Bomba Estéreo Explained

Bomba Estéreo
Origin:Bogotá, Colombia
Genre:Electro, cumbia, alternative dance, psychedelic pop
Years Active:2005–present
Label:Nacional Records, Polen Records, FM Discos Y Cintas, Soundway, Sony Music
Current Members:Simón Mejía
Liliana "Li" Saumet
Jaime Alzate
Efrain Cuadrado "Pacho Carnaval"
Jose Castillo
Past Members:Diego Cadavid
Enrique "Kike" Egurrola
Julián Salazar

Bomba Estéreo is a Colombian band founded in Bogotá in 2005 by Simón Mejía.[1] Their music has been described as "electro tropical"[2] or "psychedelic cumbia".[3]

History

2005–2008: Career beginning and Vol. 1

The origins of the group go back to 2001 when Bogotá native Simón Mejía (previously a member of 1990s Colombian alternative rock band Charconautas) was part of a loose collective of musicians and visual artists under the name A.M. 770. Their music was influenced by Colombian groups such as Sidestepper and Bloque de Busqueda who in the late 1990s had started combining traditional Colombian musical rhythms such as salsa and cumbia with modern electronic beats and dance music. A.M. 770's first musical production was the track "Ritmika" (based on a sample of a song by Venezuelan salsa band Los Blanco) on the album Colombeat, a 2002 compilation showcasing this new musical style which was put together by Colombia's foremost alternative rock band Aterciopelados for their new label Entrecasa.

By 2005, A.M. 770 had effectively become Mejía's solo project and he began to focus more on the musical side of his work, changing the name of the group to Bomba Estéreo. The first results of his new project was the seven-track mini-album Vol. 1 (2006), essentially a solo album but featuring contributions from other artists such as fellow A.M. 770 member Diego Cadavid. Having recorded Vol. 1, Mejía attended the Latin Alternative Music Conference in New York City and was able to secure an international distribution deal with California-based Nacional Records for future releases, with Colombian releases on the Bogotá independent label Polen Records.

One of the vocalists Mejía had used on Vol. 1 was Santa Marta-born[4] singer and rapper Liliana "Li" Saumet, on the track "Huepaje". Saumet had briefly been the singer for the dub reggae band Mister Gomes en Bombay before meeting Mejía at a concert.[5] Impressed with Saumet's contribution, Mejía began to collaborate with her and Cadavid on songs for the next Bomba Estéreo album.

2008–2011: Estalla

By the time the second album Estalla was released in 2008, Bomba Estéreo had developed into a full band, with Saumet on vocals, Cadavid on percussion, Julián Salazar on guitar, and former Sidestepper collaborator Enrique "Kike" Egurrola on drums, alongside Mejía on bass and keyboard programming. Estalla was released the following year in the US under the new title Blow Up, with the single "Fuego" helping to attract new fans outside Colombia and resulting in the group being voted "Best New Band in the World" for 2010 by viewers of MTV Iggy, the television channel's outlet for alternative world music artists.[6] [7]

In 2010 the band were one of a dozen artists commissioned by Levi's to cover songs from previous decades, as part of "Levi's Pioneer Sessions" marketing campaign. The group chose to record Technotronic's "Pump Up the Jam", cited by Mejía as his favourite party record. The song was later released under the new title "Ponte Bomb" as the lead track on an EP of the same name, which also featured various remixes of the tracks "Fuego" and "La Boquilla" from Estalla/Blow Up.[8]

The song "Fuego" can be heard in the background of the 2010 episode "Circle Us" on the Showtime television series Dexter, during a scene outside of a club, and later appeared on the series' soundtrack album.[9] "Fuego" has also been used as the theme song of the Argentine television drama series El Puntero which aired in 2011, and features on the soundtrack of EA Sports video game, FIFA 10.[10] The Dixone Remix of the song "La Boquilla" (from the band's 2011 EP Ponte Bomb) was featured on the soundtrack of the movie Limitless that same year. In 2021, "Fuego" was featured in the action video game Far Cry 6 from Ubisoft and can be heard readily at the base-camp of the faction 'Maximas Matanzaz'.[11]

