The dread-locked heartthrob Carlos Vives may owe his lofty celebrity status primarily to his starring role in numerous Colombian soaps, but the nation owes him a debt of gratitude in return for using the genre to champion native music styles like vallenato, cumbia and porró and rejuventate them for young 'globalised' audiences.
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Vives was born on August 1961 and raised in the Caribbean coastal town of Santa Marta. At 12, he moved to the cold Bogotà, where he later became part of a burgeoning rock scene. It was his friendship with trail-blazing rockers 'Distrito Especial', who were among the first to vamp up traditional Cumbia rhythms for a rock'n'roll crowd, that opened his eyes to the potential of 'local' music styles.
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In collaboration with the cream of Bogota's musicians and producers, such as Ivan Benavides, Ernesto 'Teto' Ocampo, Lucía Pulido and the English ex-pat electro production maestro Richard Blair, responsible for the groundbreaking Sidestepper project, Vives built up a repertoire on local foundations, which was both respectful of Colombia's veteran musicians and composers, and funky enough to appeal to 21 st Century ears.
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Albums like 'Los Clásicos De La Provincia', 'La Tierro Del Olvido' and 'Tengo Fe', trod that tightrope between mass acceptance and artistic integrity with mesmerising skill. Vives became a stadium and bullring headliner both in Colombia and Spain. His mantelpiece began to groan under the weight of Awards and Grammies. Vives combines masculine beauty, talent and credibility in a way that our own one-dimensional soap stars can sadly only dream of.
=> Today, Carlos Vives is a super star in his homeland, he has even his own cafe, Gaira Cafe in Bogota, the most popular one of them all of course.
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