Bomba Estéreo

Bomba Estereo emerged from Bogotá as a Colombian ensemble that fuses tropical, cumbia, vallenato, and champeta rhythms with electro, reggae, and pop to shape a singular style of dance music. Their first release, Vol. 1, came out in 2006 as a Simón Mejía solo project that drew on support from additional singers and rappers. The 2008 album Estalla, later issued in the United States under the title Blow Up, introduced the group’s complete lineup and contained the worldwide dancefloor hit “Fuego.” Soundway brought their third album, Elegancia Tropical, to international audiences in 2012. Fronted by the single “Fiesta,” the two-time-Grammy-nominated breakthrough Amanecer appeared in 2015, with the Grammy-nominated Ayo following in 2017 and the sixth album, Deja, arriving in 2021.

Bogotá native Simón Mejía assembled the band after expanding his A.M. 770 recording project, which already blended salsa, cumbia, electro beats, and dance music. He adopted the name Bomba Estereo in 2005. The group’s debut album, Vol. 1, surfaced in 2006 as a solo effort featuring input from several musicians and singers, among them singer/rapper Liliana “Li” Saumet. This duo has stayed at the core of the band, and the strength of that first record enabled Mejía to obtain a distribution agreement with Nacional Records.

After recruiting additional players, Bomba Estereo delivered their sophomore album, Estalla, in 2008; it later reached the United States as Blow Up on the strength of the global dancefloor and Latin radio impact of its single “Fuego.” In 2010 the group received MTV Iggy’s “Best New Band in the World” vote. Later that year Mejía took part in the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, earning a year-long collaboration with Brian Eno. He also partnered with filmmaker Santiago Posada on a field-recording endeavor in San Basilio de Palenque.

Following worldwide tours and appearances at festivals such as SXSW, Bumbershoot, and Bonnaroo, the band returned to the studio. Nacional issued the EP Ponte Bomb in 2011, after which the album Elegancia Tropical arrived in 2012 on the Colombian imprint FM Discos y Cintas; Miles Cleret’s Soundway label subsequently released it internationally. The record produced two global dancefloor singles, “El Alma y el Cuerpo” and “Pure Love,” and earned a Latin Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Music Album. After several personnel shifts the group spent the next year and a half touring Colombia, the United States, and Mexico.

They issued the single “Qué Bonito” on FM Discos y Cintas in 2014. Late that year the band signed with Sony Music Latin. Their advance single “Fiesta” appeared in March 2015, followed by the full-length Amanecer in June. The album received two Latin Grammy nominations, including Best Alternative Music Album and Best Latin Rock, Urban or Alternative Album, and was certified gold. A subsequent video single, “Soy Yo,” accumulated 23 million views on YouTube. After performing at festivals worldwide, the band returned to the studio; the video single for “Duele” surfaced in June 2017, and the album Ayo followed in August while they were still on the road. It reached number 28 on the Top Latin Albums chart and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Latin Rock, Urban or Alternative Album. The video for Tainy’s remix of “To My Love” accumulated nearly 300 million views. After completing an international tour in 2019, Mejía recorded under the pseudonym Monte and released the album Mirla in 2020.

Over three weeks in January 2020, Bomba Estereo—now operating as a quartet with touring guitarist and co-producer José Castillo and percussionist Efraín “Pacho” Cuadrado—joined guest musicians Cuban duo Okan, Colombian singer-songwriter Lido Pimienta, Mexican singer-songwriter Leonel García, and Nigerian Afrobeat singer Yemi Alade at Saumet’s beachfront home on the Caribbean coast of Santa Marta, set against the expanse of Colombian jungle and mountains. They tracked 17 songs amid ambient sounds of birds, crashing waves, and occasional monkey chatter and screech, all retained in the final mix.

In February 2021 Bomba Estereo released the charting pre-release single “Agua” featuring longtime collaborator and guest vocalist Lido Pimienta. In September they issued their Grammy-nominated sixth studio album, the Damien Taylor-mixed Deja.