the main island plus the small, uninhabited island of Klein Curaçao , is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands...
. Vallenato was considered music of the lower class and farmers, but gradually started penetrating through every social group during the mid-20th century.
Don Clemente Quintero—a prominent member from the region's elite—was a lover of this music, usually accompanied by liquor, was a form of entertainment for this almost isolated region. He then decided to start a parranda (party) inside the very strict Valledupar Social Club with friends. This triggered an acceptance for the music and it became a regular feature at parties, carnivals and reunions, not for dancing, but for listening to these juglares stories .
Alfonso López Michelsen
Alfonso López Michelsen
Alfonso López Michelsen was a Colombian politician, lawyer and journalist. Lopez Michelsen was President of Colombia from 1974 to 1978. He was the son of Alfonso López Pumarejo, who was also president of Colombia from 1934 to 1938, and once again from 1942 to 1945...
, a prominent Colombian politician, showed interest in the region as his ancestors and wife were born there. While a Senator
Senate of Colombia
The Senate of the Republic of Colombia is the upper house of the Congress of Colombia, with the lower house being the Chamber of Representatives of Colombia...
, he pushed for the creation of the Department of Cesar and became, in 1966, its first governor. Once in office and together with writer and reporter Consuelo Araújo Noguera and vallenato composer Rafael Escalona, they created the Vallenato Legend Festival
Vallenato Legend Festival
The Vallenato Legend Festival is one of the most important musical festivals in Colombia. The Festival features a vallenato music contests for best interpreter of accordion, caja vallenata and guacharaca, as well as piqueria and best song...
.
Instruments
Its three traditional instruments are:- the caja vallenata: a small drum held between the knees and played with bare hands. It was used by the African slaves brought by the Europeans. Similar to a tambora drumTambora drumThe Dominican tambora is a two headed drum played in merengue music. In many countries, especially the Dominican republic, tamboras were made from salvaged rum barrels . Performers on the tambora are referred to as tamboreros.-Types:There are three types of tambora for the merengue style of music...
. - the guacharacaGuacharacaGuacharaca is a musical percussion instrument usually made out of the cane-like trunk of a small palm tree. The guacharaca itself consists of a tube with ridges carved into its outer surface with part of its interior hollowed out, giving it the appearance of a tiny, notched canoe. It is played...
: a wooden, ribbed stick similar to a sugar cane, accompanied by a fork that when rubbed together emits a scraping sound. It's about 18 inches (45 cm) long and one inch (3 cm) in diameter. It was used by the Indians to imitate the song of the guacharaco, a bird from the region, to hunt and perform dancing rituals. - the accordionAccordionThe accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
: three-line button, German-origin accordion. It has 3 reed per note and it comes in different tones, ADG, GCF, BbEbAb "5 Letras". Accordions in Colombia and Panama sometimes have custom made tones especially made for Vallenato and Cumbia
The four rhythms
Vallenato consists of four beats or "airs" that are differentiated through their rhythmic structure and the melody chord structure the accordionist gives it. These are son, paseo, merengue, and puya. The son and the paseo have a 2/4 time and the merengue and the puya a 6/8 time.- Son is played with heavy accentuation and cadence stressed on the low notes of the accordion on its left-hand side. It's normally mournful and slow.
- Paseo is thought to be an off-shoot of the son. Its speed can vary and today is the most widely recorded air.
- Puya's main difference from the merengue is the length of its lyrics. In the last 40 years, accordion players have begun to play it faster, and each of the three instruments used in vallenato has a solo. It is considered the oldest of the four "airs", with roots in an ancient Indian dance of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.
- Merengue is often confused with a DominicanDominican RepublicThe Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
genre with the same name, probably brought by related African tribal groups. It has a more narrative style and was often used to play décimaDécimaA décima refers to a ten-line stanza of poetry, and the song form generally consists of forty-four lines...
s, a 10-line format with internal rhymes brought by the Spanish in the 16th century.
