This week, Totó La Momposina’s “Adios Fulana” has been #OnRepeat. I came across this singer by chance, while listening to videos of Colombian music on Youtube (a great resource by the way!), and her name and music randomly came up. After hearing this song, numerous times, I decided to research Totó a little further.
Totó La Momposina (Sonia Bazanta Vides) is a singer and dancer from Colombia whose music blends elements of indigenous, African and Spanish traditions. She comes from five generations of musicians, studying music from a very young age. She has toured Latin America, parts of Eastern and Western Europe and the United States, gaining even more international attention with the recording and release of her album, La Candela Viva, on the Real World Records Label in 1993. Her music blends rhythms such as the cumbia, bullerenge, chalupa, garabato, and mapal, and is a great representation of music from Colombia’s Caribbean coast.
“Adios Fulana” is an incredibly rhythmic song and Totó’s voice floats over the percussion and other instruments effortlessly. You can tell that she has been performing for almost 70 years–70 years! I thought that I had been singing for a long time!–because there is no hesitation present in her voice at all. Songs like “Adios Fulana” are sung for everyday chores and tasks to make the time go by faster and you can almost hear the joy (and the tradition ) in her voice. The way she hits the high notes in the melody might seem noticeably weaker in volume, but her intonation and attack fits the song and the style. Plus, her ability to project over the instruments playing is incredibly impressive–some might even mistake her voice for that of Celia Cruz, another powerful Latin American singer.
I don’t know that much about Totó La Momposina, or Colombian music, for that matter, so I am excited to research and find out more about both. I’ve been reading that she has another album coming out at the end of July that happens to have this song on it. You might see more of her stuff if I find any more songs that I can’t stop listening (or dancing) to!