Simón Mejía was selected as one of the three finalists for the 2010–11 Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative to spend a year working with Brian Eno,[12] eventually losing out to Australian composer Ben Frost.[13] He also travelled with London-based filmmaker Santiago Posada to the Colombian town of San Basilio de Palenque, where the two men spent three months in 2011 recording the music of the local Afro-Colombian community for a music and DVD box set – the town became known in the 17th century as the site of the first free slave community in all of the Americas, and has retained much of its African-originated language, culture and music.[14] [15]

2011–present: Elegancia Tropical and Amanecer

Bomba Estéreo performed at the South by Southwest and Roskilde festivals in 2009, and in 2010 undertook a world tour that visited 32 cities as well as the Bumbershoot festival and Bonnaroo Music Festival. In 2011 they performed at the Coachella Festival and Austin City Limits Music Festival in the US, as well as Lollapalooza Chile and the Vive Latino festival in Mexico City, one of the major worldwide festivals for "rock en español".[16]

The band's third album, Elegancia Tropical, was released in 2012 on Polen Records in Colombia and on Soundway Records worldwide. The album was engineered and mixed by producer Joel Hamilton.[17] To promote the record the band undertook a tour of Colombia, followed by Mexico and the US throughout 2012 and 2013. Band members have said they miss suero while on tour away from Colombia. Their fourth album, Amanecer, was released on June 2, 2015, on Sony Music. One song, "Soy Yo", was selected for the soundtrack of FIFA 16.[18] The music video for "Soy Yo", released in September 2016, featured the debut of Sarai Gonzalez as a nerdy-looking Latina girl with a spunky personality standing up to bullies on the "mean streets" of Brooklyn, New York.[19] [20] The video received over 6.5 million views as of early November 2016.[19] "Soy Yo" was also featured in the soundtrack to the 2017 feature film Pitch Perfect 3 and the 2019 feature film Dora and the Lost City of Gold. "Soy Yo" also appeared in the 2019 dance rhythm game, Just Dance 2020[21] and in the GrubHub advert "Delivery Dance", which gained traction as an Internet meme for its inhuman dancing. "Carnavalera" and "Playa Grande" were featured on the Need for Speed Heat soundtrack.[22]

The album Amanecer was placed 50th in Rolling Stones list of the 50 best albums of 2015.[23] In late 2016, the band went on a 12-city tour, featuring multiple US cities featuring music from their latest album.[24] The group headlined the FM Festival in Miami, Florida in January 2017.[25] In August 2017, guitarist Julian Salazar confirmed in an interview with POUSTA.com that he and the group had parted ways.[26]

In 2019, their song "Internacionales" was used in a TV ad aired in the United States for the Walmart Grocery App.[27] In 2019, their song "Caderas" was featured as the diegetic soundtrack to the opening police-siege scenes of the American action-adventure film Triple Frontier.[28] Also in 2021, their song "Soy Yo" (from the Amanecer album) was used for a Grubhub TV commercial aired in the United States in various forms.[29] In 2022, the band collaborated with Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny on the song "Ojitos Lindos", from his fourth studio album Un Verano Sin Ti; the song became one of the most popular tracks from the album, with over 1 billion streams on spotify as of April 2023.

Discography

Studio albums

TitleAlbum details
Volumen 1
  • Released: 2006
  • Label: Polen
  • Format: Digital download
Estalla / Blow Up
  • Released: 2008/2009
  • Label: Polen
  • Format: Digital download
Elegancia tropical
  • Released: 2012
  • Label: Polen / Soundway
  • Format: Digital download
Amanecer
  • Released: 2015
  • Label: Sony Music
  • Format: Digital download, streaming
Ayo
  • Released: 2017
  • Label: Sony Music
  • Format: Digital download, streaming
Deja
  • Released: 2021[30]
  • Label: Sony Music
  • Format: Digital download, streaming

Singles

TitleYearAlbum
"Fuego"2009Estalla/Blow Up
"El Alma y el Cuerpo"2012Elegancia Tropical
"Pure Love"2013
"Qué Bonito"2014
"Algo Está Cambiendo"2015Amanecer
"Playa Grande" (with Sofi Tukker)2019Dancing on the People
"Corazón" (with Nelly Furtado)20247