Piqueria
Piqueria is a battle among singers, usually accompanied by the rhythm of instruments.Vallenato Festivals
The Vallenato Legend Festival: Every year by the end of April, in the city of Valledupar, the Festival de la Leyenda Vallenata (Vallenato Legend FestivalVallenato Legend Festival
The Vallenato Legend Festival is one of the most important musical festivals in Colombia. The Festival features a vallenato music contests for best interpreter of accordion, caja vallenata and guacharaca, as well as piqueria and best song...
) is celebrated. During the festival a contest takes place in which the best vallenato interpreters fight for the title of Rey Vallenato (Vallenato accordion King), "verseadores", new song composers, "guacharaqueros" and "cajeros" are also awarded within three categories; professional, aficionado and infant. The festival also includes record industry's orchestras shows.
Accordions' Cradle Festival: (Festival cuna de acordeones) This festival is celebrated every year since 1979, in Valledupar's neighboring town of Villanueva
Villanueva
-Colombia:*Villanueva, Bolívar, a town and municipality in Bolívar Department*Villanueva, Casanare, a town and municipality in Casanare Department*Villanueva, La Guajira, a town and municipality in La Guajira Department...
, in La Guajira. The Festival is similar to the Vallenato Legend Festival format, but also includes a category for the elderly accordion players over sixty years old.
Other Vallenato festivals:
- Nationally: Vallenato Festival in BogotáBogotáBogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...
;
Vallenato composers, singers and juglares
Thanks to the Vallenato Legend Festival this musical genre became known through the region including regions of Venezuela, and when a popular telenovelaTelenovela
A telenovela is a limited-run serial dramatic programming popular in Latin American, Portuguese, and Spanish television programming. The word combines tele, short for televisión or televisão , and novela, a Spanish or Portuguese word for "novel"...
, "Escalona", based on the life of Vallenato composer, Rafael Escalona was aired on national television (with vallenato superstar Carlos Vives
Carlos Vives
Carlos Alberto Vives Restrepo is a Grammy Award and three-time Latin Grammy Award winning-Colombian singer, composer and actor.-Biography:...
as Escalona), Vallenato became widely known in Colombia and internationally. Some renowned traditional vallenato performers are Guillermo Buitrago
Guillermo Buitrago
Guillermo de Jesús Buitrago Enríquez, a Colombian composer of vallenato music, was born in Ciénaga Magdalena, Colombia on 1 April 1920 and died 19 April 1949. - Discography :...
, Alejo Duran
Alejo Duran
Gilberto Alejandro Durán Diaz, known to all as Alejo Durán or "El Negro Grande" was a Colombian vallenato music traditional composer, singer and accordionist....
, Enrique Díaz, Emiliano Zuleta
Emiliano Zuleta
Emiliano Zuleta Baquero was a Colombian vallenato composer, accordion player and singer, popularly known as El viejo Mile . Zuleta was born on January 11, 1912 in La Jagua del Pilar, a small town of la Guajira; He died on October 30, 2005 in Valledupar from respiratory problems...
, Luis Enrique Martínez, Abel Antonio Villa and Lorenzo Morales. Other important characters such as Tobías Enrique Pumarejo and Rafael Escalona
Rafael Escalona
Rafael Calixto Escalona Martinez was a Colombian composer and troubadour. He was known for being one of the most prominent vallenato music composers and troubadours of the genre and for being the co-founder of the Vallenato Legend Festival, along with Consuelo Araújo and Alfonso López Michelsen.He...
never played any instrument, but were important writers of very well known songs across Latin America. Other well-known Colombian musicians who sing vallenatos are Diomedes Díaz
Diomedes Díaz
Diomedes de Jesús Díaz Maestre is a Colombian vallenato singer and composer. He is the most widely recognized performer of this musical genre...
, Jorge Oñate
Jorge Oñate
Jorge Oñate born March 31, 1949 in the town of Los Robles La Paz, near the city of Valledupar in northern Colombia, is one of the most renown singers and composers of the vallenato musical genre. As of 2004 and since the beginning of his career in 1968 he has achieved 25 gold discs, 7 platinum...
, Ivan Villazon
Iván Villazón
Iván Francisco Villazón Aponte was born October 25, 1959 in the city of Valledupar, Colombia. He is one of the most renowned vallenato singers in Colombia...
