Manuel Medrano

Manuel Medrano, the Colombian pop singer and songwriter recognized with multiple awards, came into the world in Cartagena de Indias during 1987. His entry into music unfolded less as a calculated ambition than an unforeseen trajectory at the outset. After a yearlong absence from high school prompted by adolescent missteps, he received a guitar framed as discipline. He mastered the instrument on his own and initiated songwriting at 16, absorbing the folk and pop idioms native to his surroundings. Several years of regular appearances in Bogota bars sharpened his technique while he maintained his compositional routine, and material from those sessions later registered as hits.

Medrano expanded his reach by posting YouTube clips that featured his vocal and guitar work through acoustic interpretations of tracks by other performers. Climbing view counts and informal circulation amplified his profile. In 2015 he launched his first independent single, "Afuera del Planeta." The song traveled swiftly across social networks, drawing the immediate interest of Warner Bros., which signed him on the spot.

His opening release under the label, "Bajo el Agua," secured heavy rotation on radio while the accompanying video attained 100 million views. Warner introduced his self-titled debut album that same year, incorporating the two earlier singles plus the additional track "Una y Otra Vez." Their cumulative digital-chart activity produced two Latin Grammy nominations for Medrano and yielded victories in the Mejor Nuevo Artista and Mejor Álbum Cantautor categories. Issued in 2016, his first standalone single "Complicidad" appeared on charts in both Colombia and Spain.