Music videos

Awards and nominations

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. They have received eleven nominations.

width=5%YearCategoryNominated workResult Ref.
Elegancia Tropical [31]
Amanecer [32]
"Fiesta"
"Soy Yo" [33]
"Internacionales" [34]
"Duele"
Deja [35]
"Ojitos Lindos"
"Conexión Total"
Note: At the 23rd Annual Latin Grammy Awards, both Liliana Saumet and Simón Mejía received a second nomination for Album of the Year, the former as a songwriter in Bad Bunny's Un Verano Sin Ti and the latter as a producer in Fonseca's Viajante.

Grammy Awards

A Grammy Award is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry. They have received four nominations.

width=5%YearCategoryNominated workResult Ref.
[36]
2018
Deja
2023Album of the YearUn Verano Sin Ti (as featured artists)[37]

Premios Nuestra Tierra

A Premio Nuestra Tierra is an accolade that recognizes outstanding achievement in the Colombian music industry. Bomba Estéreo have received three nominations.

width=5%YearCategoryNominated workResult Ref.
2014 Best Alternative ArtistThemselves [38]
Best Alternative Performance "Pure Love"
Best Music Video

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: Angélica . Garzón . Música: Bomba que no cesa de estallar . . Bogotá, Colombia . May 30, 2011 . February 26, 2013. es.
  2. Web site: Russ . Slater . Cumbia should be THE Latin music: An Interview with Bomba Estéreo . Sounds and Colours . July 23, 2010 . April 3, 2013.
  3. Web site: Marlon . Bishop . EXCLUSIVE: MTV Iggy Gets Sneak Peak At Bomba Estéreo's New Album Elegancia Tropical . MTV Iggy . https://web.archive.org/web/20120702075920/http://www.mtviggy.com/blog-posts/exclusive-mtv-iggy-gets-sneak-peak-at-bomba-estereo%E2%80%99s-new-album-elegancia-tropical/ . dead . July 2, 2012 . April 17, 2012 . February 26, 2013.
  4. News: Cuatro colombianos hablan de sus mejores vivencias navideñas . El Tiempo . December 7, 2011 . February 26, 2013. es.
  5. Web site: Q&A with Li Saumet & Simón Mejia of Bomba Estéreo: 'We Fell in Love... Musically' . MTV Iggy . August 27, 2010 . February 26, 2013.
  6. Web site: MTV Iggy Presents Bomba Estéreo . MTV Iggy . February 26, 2013.
  7. News: La "Elegancia Tropical" de Bomba Estéreo . . Bogotá, Colombia . September 4, 2012 . February 26, 2013. es.
  8. Web site: Bomba Estereo Covers "Pump Up the Jam" for Levi's Pioneer Sessions . MTV Iggy . June 21, 2010 . March 3, 2013.
  9. https://archive.today/20130411090908/http://www.milanrecords.com/releases/releases.php?release_name=DEXTER_SEASON_5_MUSIC_FROM_THE_SHOWTIME_SERIES Dexter Series 5 soundtrack album, Milan Records website
  10. News: Ricardo . Castro . La cumbia se ha vuelto más 'cool' . . Cali, Colombia . September 7, 2011 . February 26, 2013. es.
  11. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4yHN6wz8KrUXhbWneWlZSb Far Cry 6 Official Playlist from Ubisoft on Spotify
  12. Web site: Russ . Slater . Bomba Estéreo soon to be headlining across the US . Sounds and Colours . July 20, 2010 . February 26, 2013 . November 8, 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20121108033747/http://www.soundsandcolours.com/news/bomba-estereo-soon-to-be-headlining-across-the-us/ . dead .
  13. Web site: Rolex.org – Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. Rolex.org. 25 October 2021.
  14. Web site: Russ . Slater . Jende Ri Palenge: New Music and DVD Project from Bomba Estereo's Simon Mejia . Sounds and Colours . February 27, 2012 . February 26, 2013.
  15. Web site: Jende Ri Palenge project website . 2013-04-04 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120922074843/http://www.jenderipalenge.com/en/project.html . 2012-09-22 . dead .