, Nicolas "Colacho" Mendoza (accordion player and composer), Juan Humberto "Juancho" Rois (accordion player and composer), Omar Geles (accordion player and composer), Israel Romero, Peter Manjarrez, Silvestre Dangond
Silvestre Dangond
Silvestre Francisco Dangond Corrales aka Silvestrong is a Colombian Vallenato singer, composer and Timbales player. Dangond is considered one of the mainstream representatives of the "new wave" of vallenato musicians.-Early years:Silvestre F...
, Rafael Orozco, Los Gigantes Del Vallenato and Lisandro Meza among others.
The current ambassador of the genre is multiple-time Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
-winner Carlos Vives
Carlos Vives
Carlos Alberto Vives Restrepo is a Grammy Award and three-time Latin Grammy Award winning-Colombian singer, composer and actor.-Biography:...
, who has progressively helped vallenato gain popularity worldwide by combining traditional vallenato music with pop/rock music, subgenre that has come to be known as "vallenato-pop".
Vallenato musical orchestras and groups
The traditional vallenato developed into a more orchestra type of musical group. Throughout the years, some groups started adding instruments and a group chorus to support the main singer, popularly and sarcasticly known as "ay omberos". With these changes. Some of the instruments added or used by some orchestras were: the bass guitarBass (instrument)
Bass describes musical instruments that produce tones in the low-pitched range. They belong to different families of instruments and can cover a wide range of musical roles...
, the congas drums, a Timbal
Timbal
For Cuban and Latin drum, see timbalesThe Timbal is an instrument derived from the Caxambu drum. Slightly conical and of varying sizes, it is usually light in weight and made of lacquered wood or metal with a tunable nylon head. The drum is most often found in Bahia, originating in Salvador,...
set, drum kit
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, maracas
Maracás
Maracás is a town and municipality in the state of Bahia in the North-East region of Brazil.-References:...
, guache, electric piano
Electric piano
An electric piano is an electric musical instrument.Electric pianos produce sounds mechanically and the sounds are turned into electrical signals by pickups. Unlike a synthesizer, the electric piano is not an electronic instrument, but electro-mechanical. The earliest electric pianos were invented...
, spanish guitars, tambourine
Tambourine
The tambourine or marine is a musical instrument of the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zils". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though some variants may not have a head at all....
, cowbell, electric guitar
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
, Saxophone
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
, piano accordion
Piano accordion
A piano accordion is an accordion equipped with a right-hand keyboard similar to a piano or organ. Its acoustic mechanism is more similar to that of an organ than a piano, as they are both wind instruments, but the term "piano accordion"—coined by Guido Deiro in 1910—has remained the popular...
, violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
s, among others. These groups also started fusioning local genres to the vallenato, usually with cumbia
Cumbia
Cumbia is a music genre popular across Latin America. The cumbia originated in the Caribbean coast of Colombia, where it is associated with an eponymous dance and has since spread as far as Mexico and Argentina...
, porro
Porro
The porro is a musical style and dance from the Caribbean region of Colombia. It is a Colombian Cumbia rhythm that developed into its own sub-genre. It was originally a folkloric expression from the Sinú River area that evolved into a ballroom dance...
sabanero, gaitas (group of gaita flute interpreters), merecumbe and joropo
Joropo
The Joropo is a musical style resembling the waltz, and an accompanying dance, having African and European influences originated in Venezuela and performed in Colombia and Venezuela. It's a fundamental genre belonging to its typical music or música criolla...
. Some groups seeking a wider audience started mixing vallenato with other international genres, like salsa
Salsa music
Salsa music is a genre of music, generally defined as a modern style of playing Cuban Son, Son Montuno, and Guaracha with touches from other genres of music...
, merengue
Merengue music
Merengue is a type of music and dance from the Dominican Republic. It is popular in the Dominican Republic and all over Latin America. Its name is Spanish, taken from the name of the meringue, a dessert made from whipped egg whites and sugar...
, rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
, classical music, reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
, reggaeton
Reggaeton
Reggaeton is a form of Puerto Rican and Latin American urban and Caribbean music. After its mainstream exposure in 2004, it spread to North American, European and Asian audiences. Reggaeton originated in Puerto Rico but is also has roots from Reggae en Español from Panama and Puerto Rico and...
, ranchera
Ranchera
Ranchera is a genre of the traditional music of Mexico originally sung by only one performer with a guitar. It dates to the years of the Mexican Revolution in the early 20th century. It later became closely associated with the mariachi groups which evolved in Jalisco. Ranchera today is also played...
, techno music, house music
House music
House music is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in Chicago, Illinois, United States in the early 1980s. It was initially popularized in mid-1980s discothèques catering to the African-American, Latino American, and gay communities; first in Chicago circa 1984, then in other...
. Some of these mixes didn't become very popular because of its awkward sound.
La Nueva Ola (The New Wave)
La Nueva Ola refers to the new generation of Vallenato groups and orchestras that have created a distinctive sound for themselves while keeping some of the essence of their predecessors. Kaleth MoralesKaleth Morales
Kaleth Miguel Morales Troya was a Colombian vallenato singer and songwriter, best known as the leader of the "Nueva Ola" movement in Vallenato, having released singles such as Vivo en el Limbo.-Biography:...
is considered leading artist of this young wave of vallenato musical groups, even after his sudden death in a car accident on August 24, 2005. The leader is now Silvestre Dangond, who won five awards in Premios Nuestra Tierra in 2009.
Some renowned vallenato orchestras
- Diomedes DiazDiomedes DíazDiomedes de Jesús Díaz Maestre is a Colombian vallenato singer and composer. He is the most widely recognized performer of this musical genre...
- Los Hermanos ZuletaLos Hermanos ZuletaLos Hermanos Zuleta are a renowned vallenato musical group that won the Latin Grammy Awards of 2006. Their name refers to the brothers Emiliano Alcides Zuleta and Tomás Alfonso Zuleta, who founded the group and are sons of Emiliano Zuleta, creator of the famously renown song La Gota Fria. La monda...
- Ivan VillazonIván VillazónIván Francisco Villazón Aponte was born October 25, 1959 in the city of Valledupar, Colombia. He is one of the most renowned vallenato singers in Colombia...
- Beto Zabaleta
- Jorge OñateJorge OñateJorge Oñate born March 31, 1949 in the town of Los Robles La Paz, near the city of Valledupar in northern Colombia, is one of the most renown singers and composers of the vallenato musical genre. As of 2004 and since the beginning of his career in 1968 he has achieved 25 gold discs, 7 platinum...
- Alfredo GutierrezAlfredo GutierrezAlfredo de Jesús Gutiérrez Vital is a Colombian Accordion player and singer famous for winning the "Vallenato Legend Festival" three times ....
- Binomio de Oro de AmericaBinomio de Oro de AméricaBinomio de Oro de América is a vallenato musical group from Colombia. It was founded by lead singer Rafael Orozco and accordionist Israel Romero in the Caribbean Region of Colombia on June 16, 1976...
- Los Diablitos del Vallenato
- Carlos VivesCarlos VivesCarlos Alberto Vives Restrepo is a Grammy Award and three-time Latin Grammy Award winning-Colombian singer, composer and actor.-Biography:...
y la provincia - Silvestre DangondSilvestre DangondSilvestre Francisco Dangond Corrales aka Silvestrong is a Colombian Vallenato singer, composer and Timbales player. Dangond is considered one of the mainstream representatives of the "new wave" of vallenato musicians.-Early years:Silvestre F...
& Juancho De la EspriellaJuancho De la EspriellaJuan Mario De la Espriella better known as Juancho De la Espriella is a Colombian musician interpreter of vallenato in accordion. De la Espriella is the current accordionist of Colombian vallenato singer Silvestre Dangond.-References:**... - Peter Manjarres
- Jorge CeledonJorge CeledónJorge Celedón also known as Jorgito Celedón is a Colombian musician, singer of vallenato music. Celedón was one of the backup singers for the vallenato group Binomio de Oro de America who joined after the death of Rafael Orozco Maestre...
& Jimmy Zambrano - Lisandro Meza