  16. Web site: LatAm Beats: Colombian band Bomba Estéreo perform El Alma Y El Cuerpo . . September 27, 2012 . February 26, 2013.
  17. Web site: Joel Hamilton. studiogbrooklyn.com. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20150225011940/http://studiogbrooklyn.com/joel-hamilton. 2015-02-25.
  18. Web site: Bomba Estéreo estará en la banda sonora de Fifa 16. September 16, 2015. El Heraldo. Adriana Lucía Puentes. 2015-11-22.
  19. Web site: Young actress from Bomba Estereo's 'Soy Yo' is back with Get Out the Vote ad. Cindy Y.. Rodriguez. 3 November 2016. 6 November 2016. Fox News Latino.
  20. Web site: Declaring 'That's Me,' and Empowering Latinas. Annie. Correal. 21 October 2016. 6 November 2016. The New York Times.
  21. October 3, 2019 . Just Dance 2020: Soy Yo by Bomba Estéreo Official Track Gameplay (US) . Trailer . October 3, 2019 . .
  22. Web site: Need for Speed™ Heat Soundtrack EA Official Site. 2019-10-31. Electronic Arts Inc.. en. 2020-04-20.
  23. 50 Best Albums of 2015. . December 1, 2015. Rolling Stone. 2016-07-03.
  24. News: Bomba Estereo Announces U.S. Tour Dates. Billboard. 2017-01-30.
  25. News: Bomba Estéreo Brings Brown Power and Endless Optimism to FM Festival. Pfeffer. Ryan. 2017-01-24. Miami New Times. 2017-01-30.
  26. Web site: Skewes-Cox. William. Julián Salazar nos contó sobre su salida de Bomba Estéreo y adelantó detalles de su visita a Chile con Mitú. Pousta.com. 2017-08-16 .
  27. Web site: Walmart Grocery App TV Commercial, 'Add More Sizzle to Your Summer' Song by Bomba Estéreo. 25 October 2021. Ispot.tv.
  28. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1488606/soundtrack/?ref_=tt_trv_snd Triple Frontier (2019) soundtrack listing on IMDB
  29. Web site: Grubhub TV Commercial, 'Perks: Delivery Dance' Song by Bomba Estereo. 25 October 2021. Ispot.tv.
  30. News: Leight, Elias . February 2, 2021 . Bomba Estéreo Preview Deja Album With Three New Tracks . Rolling Stone . April 7, 2021.
  31. Web site: LAS NOMINACIONES A LA 14A. ENTREGA ANUAL DEL LATIN GRAMMY. The Latin Recording Academy. September 25, 2013. es. September 22, 2022. June 29, 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150629104722/http://www.latingrammy.com/es/recording-academy/press-release/las-nominaciones-a-la-14a-entrega-anual-del-latin-grammy-nuevamente. dead.
  32. Web site: NOMINEES 16th Annual Latin GRAMMY Awards. LatinGrammy. September 9, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20150928110345/http://www.latingrammy.com/en/nominees. September 28, 2015.
  33. Web site: 18th Latin Grammy Awards Nominations. 26 September 2017. latingrammy.com. 22 September 2022. 27 September 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170927052434/https://www.latingrammy.com/files/18lg_final_noms_website_download_0.pdf. dead.
  34. Web site: 19th Latin Grammy Awards Nominations. 21 September 2018. latingrammy.com. 22 September 2022. 17 November 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20201117161749/https://www.latingrammy.com/files/19thlatingrammyaward.pdf. dead.
  35. Web site: 23rd Annual Latin GRAMMY Awards Final Nominations. The Latin Recording Academy. September 20, 2022. September 23, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220923181649/https://www.latingrammy.com/files/23rd_latin_grammy_nominations.pdf. dead.
  36. Web site: Bomba Estéreo. Grammys.com. September 22, 2022.
  37. Web site: 2023 GRAMMY Nominations: See The Complete Nominees List . 2022-12-12 . www.grammy.com.
  38. Web site: Nominados a los Premios Nuestra Tierra 2014. La Mega. es. 2014-12-01. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20160304092312/http://www.lamega.com.co/noticia/nominados-los-premios-nuestra-tierra-2014-132040. 2016-03-04.